![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
This was a somewhat odd visit. The three previous times I saw Dr. AbdelRazek, they had me arrive half an hour early, so an assistant could do some low-tech neurology tests before I saw the doctor.
This visit, they had me arrive half an hour early, and the assistant took my vital signs and asked what medications I'm currently taking, then took me back to the waiting room until the doctor was ready. I had to ask him for the low-tech neurology tests, but when I said yes, I wanted him to do them, he sent someone into the exam room when he was done talking to me.
The doctor had started by asking me a few general questions about mood and activity. I told him that I'm still staying home a lot, because of Covid. He said he was surprised that I'm still doing that, and doesn't think I need to be. This surprised me.
He seemed to have two reasons for giving that advice. One is that he has "30 or 40" other patients on Ocrevus, who have reduced their precautions significant, and none of them have become seriously ill. The other is that, and I quote, "you have to live your life." What he advised was to keep masking indoors if I'm not eating or drinking, but he thinks I should eat in restaurants (the first example I gave of something I'm still not doing), and if I go to a party, mask most of the time, but it would be fine to take the mask off to eat or drink.
I'm not sure how much of my doctor saying "you have to live your life" is that, like a lot of people who say that, he is tired of the pandemic, and how much is that he's balancing mental health and depression against infection. But if it is a mental health thing, he could have been a lot clearer.
I miss in-person socializing, and if the three of us agree it's safe, I would like to have some friends visit, or go see other people. But eating in restaurants doesn't feel like a good use of our (notional) risk points.
Another small oddity: they had me fill out a questionnaire in the waiting room. It was mostly about my moods over the past two weeks, but they also asked about falls any time in the previous year. I said that "yes," I have been injured by a fall in the past twelve months, and nobody asked me about that.
This visit, they had me arrive half an hour early, and the assistant took my vital signs and asked what medications I'm currently taking, then took me back to the waiting room until the doctor was ready. I had to ask him for the low-tech neurology tests, but when I said yes, I wanted him to do them, he sent someone into the exam room when he was done talking to me.
The doctor had started by asking me a few general questions about mood and activity. I told him that I'm still staying home a lot, because of Covid. He said he was surprised that I'm still doing that, and doesn't think I need to be. This surprised me.
He seemed to have two reasons for giving that advice. One is that he has "30 or 40" other patients on Ocrevus, who have reduced their precautions significant, and none of them have become seriously ill. The other is that, and I quote, "you have to live your life." What he advised was to keep masking indoors if I'm not eating or drinking, but he thinks I should eat in restaurants (the first example I gave of something I'm still not doing), and if I go to a party, mask most of the time, but it would be fine to take the mask off to eat or drink.
I'm not sure how much of my doctor saying "you have to live your life" is that, like a lot of people who say that, he is tired of the pandemic, and how much is that he's balancing mental health and depression against infection. But if it is a mental health thing, he could have been a lot clearer.
I miss in-person socializing, and if the three of us agree it's safe, I would like to have some friends visit, or go see other people. But eating in restaurants doesn't feel like a good use of our (notional) risk points.
Another small oddity: they had me fill out a questionnaire in the waiting room. It was mostly about my moods over the past two weeks, but they also asked about falls any time in the previous year. I said that "yes," I have been injured by a fall in the past twelve months, and nobody asked me about that.
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
I did go to a yoga class where we were all well spread out and I was wearing a N95.
From:
no subject
The other stuff is definitely odd, and not just the COVID stuff. Are you going to ask about any of it? (Assuming that you can ask easily, via messaging/email, the way I can with my primary healthcare person.)
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
I end up with whatever Reason brings from school, including what's probably each shiny new variant (schools seem to get stuff slightly ahead of local wastewater-uptick reports). Given my experience, I can't bring myself to sit and relax for 30-90 min of indoor dining, when I know that Reason's exposures are from outdoor lunchtime--outside but with kids all crammed together, and little space for wind/airflow. She still masks by her own preference during class, including choir. And--asymptomatic-so-far I may be, but there's a discernible neurophysical hit each time, together with a slightly odd and very predictably recurring assortment of systemic issues, issues that don't accompany other mild colds Reason has brought home.
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
(I'm in the office 2-3 days most weeks, but mask everywhere but my office with the door closed and the air filter on, or if I'm doing heavy work in the stacks, where I'm by myself with the high end HVAC)
I am cautiously poking at what it'd take to do coven stuff in person for Beltane (in my apartment) in a way I feel okay with, including having acquired an additional air filter that is super effective on high. That's the one big in-person thing I'm especially missing.
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
P.
From:
no subject
('Most people are drinking water from the pump now without any bother...')
From:
no subject
From:
no subject