I think I messed up the test.

[LastChristmas19]

Took a covid test this morning. I really messed up the first throat swab as I couldn’t keep my moth open properly (severe jaw problems) and touched my tongue. Asked for another swab. I was determined to do the throat swab as I have a bad throat amongst other symptoms.

I’m worried:

1. I didn’t do it right. My tonsils are swollen but I did a wipe around best I could.
2. I think I very momentarily tapped my tooth on the way out so I’m worried I’ve voided the test. I didn’t want to ask for another swab after doing an ok swab.
3. I’m worried I didn’t go far enough the nose but I did swab for long enough.

Worried I ruined the test. Advice?

Worried I ruined the test. Advice?

There is not much advice anyone can give other than you need to wait for your result. I can't see what else anyone could offer.

When we took DD (about 11 months at the time) for one, she sucked on the bloody thing we didn’t know you could just do the nose for children so just had to go with it because obviously it would be impossible not to touch the inside of a babies mouth while swabbing. She didn’t get a void result, it came back negative.
I can’t speak to its accuracy though.

Don’t worry for now, you jus greed to wait. Why did you take a test? If you get a negative and are still unwell then you can do it again if need be. Parents taken them from screaming toddlers so don’t get it right precisely and still manage to get a result.

Wondered if anyone had felt like this too @snookercue or if touching my tooth meant a total inconclusive test.

I organise weekly testing at work. If you've messed it up it'll come back inconclusive.

My 19 year old made a massive mess of hers. She was gagging, touched her tooth, moaned she couldn't fit it up her nose. She was in such a state.

It still came back positive though so they managed to get a result.

You just need to wait and see what comes back, they will mark it as inconclusive if they can’t get an absolute result from it. That would mean another test/take a bit longer but it’s not the end of the world.

We’ve got positives from worse

I feel the throat swab was done okay as it was my second attempt. Couldn’t really see as it was full and raining and no bright light. Didn’t touch the tongue but did nip my tooth. I did the nasal swab until I felt resistance and my eyes streamed! I ended up doing both! So fingers crossed all okay.

My son has a covid test (negative) earlier in the week and I was worried about his too. I’m just a worrier.

Now my anxiety is telling me what if I didn’t do the lid up properly or put it in the bag right. As it was tipping down and windy I couldn’t hear the guys working there very well!

Dull not full

It will come back inconclusive if there's something wrong with it and you can retest, I'm sure people do them in various ways so try not to worry but I get that your anxiety is taking over, I over think everything too. Good luck

I messed mine up this morning too. Literally couldn't get anywhere near my tonsils as my tounge kept coming up!! Sounds like you did a much better job

It looks to me like 90% of people (almost all of whom have job exposure or a few key symptoms) are still testing negative. Try not to worry.

@wakemeupwhenitssunny I’m crossing my fingers I did it well enough. I felt like the swab in throat wasn’t thorough enough as I was trying to keep my tongue down the whole time! Which was making my jaw hurt so much! I have TMJ disorder.

@Icanseeclearlynow12 fingers crossed it’ll be okay. We just did the nostrils on my son earlier in the week so hoping that’ll be enough if my throat swab wasn’t great!

I completely messed up the bags on a home test earlier in the year and it came back with a conclusive result.

I think there’s a pretty wide margin for user error

Yes I was gagging so must have hit other areas of my mouth - try not to worry

I gagged & it definitely hit my tongue. Then every time I tried to put it up my nose, I sneezed (5 times).
Came back negative.

Thanks all 🌸

I've done 5 tests on myself and 5 on my ten year old son for the ONS study. I'm sure I've touched the back of the tongue on most of them (due to gagging) but none have come back as inconclusive - all have been negative.

I think if you had a good swab in the right areas and just bumped a tooth on the way out you'll be absolutely fine.

Yeah I touched my tongue and also dropped it a bit and caught up with my hand as I was putting it in the tube! Still got a positive result though.