I keep trying to test my granddaughter for covid

[Sugarcoated]

with the BinaxNow rapid test kit and the solution seems to keep seeping up into the window area of the test strip within, like 60 seconds. It shows red but not a red line, it's like a "smear". Has this happened to anyone else?

[Lochloosa]

1. Yes. Its just being absorbed by the material. It will fade.

If positive you will see a distinct line.

[Sugarcoated]

2. After 15 minutes there wasn't a red line

The solution even blurred the blue line. I did the test 3 times and was super careful to do the exact amount of solution. We live in an old house and our linen closet is very cold, which is where we keep the kits. I wonder if that has anything to do with it?

[Hekate]

4. Check the package to see if there's a temperature-range for storage, as with most medications...

You might want to store it with the rest of your meds after that and see if it helps.

[Lochloosa]

5. My wife and I did test last week and had the red coloration.

We had the same with our positive test just had the distinct line.

No line = negative.

You should be good

[liberal_mama]

11. I just checked the directions and it says if the control line stays blue, the test results

are invalid. I read that cold temperatures can cause the tests to go bad. There was concern that the free government Covid tests are being shipped in freezing cold weather.

[Sugarcoated]

17. Apparently it depends on the brand. I found this:

On iHealthLab’s website, the fine print says to store in a dry location, between 36 degrees and 86 degrees Fahrenheit. It warns, any extended exposure of the test kit to temperatures beyond this range, may affect the quality of test results.
A spokeswoman for Abbott writes, "For BinaxNOW, it's between 35.6 and 86 degrees F, and the test should be kept within this range. But if the test is stored outside the temperature range for a relatively short period of time – for a couple of hours up to a day or two – it will be fine to use, and it's important is that test and its components are used at room temperature."

I'm sure the closet where we were keeping them is above 35 degrees. We have about 7 or 8 kits, it would've pained me to toss them.

More info here:
https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/verify/are-covid-kits-left-in-the-cold-okay-to-use/65-e249d2e3-5030-4ee7-8bfb-76ee7f8a4deb

[WhiskeyGrinder]

3. That's the solution moving through the test. You note that the "control" line dissolves and then

changes position. That shows the test is working. Let it sit 15 minutes like the instructions say.

[Sugarcoated]

6. My husband brought home a fresh test kit from work

Granddaughter is positive. I think she got it from a birthday get together yesterday that was supposed to be mostly outdoors, masked if they went inside. Since it was pretty cold, it was likely mostly indoors. I knew I should've said no. Luckily, she wasn't around us much. Her mom picked her up, got home around 8pm and granddaughter went right to her room like a lot of teenagers do. She used the bathroom this morning before me but aside from that, only very minimal interaction and masked. She's not allowed to leave the room except for going to the bathroom, and only masked. We (husband, son, her sister) are masking if going to the 2nd floor and bathroom. Our bedroom doors are closed. I know several families who had a kid with covid, isolated/masked in the same manner and no one else was infected. Fingers crossed.

[Ms. Toad]

9. You should alert the party family -

If her symptoms started today, she was almost certainly infectious yesterday.

[Sugarcoated]

15. I will tell my daughter, her mom, to let them know

Thank you for the reminder. This is so stressful...I feel like kind of in a daze

[liberal_mama]

12. My husband tested positive on 01/02/2022 and my son and I didn't get infected

My husband and I have slept in separate rooms since the pandemic started because he's an essential worker and I'm a high risk person with diabetes and lupus.

Me and my son always wear a good mask (KN95 and Kf94) when leaving our bedrooms and entering common areas of the house like the kitchen, livingroom, and bathroom. My husband also usually wears a mask in common areas, although sometimes he forgets.

My son and I only shower when my husband is at work or has been out of the house for 3 or 4 hours because obviously we have to remove our masks to shower. I also spray the bathroom down with Lysol disinfectant and spray isopropyl alcohol on the glass shower doors, faucets, and tiles before I shower. We have a small 3 bedroom house (900 square feet) and only 1 bathroom so this was a stressful situation.

You need to take some precautions to prevent the rest of the family from catching it. Keep her in her bedroom and make sure she wears a good mask if she needs to come out. If you don't have any N95, KN95, or KF94 masks, she should double mask or wear a surgical mask with a cloth mask over it.

She was probably already infected at the birthday party yesterday because that would be a really short incubation period. You should probably notify anyone she was around for the past week.

My husband didn't go anywhere other than work during the week he got infected. We didn't have any company for the holidays. One of his coworkers was infected. That week he worked December 27, 28, 29. On Thursday, December 30, he had a lot of fatigue. I asked him to go pick up a prescription for me and he said he was too tired, which is unusual for him and the pharmacy is literally a 2 minute drive from our house. His actual covid symptoms started happening on January 1 (Happy New Year! Your husband has Covid! A great start to the new year). On January 2, he tested positive for Covid on a Binax home test. On January 3, he tested positive he tested positive at a testing site. I'm thinking he was probably infected on Monday, December 27, 2021 and actual Covid symptoms started on Saturday, January 1, 2022.

I hope you will be able to avoid it! I know how upsetting this situation is. I hope your granddaughter has a mild case and is better very soon.

[Sugarcoated]

16. Damn

that's so much to deal with! I hope he got through it with no lasting problems. Thank you for the well wishes

[Sugarcoated]

7. I just talked to her

She's pretty sure she got on Friday, a friend on the bus who sits behind her got his symptoms the same time she did. We had much more contact with her on Friday and Saturday.

[Ms. Toad]

8. Assuming full vaccination -

two days before to 3 days after the start of symptoms are tthe most infectious. If symptoms started today - Saturday is within the most symptomatic range.

[Sugarcoated]

14. She said her symptoms actually started Sunday night, felt like something was in her throat.

She's tired, very achy, headache, stomach ache, no fever, can smell and taste. She is vaccinated however, her 14 year old sister is not, and I'm very worried.

We've tried and tried to get her to do it but she just won't. She got the first shot way back when the vaccines first became available for teens but then refused to get the second. Her mom said they held the line up for an hour at the pharmacy. Now that they live with us I took matters into my own hands.

Her mom made an appointment with her pediatrician thinking they would have better persuasion skill but again she refused. A social worker came in and tried her damnedest, and she was good, but the kid wouldn't sit still for it.

Her appointment was at 1:30 pm, her and I sat in the room till 5. I tried to wait her out but it didn't work...never seen anything like it. The nurse and social worker said it's very common, though...smh

[liberal_mama]

10. That happens every time I do a Binax test. The first time, I was like, "Oh no!" because I thought

a pink line was about to form when the smear started spreading. But then after the liquid saturated the test strip, the smear disappeared, the control line changed to pink and thankfully, there was no second pink line.

My husband tested positive for Covid on January 2, 2022 so I tested him with a Binax test and his showed a dark purple second line right away. In the next 10 days, I tested myself 6 or 7 times with Binax tests and they were all negative.

Thankfully, I had stocked up on the tests several months before the surge because none were available in my local stores after Omicron started.

Did the smear go away on your tests after 15 minutes?

[Sugarcoated]

13. I'm not sure

I kind of disregarded them thinking I screwed up.