I had to recently get one of those nose swab COVID tests before I could go visit my mom. She just got a couple surgeries and has a super low threshold for getting sick and I wanted to be sure that I wasn’t asymptomatic or in fact COVID positive. Now, this was more at my mom’s request than mine, but I did it because well, it was for my mom’s peace of mind. It was in fact hard to get a test from anywhere because I didn’t have any symptoms, so no doctor, rightfully so, would waste time testing me.

I have seen the swab test on the news plenty and heard people complain and I thought that the swab was made of cotton and people were just complaining to complain. Upon getting the test, I’ve learned there have been nose bleeds, burning, sores, and a whole host of issue people experienced, and I understand why. Let me tell you this here and now, the swab is NOT made from cotton like you would immediately think of when someone says “swab”. The swab resembles a plastic bristle toilet brush than any medical devices, and it hurts like hell. The whole object of it is to gather nasal tissue to send in for testing, and holy cow, is it an experience to go through. If you have ever had to get one, I’m sorry, and if you haven’t, be sure there is a valid reason to experience it. Love moms and all, but nope, I will go just by what I already know and not be bullied into getting another one.

There is an at-home test you can take I found on the CDC, but I think the only way to make this test worse would be trying to do it yourself. At least with someone there it’s the closest thing to “ripping the band aid off”. Of course, the test came back negative. There are multiple people in the house, and either we were all asymptomatic, or we didn’t have it. it was the latter.