I don’t know about the rest of you, but as vaccinations/hope loom on the horizon, this is how Sara and I are feeling:
I mean, feeling a lot of hope and happiness ALSO! But. We cancelled so many things. And in my household, there are seven of us, multiplied times all those well visits, dental appointments, optometrist appointments, allergy appointments, etc. Well, not seven times ALL of them: Henry had to keep going with his orthodontist appointments, which means he also kept going with his dentist appointments. And Paul didn’t want to stop his dentist appointments, which is probably wise because HE DOES NOT FLOSS, so he has also been seeing the dentist. And only two of us see an allergist, though I am going to have to see about those stress hives. And I am the only one who postponed a pap and a mammogram. BUT YOU GET THE GIST. IT IS STILL A LOT OF CATCHING UP.
Here is what I am thinking. You know how when you’ve just had a baby, people say “Nine months on, nine months off”? This catchy little phrase presumes that it is imperative for you to get back to your pre-baby size/body, and we hate that, but stay with me: the basic idea is that you should not expect to be back to your usual self immediately when there has been a lengthy disruption to the normal state of things, and that it is reasonable to assume that getting back to normal would take approximately as long as the disruption lasted.
In the case of the pandemic, I think we are going to lose what is left of our minds if we try to get immediately caught up on everything. (Plus, then in future years, ALLLLL the appointments are going to come due the same month.) Let’s say that by the time we are vaccinated and ready to face the world again, it has been an average of 15 months since we began isolating/cancelling. Then I think we should plan on giving ourselves roughly 15 months after that to get caught up on all the dentist appointments, paps, mammograms, well visits, optometrist appointments, etc. We may be caught up sooner than that! in which case we get cake! But let’s give ourselves a little slack.
I frankly don’t think we’re going to have a choice. A significant chunk of the population is going to be trying to get caught up, too. There are only so many appointment slots in the day. My plan is to prioritize. For example, I really need to schedule with my dentist as early as I can. My six and ten year olds not so much. I’ll probably just skip the summer visit again and schedule them in their regular month next winter. I don’t schedule for my husband, but I do handle household maintenance. Again, I’m going to make a priority list and work my way down it bit by bit.
I am sad to see you’ve postponed important tests such as a mammo. I went and had my mammo in June and there was a shadow. A shadow that turned out to be an aggressive form of breast cancer. I have been in treatment since then and I am happy to report that I am now cancer free. I shudder to think what would have happened if I would have postponed that very important test.
I would encourage any of you that have not had your mammo or pap to schedule them and get them done. In my area the doctor offices have been extremely safe! Skipping these tests could be the difference between stage 2 cancer and stage 4 cancer. Being so afraid of covid that you skip these tests could result in fighting for your life anyway with cancer.
I’ll get off my soap box now. I just want to try and prevent someone from having to go through everything that I have had to go through this year!
Tayna, I’m so sorry you had to go through that, and do very happy to hear you are cancer-free now!
Thank you! I have my last radiation treatment on Monday and hopefully done! Covid has made treatment even more awful as I’ve had to go to all appointments and chemo treatments alone! I’m so grateful i made it to the other side AND I get to be vaccinated on Wed!!!
I am 62 with a family history of breast cancer I did not skip my mammogram and felt safe getting it
Oh, Tayna, I am so glad you are now cancer-free. Thank god you went to get checked. xo
I am so glad you went in and they caught it! There are some areas that are safer than others, however; we’re in an anti-mask area with a ton of medical staff thinking that anything is Totally Safe as long as people are wearing masks *or* are six feet apart, and the ER here was used in part as overflow when their Covid ward didn’t have enough beds for all the Covid patients who needed beds and… nope. The biggest health group in my home city, however, spaces appointment times so that you’re never waiting in the waiting room with other people; has “entrance” doors and “exit” doors; has high-flow air filtration; and they do temperature scans and “do you have any of these symptoms?” questions at the door of larger facilities and you wear a sticker to indicate that they’ve caught you. So I would feel fairly safe getting medical care there! But not here. (which is… not the same approach… as Swistle’s infusion center putting two sets of infusion people in the same room. For hours.)
