Risk blindness, or COVID
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I would take comfort in the fact that we have not read stories of people getting Covid from going to the doctor’s office. The staff are generally more concerned about the patients than patients are of the staff. They tend to take extraordinary precautions.
I personally know several clinicians who have been seeing patients for months, including one surgical nurse who’s been to Elmhurst and has been in NYC doing their job for months. Has watched patients die.
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My experience is that doctors, dentists, optometrists all take this pretty seriously and take good precautions.
You definitely need to go.
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@Aqua-Letifer
Not to add to your anxiety, but I think Friday's suggestion is a good one. I broke down and finally made an appointment to get my knee checked out a few weeks ago. Temperature checks at the door, patients in masks, and my initial consultation was with a masked doctor. But post-MRI I had an appointment with the doctor who owns the practice, and I was shocked to see him walk into the room to greet me mask-less, with a handshake. Great doctor, decades of practice and very highly regarded, but he was the only one in the office without a mask.Knowing ahead of time that you won't run into a similar situation (or, knowing that you will and then being able to modify your plans) may help ease a bit of those anxieties.
Good luck, Aqua!
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Also, I was really surprised to see the office had bowls of candy everywhere (wrapped candy, but still. . . ) and magazines in the waiting room. I thought those were things that would disappear, just as an added layer (or at least a semblance) of precaution.
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Great.
Well, I know to ditch if things aren't safe enough then. I spoke with the doc but couldn't get a bead on how seriously they were taking all this. I know the practice has drastically reduced their daily number of patients, but that's it.
Better or worse, my appointment is tomorrow, so we'll see.
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@Optimistic said in Risk blindness, or COVID:
@Aqua-Letifer
I broke down and finally made an appointment to get my knee checked out a few weeks ago.So how'd it go?
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@Aqua-Letifer
A little tear in the meniscus, which Dr. Mask-less McHandshake thinks can be healed with some PT sessions and strengthening around the knee. I was told it’s better to keep running as much as feels ok. I’ll take that! -
@Horace said in Risk blindness, or COVID:
....and the guy had to keep leaning in to “wipe it off”.
I bet he says that to all the guys.
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@Optimistic said in Risk blindness, or COVID:
@Aqua-Letifer
A little tear in the meniscus, which Dr. Mask-less McHandshake thinks can be healed with some PT sessions and strengthening around the knee. I was told it’s better to keep running as much as feels ok. I’ll take that!Do, but don't overdo. Take care of yourself...
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Well that was interesting.
Eye stuff: I have migraines. Only not the "icepick to your brain" kind; at least not usually. A weird kind that make you see strange crap from time to time. Related a bit to my eye thing, but so far not at all threatening. Just a side effect of particular physiology. I gotta go back in December, though. Which, drag.
COVID stuff: The staff were taking this 100% seriously. I can't think of a way they could have been more careful. And almost all of the patients were, too. One or two jackasses, but I didn't have to deal with them because of how they set up the office. This really surprised me because it's the first instance I've seen in this area of people being careful.
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@Catseye3 said in Risk blindness, or COVID:
So just to nail it down, no bad news on the pigment dispersion thing?
Correct. But bad news could happen basically any time and oh by the way, I could have no symptoms whatsoever. If I lose my eyesight, it can happen in a way that I'd never know until my next doctor's visit. So, best I can hope for is try to notice if things start to get weird, and keep going in for appointments.
Which, y'know, keeps things interesting.
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@Aqua-Letifer said in Risk blindness, or COVID:
Well that was interesting.
Eye stuff: I have migraines. Only not the "icepick to your brain" kind; at least not usually. A weird kind that make you see strange crap from time to time. Related a bit to my eye thing, but so far not at all threatening. Just a side effect of particular physiology. I gotta go back in December, though. Which, drag.
COVID stuff: The staff were taking this 100% seriously. I can't think of a way they could have been more careful. And almost all of the patients were, too. One or two jackasses, but I didn't have to deal with them because of how they set up the office. This really surprised me because it's the first instance I've seen in this area of people being careful.
Those are ocular migraines...And, hey, you may be one of the lucky ones...If you have vision symptoms before the migraine pain hits, you may be able to head off the migraine.
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@Jolly said in Risk blindness, or COVID:
@Aqua-Letifer said in Risk blindness, or COVID:
Those are ocular migraines...And, hey, you may be one of the lucky ones...If you have vision symptoms before the migraine pain hits, you may be able to head off the migraine.
Actually, that's the prodrome to a classic migraine. The "scintillating scotoma," or flashing lights are a sign that blood flow to the visual cortex is being compromised. Compromised because of vasoconstriction. It's the vascular dilation that stretches the meninges that causes the actual headache which usually follows. If you catch it early, some anti-inflammatories can mitigate, or in my case, abort the development of a full-fledged migraine headache.
An "ocular migraine" is something different, where there is actual vision loss or blindness that lasts an hour or more.
https://www.allaboutvision.com/conditions/ocular-migraine.htm
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@George-K said in Risk blindness, or COVID:
@Jolly said in Risk blindness, or COVID:
@Aqua-Letifer said in Risk blindness, or COVID:
Those are ocular migraines...And, hey, you may be one of the lucky ones...If you have vision symptoms before the migraine pain hits, you may be able to head off the migraine.
Actually, that's the prodrome to a classic migraine. The "scintillating scotoma," or flashing lights are a sign that blood flow to the visual cortex is being compromised. Compromised because of vasoconstriction. It's the vascular dilation that stretches the meninges that causes the actual headache which usually follows. If you catch it early, some anti-inflammatories can mitigate, or in my case, abort the development of a full-fledged migraine headache.
An "ocular migraine" is something different, where there is actual vision loss or blindness that lasts an hour or more.
https://www.allaboutvision.com/conditions/ocular-migraine.htm
Basically I see a whole bunch of bright, starry splotches, but not accompanied with a headache. So which might that be? Doc just told me it's not serious.