Tag: flu

My month (or so) of medicine

Echo

My month (or so) of medicine explores why September, leading to October, seemed so darn complicated this year. It doesn’t USUALLY land so many events in such a narrow timeframe.

ITEM: I received a telephone call from CVS, a real, live person(!), asking me if I wanted a flu shot. Sure! The next day, I got an electronic message. Do I want the COVID shot too? Why not?

On September 2, I went to my nearest store. Oh, they haven’t RECEIVED the shipment for the COVID shot yet. It wouldn’t arrive until Labor Day. (This was true; my daughter got both shots that day.) Then the text I received indicated that I had DECLINED the COVID shot! What? Anyway, I got one on September 16.

ITEM: I went to my podiatrist on September 11. The office recently switched to a new computer system, so paying the $8.66 balance I owed required going back into the old system, which the new receptionist didn’t know how to access. It took a while. So it goes.

ITEM: I had been seeing someone to remove excessive earwax every three months; yeah, I could PROBABLY try to do it myself, but whatever. The problem is that I was supposed to see my person in July, but their system said they weren’t available until late September.  Then I got these tantalizing texts saying there was an earlier opening, always at a time I couldn’t make.  Finally, I got in on September 14, and the impaction, which wouldn’t have taken place if I’d been treated on schedule, had created an irritation that required prescription eardrops. I didn’t get them because they cost $170. 

I gotta have heart!

ITEM: I was supposed to get a tooth implant, but I couldn’t remember the date. September 21 at 9:30 a.m. Fine.

Then I got a message from St. Peter’s Hospital portal saying my procedure would be fully covered. What procedure?   It turned out to be my TRANSTHORACIC ECHOCARDIOGRAM (TTE) W/COLOR FLOW & DOPPLER (CONTRAST/BUBBLE/3D PRN). And this one was scheduled for the morning of September 21. They didn’t ask me; they just informed me. At least Medicare fully covers it. 

So, I had to reschedule the tooth implant to mid-October.

I’m guessing my cardiologist’s office will contact me to set up an appointment to interpret my echo results.

ITEM: Teeth cleaning in late September; no issue.

ITEM: I had a follow-up for my cataract surgery from two years ago. But the doctor had to reschedule until later in the month. C’est la vie.

ITEM: The annual physical is in early October. My Primary Care Physician is retiring at the end of the year; I am sad. I was her patient when she worked in a two-doctor office. Her practice, like so many others, was taken over by St. Peter’s/Trinity Health. I have followed her to several locations; the current one is the most inconvenient. If I don’t get a ride from my wife, I have to take a bus to the Rensselaer train station, then an Uber.

But she’s been a great doc to me for over two decades: direct, opinionated, thorough, occasionally quite funny. I’m not looking forward to breaking in a new PCP.

Is the pandemic over? OVER over?

another booster?

Mark Evanier wrote a post two weeks ago, his Question of the Day. Here it is in its entirety. “Was President Biden right to say The Pandemic is over? Well, it depends.”

The link is to a FactCheck.org article describing the debate. The Daily Show’s Trevor Noah, though, hit the nail on the head. Once some people have had COVID, they’re thinking that COVID is over for them and everyone.

From WebMD: “Biden’s comment has split experts in medicine and public health. Some adamantly disagree that the pandemic is over, pointing out that COVID-19 remains a public health emergency in the United States, the World Health Organization still considers it a global pandemic, and most significantly, the virus is still killing over 400 people a day in the U.S.

“Others point out that most of the country is protected by vaccination, infection, or a combination, at least for now. They say the time is right to declare the pandemic’s end and recognize what much of society has already decided.” Mass transit has dropped mask mandates in New York State and elsewhere.

Local spike?

Non-medical places that still require mask wearing are making people grumpy, I’ve noticed. Albany County and adjacent Rensselaer County have remained stubbornly in the yellow (medium) zone for the past six months, even as nearby counties fluctuate.

Then this past week, they bumped up to the red zone, even though the hospitalizations have remained steady.  A statistician friend of mine wondered if the CDC got the numbers wrong.

Instead, “in recent months, New York health officials and those in other states have started using cases per 100,000 residents, and not the more traditional percentage of positive results of those who have been tested, as a more accurate way of measuring infection rates.”

This may explain how nine of the 55 counties north of New York City are in red, but only 109 of more than 3000 counties in the country. 

A fifth shot?

The CDC recommends that “getting a COVID-19 vaccine after you recover from COVID-19 infection provides added protection against COVID-19.” However, I saw my primary care physician for my annual checkup in late September. They believe that I won’t need an Omicron-specific booster because having had the disease, probably BA.4 or BA.5, has given me sufficient immunity. I’m feeling conflicted, but I’m not even eligible until December, so I’ll ponder it further.

Meanwhile, my baby sister got COVID in the latter part of September, even though she was fully vaxxed and boosted. She’s a thousand miles away, so she didn’t get it from me.

There are people, particularly those with long COVID, for which the disease is clearly NOT over. Some desperate patients are turning to unproven alternative therapies.

The Census Bureau notes that 2.9% of adults ages 55-70 employed in January 2020 said they retired early or planned to retire early due to the pandemic, while 2.3% said they either delayed or planned to delay retirement for the same reason.

Not incidentally, my doctor’s office DID give me a flu shot. All indications from the Southern Hemisphere are that it will be a nasty season. I’ve been getting this shot annually for about a decade and a half after having influenza, which kept me out of work for a week.

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