I’m really not that sick anymore. If you read the blog daily you’ve read I ran 16 miles Sunday and 10 miles hard Tuesday morning. I certainly was not all full speed but the fact I ran them tells you a little about my current lung capacity. That being said, I still am coughing pretty regularly with flem coming up each time. Like everyone else I got the letter from the LA DOH asking me to have tests done. At first I was going to skip it but one of my good friends that I run with is a doctor so I emailed the letter to him. He said he would talk to his infectious disease coworker and let me know in the morning. The call I got yesterday morning? We better do the tests. So I did
Since I don’t live in LA the test weren’t going to be free so my friend did his best to administer the tests himself and at least save me time. I did it in about an hour but that was being escorted personally by two doctors to every stage with no waitings for readings. Expect to spend at least 2 hours or more in the doctors without VIP care. Here’s what they are going to do.
1. Stick a long, and I mean long, swab on a stick down your nose all the way into the back of your throat. I’m pretty sure that thing was long enough to reach my ass and it did not feel good. Matter of fact he drew a little blood. And he does this every day for other reasons so do your best not to get a newbie on this one.
2. They need a second one. It doesn’t get any better, might hurt worse the second time
3. Urine sample (by the way they don’t need the entire cup filled to the top, lesson learned)
4. Flem sample. Hock a lugey into a cup Tiger Woods when have been fined $50,00o for the baby I brought up.
5. Two blood samples (I take needles like a heroin addict, no bothers)
6. Chest X-ray (fortunately for me my doctor friend has a lovely wife that is a radiologist and read my chart on site) By the way I have HUGE lungs. 40% larger than most that explains a lot about my running and labels me an underachiever
The test usually take about a week to get back because they have to run some cultures but since my friend did the tests he was able to give me some of the quicker results and they looked clean. There is a slight chance I could still have it after the other tests but all looks pretty good and I am relieved but not because I don’t have the disease. It’s because the side effects of the drug they give you is brittle tendons and achilles tears. Essentially my running would have to be shut down while I took the drug. I think I’d rather have the disease.