I think being immunocompromised (or having immunocompromised people in the household) probably changes the equation a bit as well. But yes! Mammograms, pap smears, and colonoscopies: all good things to keep up on because they catch cancer while it may still be treatable.
(I am not yet of official mammogram age, although since I’ve got early breast cancer in the family, my first GP here was endorsing an early first mammogram, and then that GP disappeared [like, moved out with no notice; it was… odd] and my new GP is very “eh, you’re young, don’t need to do that yet.” I do not quite know, but I will probably ask for an early mammogram, but not until fully vaccinated because NOPE around here.)
Glad to hear you are now cancer free. I had a mammogram in fall, since I’m now 40. I already had one a couple of years ago from a concern. I had to go for a more detailed mammogram in the fall too, because my original one picked up a couple of concerns. The follow-up one turned out to clear the concerns, but that was pretty scary at the time. So I’m also thinking that isn’t a good one to postpone either.
I read yesterday that mammograms should be deferred six weeks after vaccination, because the vaccine can activate the lymph nodes and make them swell. And the radiologist can’t tell the difference between a vaccine-caused swelling and a cancer, so some people undergo biopsies and fear and anxiety and it turns out to be nothing. I skipped last year’s mammogram, but will wait until mid-summer or so to reschedule. Life has caused enough anxiety; I don’t need any more.
Ugh, yes. I got a mammo last week after missing two years because of timing and a move and had to go for a follow-up appointment. They must have asked me six times if I had gotten the vax recently because it was causing lymph node swelling. I assured them I hadn’t, and they said there were a lot of call backs because of the vax. Still don’t know what caused my callback, I have to come back in six months. I insisted on scheduling now for six months because I feared the surge bumping me out and they gave me crap about it.
It hurts my brain to think about. It’s also giving me a tight pain in my chest. I have so many medical appts to make up for myself that I may just put them all off until I die.
I kept up with getting a mammogram even in the middle of the shut down because an acquaintance was diagnosed with breast cancer last April and it scared me. Other than that I canceled all of my and my families appointments. Now I am fully vax’d and I’m still putting off making a dentist appointment because I just can’t seem to make myself get in the right head space to deal with appointments yet. This doesn’t seem to bode well for when the rest of my family is vax’d and I will really need to get on top of the things we’ve put off.
My mammo was canx by the facility last march due to covid. I tried to reschedule and I took the next available appointment — which was 8 PM midweek this MAY. And now I’m thinking I have to choose between trying to get my vax in april or waiting til after my mammo
I totally see why you’d not want to be in a doctor’s office right now but can I please suggest you put the pap and the mammogram at the top of the list of things to reschedule? I’m worrying about you from a distance of about 4000 miles here!
I agree, worrying from a distance.
I didn’t put off any visits this past year. I didn’t have any scheduled during the height of shut down though and just went to appointments as regularly scheduled. If you have stepped foot in any grocery store during the last year, the doctors office is not any less safe than that. And realistically much safer. We had many commercials on tv urging people not to put off screening appointments, they could literally save your life. I understand not wanting to have a major rush to catch up on everything but screenings should be top of the list asap, for everyone.
I have been feeling EXACTLY THE SAME, like I let all the spinning plates drop (relaxing! In its own way) but now I have to get them all up and spinning again. The girls haven’t been to the dentist in a year so I’ve made those appointments as a priority (I did make previous appointments that were all cancelled, I hope these ones will stick as the eldest is heading into orthodontist times). We’ve been doing opticians throughout. But yes everything else, and I’m back to work soon (I work at a holiday village that’s closed so I’m furloughed but we’re reopening next month), and they’re at school but all the events etc will start up again there too, and it’s all very wearying. It was so NICE to know I couldn’t forget anything because there wasn’t anything to forget.
With all due respect may I suggest you start scheduling them RIGHT NOW. Almost no provider is going to say, “Of course, can you come in on March 29??” Around here, most places are having to schedule out at least 6 months (dentists, specialists, mammos, optometrist) and often longer. Just call one provider every day and make appointments. Then when you feel safe because of vaccination status, your appointments will be all set for you to go.
