My Quick, Easy Experience Getting The COVID-19 Antibody Test

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There are are two types of coronavirus tests now on the market - one finds out if you have COVID-19 and the other determines if you've had it recently. I volunteered to take the antibody test to see if a recent bout with a chest infection was part of the pandemic.

I remember when I first felt something weird in my chest. It was March 13. 

I was in San Francisco reporting on the impending school closures, and I remember because that's when I first started to feel something weird.

"Your lungs hurt," Elijah remembered.

My son Elijah never got sick.

I never had a temperature and only a mild dry cough, but that pressure in my chest and lungs just wouldn't go away.

"I don’t know (if you had it)," my wife, Jessica Bigler-Uhl, said. "I partly think it was more stress related, because nothing ever got any worse."

At the time, I had one telemedicine appointment with my regular physician, who told me my symptoms weren’t severe enough to get tested for the coronavirus. I did a lung capacity test, which came back just fine.

The next day I went to a Labcorps testing facility in the East Bay for a very fast blood draw.

Amazingly, there was only one person waiting in front of me.

The test is covered by insurance, but make sure you go to a testing facility that is in your network. After settling a minor insurance issue, I was rolling up my sleeve.

The actual blood draw takes mere seconds.

We should know in 24-to-48 hours if I have the antibodies for COVID-19 and, if so, what that means going forward.