Sun, Mar 22, 2020
Read in 4 minutes
Philadelphia Hub, Pennsylvania, USA Originally from Pennsylvania, USA
This is going to be “one hell of a” way to start a train of thought: I found a tick on my Johnson. I looked down to check what I thought was a scab a few days ago and realized it was a deer tick. “How could you not know there was a tick on your penis?” “… and why would you have a scab on it?” Well, there’s a lot going on at the moment…
This was Sunday (exactly one week ago). I was surprised when the doctor answered my call… she told me to come in the following day at 9AM. So there I was, at her office at 9AM. I walked in to the doctor’s on a Monday morning that followed a very long, anxious weekend. A national emergency was declared in the United States the Thursday before: the novel Coronavirus was now widely understood to be a global pandemic. The receptionist gave me a crazy look – I was the first person to wander into her office that morning. She told me the doctor wouldn’t be in until 2PM (as if it’s a typical Monday).
It’s been years since my last doctors visit – my mother who is a regular visitor advised me to reach out to her doctor. On the phone, I was informed that their organization wouldn’t be accepting new patients for the next two months. Woah – so bad timing for a tick bite. I went to the Urgent Care in downtown West Chester, Pennsylvania. I approached the entrance and found a sign on the door: “Go back in your car and call this number.” That’s what I did – on the other end of the phone it was communicated to me that there were currently three people in there being tested for Coronavirus…. key back in the ignition.
I was home staying with the parents for spring break… a 29 year old college boy (graduate school, research assistant in an energy economics program). I got a hold of health services in State College. They penciled me in for later that afternoon. I was concerned about Lyme disease – that thing had been latched on for at least 48 hours. Leaving was a big decision. If I left West Chester, I really didn’t know when I’d be coming back. But I did - drove west up to a ghost town – there should have been college kids roaming around the streets… seniors, in their prime, and eager to graduate… freshman kids developing crushes on one another…
Now here I am – alone in the middle of rural Pennsylvania; though I suppose it’s a good place to be considering there’s a global virus pandemic. Overall, I’m keeping busy and in relatively good spirits. I’m able to do research on my lap top. In the past week, we used a telepresence application to do our courses at the usual meeting times. But being here puts me in a tense situation with my girlfriend. She works in healthcare – speech language pathologist. The virus is a respiratory disease which can indirectly affect swallowing ability. So she’s going to be pretty busy as that’s her area of expertise. I want to support her as much as possible… I really would like to be there for her… and she wants me there. I think she is very brave. I’ve been wavering through optimism and pessimism the past few days. When I’m thinking optimistically, I tell her she’s going to be a part of a legendary class of medical professionals. When I tell her this, I don’t think it makes it any easier. She is pretty frightened to go in to work tomorrow… and I’m not that comfortable with it either. At the moment, I think I’m in the right place. I can’t get my parents sick if I unknowingly have the contagious virus. I can focus on school work here. I practiced “social distancing” all last semester (I don’t really know anyone up here other than classmates) so it’s not a big deal doing it now. We’ll see – I’m going to give it a few days before I make any big moves. When I think about the big picture, driving 150 miles to go into a major city at this time doesn’t feel right… but staying here definitely doesn’t either.