TWO WEEKS!
I got home from work that day to find a note stuffed in the back door. When I looked at the envelope the return address was from the County Health Department. The letter stated that I needed to call and make an appointment. I immediately thought it was some sick joke from my in-laws, I was recently divorced and it was not a clean break. Plus, a couple of our family members were at odds. I called a friend, Denise, and we joked about who could have sent this prank because, surely I did not need to go to the health department for any reason.
I finally got up enough nerve to call just to see what this was about. The person on the other line answered and I told them that I had received a letter, in my door and I wanted to know what it was about. The male nurse said that my name and address was given to them by someone and that I needed to come to the health department to be “seen”. I assured him that “I have my own personal doctor and I don’t normally go to the health department”. I am trying not to sound uppity and he said “you probably have your own personal doctor, but before it’s all over with, you will be down here to see me”.
I was frozen. I sat there. I didn’t know what to think or what to say. I sat and sat and then I started to think, “Who would give my name?”, “who would give my name and not say anything to me?” I had only been with one person since my divorce, that’s two people in nine year span. I am thinking “I have something, do I have something, what could I have?” I called a co-worker, Michael, and told him what had just happened and while I was telling him the fear was slowly creeping back over me. He was trying to comfort me by saying, “it will be ok, don’t worry about any of this, it will be ok”. I could hear this but, I really wasn’t receiving it.
His next sentence is what really did something to me, He said “I know how you feel; I can’t go down there with you”. “I know what you are going through and whatever happens I know you will be fine, but I cannot go with you”. Now Michael is a very close friend to me and for him to decline at least driving me down there was a total shocker. But what really struck me was the fact that he had been through this and had to go through this alone. I hung up from Michael and wept. I wept for him, for him having to go through something like this alone with no one to confide in, no one to sit in the waiting room with, no one to get the results with. That made me very sad for him.
I called another close friend, Terry. Terry came by to take me to the health department and get this over with. He drove me there, in silence, the longest ride of my life. While in the waiting room, he tried his best to cheer me up. When they finally called my name Terry said “God is good all of the time” and with a lump in my throat I could barely get out “and all of the time, God is good”. No matter what answer I get today, we all have been affected. This visit would not just change my life, but also the lives of my close friends and family. I had to wait two weeks for my results.