Rheumnow PSA 2 Your Medical Care Save

Hi, I'm Doctor. Jack Cush, Executive Editor of roomnow.com. In this PSA, Patient Service Announcement, or report, I'm going to talk about your medical care. If you didn't see our first PSA, you should. It was about your therapies, your drugs, and whether or not you should consider yourself immunosuppressed.

That was called managing your arthritis medicines. Today we're going to talk about managing your arthritis or your condition or your rheumatic disease, whatever it is that you're seeing your rheumatologist for. It's important to note that in this era of social distancing, you have to make certain choices that are all about reducing your risk and maintaining your health and safety. So, the whole idea behind whole social distancing is that you will reduce your risk of catching, an infection from someone else who you are approximated to, maybe in the same room, maybe walking by them in an aisle at Walmart, but again, keeping that distance is very important. I noticed the other day that while in line at the checkout counter at my grocery store, people sort of stacking up behind each other were actually six feet apart and maintaining that social distance.

So, first, let's talk about your rheumatology visits. I assume you're seeing a rheumatologist or dermatologist. You should recognize that most clinics have all gone to the policy of trying to do their visits remotely. If you, on the other hand, can't do that because you are very sick, newly diagnosed, and in need of person to person contact, your doctor will make arrangements for you to see. Right now, most clinics are only seeing urgent patients or people who the doctor deems, necessary to have a face to face meeting.

Having a face to face meeting has got to be counterbalanced against the distance that you're trying to keep with everyone to maintain your safety. So staying at home makes you safe, makes the clinic safe, etcetera. And we can get a lot done by doing a distance visit. So these visits are going to be done either by phone or by televideo, either something like FaceTime if you have two iPhones, and there are other ways of having televideo visits where you can actually see your doctor and or the clinic staff to go over questions, concerns, and needs. I think it's important that if you're going to have a remote visit, a telephone visit or a televideo visit, number one, you need to have a few questions.

Don't come with 10 questions. No one has time for that right now. Focus on your big issue. Maybe one question, maybe two. Focus on your need for refills.

And lastly, make sure you discuss how the COVID infection is concerning you, what your concerns are, and let your doctor answer those questions about what you should and shouldn't do. If you're going to do a televideo visit, that may involve you getting up to date with regard to software or equipment, and usually your doctor's office is going to email you instructions on how you can actually do a video visit with the clinic. If you don't know about the technology, get someone who can help you. Younger people are obviously really good at this. We always have someone in the family who's a techy person, let them come over.

Again, you can maintain your social distance with them too, but I don't know that it's important to maintain social distance amongst your own family members unless everybody in the family is going out every day and coming back home every day and bringing potential bugs. Obviously, the more people who stay home and together, the less risk you are to each other. But getting up to date on software so you can make the interaction instructive and useful, we're really, I mean, video visits like this eye to eye is really the best way to communicate. It's very important that you have an appointment set to see your rheumatologist sometime between now and the next three months, at the most six months, I'm assuming six months because you just saw them in the last few weeks or last few, maybe a month ago. Otherwise, everybody should be seen by the rheumatologist in the next three months.

Likewise, you should make an appointment to see your other doctors. Everybody needs to be in contact with their primary care doctor. That's really, really important. If there are other doctors who are really, really important to your care, like right now, maybe it's your cardiologist who's the most important person in your care compared to your primary care, then yes, above all, your cardiologist, connect with them, do a remote visit with them, and decide whether or not you need a face to face visit. You've got to get these things done.

During this time when we're trying to protect your safety and maintain your health, that's going to be best accomplished by being in touch with your doctor and continuing your medicines. Do not make decisions that you're not equipped to make, meaning you need to get input on the medicines you're taking, on your medical status, on the new symptoms you might be having or dealing with. Don't guess, get advice from people who want to help. That means seeing your rheumatologist or dermatologist, your primary care, or the doctor's most important with you. Get these things done.

Next, what about elective things? You know, for right now, I'm always talking to my patients about getting, you know, going to their primary care doctor at least once a year, getting health maintenance things done like mammograms, pap smears, colonoscopy if you're over the age of 50 and whatnot. If you have those things scheduled, yes, you can put those on the back burner and hold off on that. The same can be said for annual eye exams if you're on hydroxychloroquine. You can delay that, you know, if you're supposed to be seen in April or May, call that doctor's office and make an appointment for June, July, or August.

That would be fine. There's no hazard in waiting a few more months. That is to say, assuming that you don't have current eye problems, for which they might need to see you more urgently. So eye exams, you can hold off. What can you not hold off on or should not hold off on?

Lab tests. Get your labs as you're supposed to. Labs are all about keeping it safe, keeping you safe, keeping your medicines safe. All asking, Should I continue my medicines? Well, yes, you should.

You should not stop them, and then we know that you should continue them because your labs tell me it's safe for you to continue to take your medicines. So, again, during this time while we're really cutting back on our interactions, I think it's important that you not cut back on your medical interactions because you want to stay healthy and strong, and you want to come out on the other side of this COVID-nineteen concern, being just as healthy as you were going into. In our next edition, we're going to talk about COVID safety advice. Be sure to tune in.