where are your gloves and your helmet?

Well, I'm awake.

Haven't had a lot of days this year where that feels like an achievement for me. in my defense, that's the case today because yesterday was a World Trade Center health day.

No, I haven't got- at least I THINK I haven't got- a health issue directly related to my two days as a Ground Zero responder. Other than the lung function results I've gotten every time I go for an exam, anyway. I mean that yesterday I had to go and get my annual lab testing done. Thanks to !@*$&! COVID, the Cambridge Health Alliance facility in Assembly Square no longer does those. The nearest place that LHI could find for me was in Providence.

And, because prior to this I had indicated that my favored availability was early in the morning (since a trip to Assembly Square just meant a slightly longer than usual mass transit sequence), I had to be there at 8 AM.

Ordinarily I'm not a big fan of morning medical appointments. This is one I've generally been okay with because it includes a 12-hour fasting blood draw. Better to get my eating done with and then go to bed the night before than to eat dinner, go to bed, avoid breakfast, and potentially avoid lunch until the testing is over. The Assembly Square location had the advantage of being right near a bunch of restaurants and coffee places for immediately after the examination finished, too. This, though... the exam was held at a Concentra Urgent Care location because they had the testing capacity for it. Fasting blood draw, urinalysis, chest X-ray, and my least favorite part of the annual exam, the spirometry. I had to be there for 8 AM. Their building was not in a feasible place for train travel- it would have involved me taking a bus to the T, changing T lines, then taking commuter rail to Providence, then taking a bus from Providence's train station to the Concentra location. And I would have had to leave the house at 5:30 AM. As it stands, I had to leave the house at 6:15 to take a bus to the nearest Zipcar location and then start driving before the sun had come up yet. I realize this isn't much for most people who have to start work early in the morning, and I've done a few shifts at a place that offered bakery products and therefore required me to get up earlier in the morning than if I were going out to Sheepshead Bay for flounder fishing, but it's still not something that I'm used to and it didn't help that as part of obtaining proper results yesterday I couldn't get coffee until after the whole thing was over.

Sorry. Whining, I know.

(I would also like to whine about the spirometry testing. I hate that testing so much. Take a deep breath, put your teeth between these two lines and seal your lips around the device, now BLOW OUT EXPLOSIVELY HARD AS YOU CAN NOW KEEP GOING KEEPGOINGKEEPGOINGKEEPGOINGKEEPGOING. Basically, empty your lungs and then keep exhaling without stopping for any reason, no inhalation no coughing no pausing of any kind, for fifteen seconds. And if your throat reflexively does any one of a number of things that a throat belonging to someone with respiratory issues might do- if your breath wavers or if a post-nasal drip triggers a cough or any number of things- the test results are invalidated and you have to do it again until you can HWOOOOHKEEPGOINGKEEPGOINGKEEPGOINGKEEPGOINGKEEPGOING three times, fifteen seconds each time. There are very few medical tests I've been through that can result in me tearing up and repeatedly apologizing to the doctor/nurse/med tech; the spirometry test is one of them.)

https://www.mass.gov/guidance/guidance-for-travelers-arriving-in-the-commonwealth-of-massachusetts



On July 24, 2020, the Governor, issued COVID-19 Order No. 45 adopting a mandatory 14-day quarantine for travelers arriving in Massachusetts (hereinafter, the Order). The effective date of the Order is August 1, 2020. This binding guidance must be followed by all travelers entering Massachusetts, except those covered by the limited exemptions listed below.

The Order applies both to residents of Massachusetts returning from out-of-State travel and to residents of other States and any other persons who come to Massachusetts for personal or business travel. Students and families entering Massachusetts to begin the academic year at a college, university, or boarding school, or any other educational or academic program, like any other person entering Massachusetts beginning August 1, must comply with the travel rule and are required to quarantine for 14 days on arrival unless otherwise exempted as detailed in this guidance.

Travelers who do not comply with these rules may be subject to a civil fine of $500 per day.

...

Commissioner-Designated Exceptions

Pursuant to the authority provided in section 4 of COVID-19 Order No. 46, the Commissioner has designated the following, additional exceptions to the requirements of the Order after determining that quarantine is not advisable in these circumstances.

A person who (a) enters Massachusetts in order to engage in any of the activities listed below; or (b) returns to Massachusetts after traveling to another place in order to engage in any of the activities shall not as a result be subject to quarantine and testing requirements and shall not be required to submit a Massachusetts Travel Form. This exception shall apply, however, only to same-day travel to and from the location where the activity occurs and the time the person engages in the specified activity.

Certain Critical Life Activities: grocery shopping, visits to pharmacies, attending appointments with licensed health care providers, including medical, dental, or mental health, visiting persons receiving treatment in hospitals or residing in congregate care facilities, attendance at day care or children’s camps, attending religious services, and funerals or memorial services, or attending to the care needs of a family member.

...





Okay, I wouldn't have to quarantine or be tested after the trip, but... dude, I'd have to rent a Zipcar, drive to an unfamiliar location in a state I have only visited via train, and do terrible things to my lungs. In a medical setting. In a quarantine-worthy state.

To verify that my lungs and nervous system and circulatory system hadn't been fucked up.

I"m calling LHI back to have them reschedule the exam for a date when I don't have to leave Massachusetts.

"In the past 12 months, have you had any other upsetting events?"

Does the entire American news cycle count?

Awake. Connected to the office. Checking on servers. Got about 3/4 of last night's batch of Bulgarian yogurt dripping in a muslin lined sieve over a stockpot in the kitchen so it becomes Greek-style Bulgarian yogurt. (The rest won't fit.) Considering making my next pot* of coffee.

... got my annual 'you're due for services under the WTC Health Program' text message. I was wondering when I'd hear from those guys again. It's an X-ray year this year; this should be profoundly less than fun.

At least I won't be particularly likely to hork up a lung during the spirometry process this time. Unless I have a truly horrific allergy attack that day I'm unlikely to be exposed to anyone who can give me a respiratory illness between now and whenever they schedule me for my exam.

*This pot, not a drip style coffeemaker pot; I don't drink that much coffee)