This is what I did. A few places I specifically said, “I would like to schedule an appointment for June or later…” and they were really accommodating. Maybe it’s even better to pre-schedule and get the various things spread out a little now before everybody else is making first-available appointments in a few months.
My wife gets vaccinated in two weeks! I’m in eligibility limbo still, but maybe the end of our isolation is in sight!
Our dentist was amazing. She had a special day for immunocompromised people, where you would be the only person in the whole office when you came in, not even a receptionist. So our family kept up with dentist visits and a few other necessities. We did switch orthodontists because we didn’t feel safe at the first practice. But most doctors have been excellent.
I have “dense and lumpy breasts” and so I went for a mammogram in October. When things opened up – I think it was July, maybe – it took me three solid weeks of phoning to get an appointment, the lines were constantly busy. When I finally got through, the first available appointment was October. So it might be out of your hands – things might take a while just to get in, is what I’m saying. FWIW the mammogram office – and doctor and dentist, which we have kept up with – was really great in terms of Covid safety. Hope yours is as well. xo
The day before NYC shut down I had gone to the dentist – even then they were all masked up, etc. so I had no fear about going once they were allowed to re-open (plus, my tooth really hurt!).
Yes. I am staring at my eight-year-old’s teeth, remembering that it is about time we find an orthodontist for her. But also remembering that I probably want to find a new dentist for her too, because the dentist she had been going to had a big outbreak in his facilities, and kid vaccines aren’t exactly just around the corner here, and I have trust issues with dentists anyways and I most definitely have no will to sit patiently while a man who let all his staff get sick lectures me about being overly cautious and skipping regular cleanings for a year. My primary care provider is also on the outbreak list, so that’s tricky for my delayed appointments, but at least I know when I’ll be fully vaccinated. If you live in an area where health care offices are being uniformly diligent, be grateful for that. It’s not the case everywhere.
Adding…my desire to switch dentists is about THIS particular dentist and his outlook, not a statement that any health care facility that had an outbreak can never be trusted again.
You may not be vaccinated but your healthcare provider likely is. The latest data shows that vaccinated people are not shedding virus, so seeing a vaccinated provider who wears a mask should be very safe.
I’d encourage you to start making appointments, and feel free to ask to make sure your mammogram tech or dental hygienist is vaccinated. “I have an immunocompromised person in my circle. I’m interested in having a mammogram if I can have a tech who is vaccinated to help reduce the risk I bring covid home.”
Ugh, I literally had a dream last night that while I was skipping dentist appointments, someone bought out my dentist’s office, and he left the practice (he’s the only dentist I’ve found that I’ve liked in my 20 plus years of being an adult). This dream ties in neatly with the fact that someone actually DID buy my husband’s company, which means we’re getting all new benefit options at the end of April. Do I scramble to make appointments now, so we can have one last “turn” on the current insurance, and so I can avoid all the “switched insurance” paperwork for another few months? Or do I wait until summer, when we will have to go through all that crap, including maybe having to change care providers, with the trade-off being that my husband and I will probably be vaccinated by then? Or will I even have a choice, considering the backlog and the decreasing chances of getting an appointment any time soon? Ugh.
Thank you for the reminder to get my snow tires taken off. :)
I just turned 40 and need to schedule my first mammogram. I already knew where I wanted to go (my friend has a place she highly recommends), but my doctor wants me to get an ultrasound of my thyroid as well, and she gave me a list of places to choose from. So now I need to look at reviews for all these places and choose one. So overwhelming. I had already been putting it off (part pandemic, part anxiety, part laziness), but I guess I need to get on that.
When I saw the title, a tiny part of me thought you were starting a Slack group for your readers. I need real life friends, y’all.
We cancelled all routine dentist and eye appointments, but I’ve been thinking about how my son needs both: the first because he’s had a canine grow in really high up and the baby tooth is still there, so he’s got two of them simultaneously like a shark, plus he’s really not that great about remembering to brush his teeth; the second because he’s prone to migraines and I’d like to make sure periodically that his vision isn’t a contributing factor.
Vaccine rollout has been shockingly slow here, but maybe I should think about scheduling appointments for sometime in July or August. I probably won’t be vaccinated by then, but my husband and the staff should be.