Possible False Negative, But . . .

It's a beautiful snow day here in Maryland. This is our daughter's dog, Mabel. She's a bit porky. She's convinced she is starving. She's adept at grabbing pies on the kitchen counter that the baker thought were well out of reach. Christmas a year ago, our daughter and I spent hours, hours, baking and decorating four dozen fancy sugar cookies for her book club's Christmas cookie exchange. The cookies were hung high up in a bedroom closet, encased in plastic. Mabel helped herself to two dozen. Fortunately for Mabel, I did not learn of this until six months after it happened. 

Our grandson--the one who was tested for Covid last Thursday--shares the house with Mabel and his parents. His test came back negative, but then his mother went on line and learned that the test should be given three days after symptoms appear to lower the chances of a false negative. He was probably tested too soon. However, as always seems to be the case with him, he quickly recovered from his cold and feels great again. If it weren't snowing, he'd want to go skateboarding. His dad has the cold now. 

Fur, Beautiful Fur

 This is an old photo of Dilly, but it shows her fur as it used to be before low thyroid thinned her coat and gave her a tail that looked like an attached rattlesnake. 

Her fur is back, thanks to several months on thyroid hormone replacement therapy. When you take your dog to the vet, you hope that the prescribed remedy will work, but you're more often afraid that it won't. Well, in Dilly's case, it worked!  Last month, we began noticing that her rattlesnake tail was disappearing under new fur growth. She also had a bare spot under her collar. That's gone as well.  She has cowlicks I never noticed before. 

It's a very chilly day today, still under 32 degrees fahrenheit around 11 AM. Dilly is out walking with Phil. He's bundled up in his winter coat and she is resplendent in her new fur. (I don't go out unless the temperature is at least 40 because the cold air makes me cough.)

Yesterday our 18-year-old grandson had to be picked up from school. He had a sore throat, fever, and congestion. His dad took him for a second Covid test. They'll get the results in a day or so. Meanwhile, he's isolated in his room.  His mother says he's feeling better today. Over the years, he's missed very few days of school because of illness and he's always recovered quickly from colds. We hope that it's just a common cold this time and that he continues to recover. 

Covid Vaccine, First Shot

 So the vaccines arrived in Maryland, causing some chaos and controversy. Those in "Tier 1B" (people over age 75 and others such as at-risk prisoners) were invited to register for appointments beginning last Monday, the 18th. At Zoom Bible Study on Sunday, January 17th, Shelly said she couldn't find out if, when, or where the shots would be available in Laurel. Cheryl said she'd managed to register herself online. She logged out, realized she'd forgotten to register her husband, tried to log back on, but couldn't find the site again no matter what she did. 

My husband spent Monday morning chasing down information on the internet. Our older daughter soon plowed through the thicket of too-much-information, located a climic less than 10 miles from our house, and even talked to a worker at the clinic. She gave us the phone number we needed to make an appointment. 

Our appointment was on Thursday, January 21st, at 5:30 PM, at the Prince George's County Hospital Center.  Fortunately, we arrived a little before 5, which gave us time to recover from getting lost. The detailed directions we'd been given didn't exactly match the lay of the land. We were to enter the "ASC Building" at 3001 Hospital Drive. Hospital Drive abruptly turned into Mercy Lane before we saw anything with a number on it. We couldn't find any "ASC" building.   After ending up in a parking lot full of dumpsters and tractor trailers,  Phil gave up and dialed the clinic number. We were told to drive into the parking garage, which was right in front of us, and enter the building. I studied the building's exterior later, after we ended up on the top floor of the parking garage while searching for the exit. Where did it say "ASC"? Nowhere! Instead, big bold neon letters proclaimed this large, hard-to-miss brick edifice to be the "Prince George's County Hospital Center."  Oh well. 

At the clinic, however, everything went smoothly.  Check-in, injection, followed by a 15-minute wait in the lounge in case of an allergic reaction. We were a little apprehensive of having to wait in a long line, but we were in and out in less than a half hour. Kudos to everyone at the clinic and the arrangements they had made to keep everyone safe and socially distanced. We have appointments to return on February 11th at 3:15 for the second shots.