Never posted about my #Pixel by #LabCorp #AtHome #Coronavirus #COVID19 test experience! With the community spread and people wanting to be as safe as possible, I thought I should talk about this a bit…
I missed the testing window the morning I first developed symptoms, so I did the telehealth thing. Referred to utilize LabCorp’s #SelfCollection kit unless my symptoms got worse (then I was instructed to go to the hospital).
You have to make sure you have a local #FedEx drop-off box available to you before you do this, and NOT just an office drop off location, as it may be rejected in the locations. Also, for the safety of employees right now FedEx also prefers the drop boxes. Sample must be collected on the same day you ship it back, so it is important to plan ahead of time. My test came a day later than anticipated, and later in the day than usual deliveries do, so I had to adjust my plans accordingly.
However, the address thingie told me if I couldn’t go into Bisbee Office Supply for drop-off I could go to a Farmacia in Cananea (yes, Mexico) or to Canyon Vista Hospital’s box in Sierra Vista. Having #seizures on top of everything so not about to drive and the Mr. – who is working remotely – wouldn’t be able to leave me for that long. What to do? Thankfully, you can also schedule someone to pick up the #FedExExpress #return from your home (and inside a nice, shiny orange #biohazard shipping bag). I’m just left wondering if the delivery guy knows whats inside these… 😥😅😷🤦🏼
Oh! Make sure not to forget to register your kit before doing the collection. However, if you forget, the number on the tube was the same as its outer box.
Scared about the #swab? This one isn’t the brain scrape you’ve heard of and they provide a nice animation online to show just how to insert and swirl it in your nose. Then you place it into a liquid in a sealed tube, put that in the small biohazard bag, put that in an inner gel pack, then seal that in an insulated foil pouch. Then that all goes into a shipping box with your matching registration number THEN into the special sealed Express bio bag. Fixing up the main sites soon so I’ll have some step by steps up then. 😘
The @pixelbylabcorp #SelfCollection kit for #COVID19 was super easy to do thanks to their clear instructions inside (and helpful employees when you call if you have additional questions like we did). In fact, the most difficult part of doing the test was the fact that we live so far from a #FedEx drop-box!
This is how the main box arrived (inside a plastic bag since monsoon season started and all). Pretty beat up in shipping but the contents looked 100% fine! Multi-layers.
So with no FedEx drop-boxes here #inBisbee, I would have had to have someone drive it up to #SierraVista for drop-off as you cannot bring it to an office location nor directly to any #LabCorp site. I was having (#Epileptic, partial) #seizures on top of my #COVID symptoms so driving is an extra a no-no and the Mr. is attending an important remote conference for work that I really didn’t want to have him miss. So that would not work at all, even if one of the locations was the hospital… 😷 (Side note: the @FedEx location finder wanted to send me to Cananea at one point, hah! So close but so far away…) Thankfully I was able to arrange home pick-up, which was all already included with the return label/package they send.
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The #test itself was also covered by our insurance, though there is an option to have it covered with government funds if you do not qualify. Before you had to pay upfront and $119 is not cheap. (Though our lives are worth much more!)
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This is a great option for those of you showing symptoms and/or who have other chronic illnesses and/or issues which make you more susceptible to this and other viruses. If you are not so bad you need to go to a hospital (if my fever stayed high for even longer that would have been me), but you also don’t want to or have the ability to go into a testing location, this is definitely a great option. You can also check with some of the other labs like SonoraQuest and Quest Diagnostics, or whatever lab you are familiar with, to see if they have at-home testing, too. (LabCorp is our closest lab, but this actually is sent out of state anyway for processing.)
