How Your Doctor Can Help You Survive The COVID Pandemic

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The pandemic is now over a year old and continues to be a major problem throughout the world. We now approach a half million deaths with no real end in sight. This is something that none of us have seen before. Over my twenty years as a practicing physician, I have never seen anything like this. Then again, none of us have since the last time the world saw this it was a hundred years ago and reportedly close to one hundred million people died worldwide. We are all threatened every single day from something we can’t even see. Our daily activities have the ability to help protect us or can put us at risk instantly. I have seen innocent patients, colleagues, friends and others perish prematurely. Sometimes, this death has happened within a week. Many of you have also experienced the same. I tell all of my patients regardless of whether they are in for a physical, routine check, telemedicine visit or some other reason, that the biggest thing we have to do now is survive this pandemic. It is the one thing that is the greatest threat to our ability to live or die. In this age of misinformation, it is even more important to have not just a good relationship but excellent relationship with your doctor. I can think of a few patients that had excellent outcomes, simply because of the access and familiarity that we shared with the doctor patient relationship. From the front lines of the medical office let me tell you five ways we are helping save lives and help people survive this pandemic.

One thing for sure, our chronic medical conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, asthma and the many others did not just disappear when the pandemic started. Now even more important, it is imperative that these conditions be managed even better. Avoiding unnecessary emergency visits is really important and can be done effectively with telemedicine. Telemedicine has made it easier to effectively manage problems and even diagnose serious conditions. For those that have needed to go to the ER or urgent care, it has been important to follow up to help avoid a return place to these locations. Along with management and refills of medicine telemedicine has been an effective tool to help everyone stay healthy. Continue to stay in contact with your doctor and take advantage of telemedicine. By the way telemedicine is fairly easy to use and when necessary even a telephone can help. At my office we are fortunate to have a system that makes it very easy to communicate with pharmacies and diagnostic locations electronically throughout the state and country.

Secondly, we can’t forget that cancer is still happening also. It is important to know which patients should still be going for their cancer checkup and colonoscopy. If someone is at risk for a cancer or gets a cancer we all want to make sure we get it early. That mammogram, pap smear, colonoscopy and other screening tests are important. Taking time to discuss the risk and benefits of when and how to get it done are important. All offices and facilities have implemented COVID safe strategies to protect patients. We continue to safely make important recommendations to help maintain health. Some patients are not comfortable doing this now and in some cases one may have to wait for certain tests.

With all the stress of the COVID pandemic there is an increase in mental health issues and heart attacks. Helping to manage these issues are important. Mental health services continue to be available and telemedicine services are proving to be very helpful. I can recall a patient of mine that literally was have regular heart pains caused by a heart attack and through telemedicine was able to safely get into the hospital get surgery and is now doing well. With him, we discussed how important it was not to stay home and accept these critical symptoms as normal. Doing so can lead to a deadly outcome.

This time of year there will definitely be cold and allergy symptoms occurring. Let’s be honest, we can’t treat these symptoms like we did pre COVID. Now in many cases we have to assume it may be COVID in some situations. This more severe possibility makes us need to consider getting tested and to also reach out to our doctors so that they are prepared to act appropriately. This is important because now there are treatments that are available if given EARLY. This is critical. Getting tested and being positive can make you eligible for Monoclonal Antibody. This proven intravenous treatment can save lives and currently is only available at ten locations in the state of Maryland. You and your doctor have the quickest chance to determine if you are a good candidate for this. I have had a chance to use it and am glad that it is saving lives.

Finally, when you have questions about any health issues your doctor should be a trusted resource. With the COVID vaccine and other health concerns it has been a privilege to help guide many people to make decisions based on the facts. Some of the decisions to stay home or go to the ER have also been calculated. Understanding the risk and benefits of these choices are paramount. Make sure that you have a doctor that you have a good relationship with and take advantage of telemedicine. This simple tool is saving lives. Many of these decisions may prove to be lifesaving. If you have any questions about this article feel free to contact me at drhill@laurelmedicine.com

Darryl Hill M.D.FACP is a physician in private practice with offices in Laurel and Silver Spring, Maryland

(301) 497-0401

www.Laurelmedicine.com

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