One important fact must not get overlooked amid this pandemic: Chronic health conditions still need attention.
If you had diabetes before the pandemic, you still have diabetes and should be monitoring your blood sugar levels. If you were advised to follow a low-salt diet before the pandemic to control your blood pressure, you still need to follow a low-salt diet during what my spouse calls “the duration.” If you had to check in with your doctor if your weight increased from underlying congestive heart failure, you still need to check your weight daily and call your doctor.
Lungs, Heart, and Even Kidneys
If you have chronic medical conditions and you become infected with COVID-19, you’ll likely face an increased risk of developing severe symptoms.COVID-19 primarily affects the lungs, and people with lung diseases, such as COPD, have less “pulmonary reserve,” which is like having a backup generator waiting to kick in if the power goes out. So, what might have been a mild infection for someone else can develop into a severe infection for someone with lung problems.
How to Keep Seeing Your Doctor
Managing chronic conditions amid a pandemic is not easy. It requires adjusting daily routines and dealing with new obstacles.One of the challenges is medical appointments. During the pandemic, most geriatric clinics have postponed in-person visits for routine check-ups to avoid exposing patients or staff to COVID-19. But that doesn’t mean your doctor isn’t there for you.
My clinic, for example, has transitioned most patient appointments to telehealth. This allows us to keep in touch with our patients and their symptoms and to adjust treatment plans in real time.
Online portals with “virtual waiting rooms” allow for video visits between patient and doctor. For patients who don’t have access to the internet or aren’t as comfortable with technology, the telephone works, too. Patients can send photos of injuries. More than 90 percent of my clinic visits with my geriatric patients are now by telephone. We schedule time for the clinic appointment, the clinic staff registers the patient, and then I call the patient for the check-up.
I was in the middle of one of these visits recently when a patient asked me if I thought they should try telehealth. I was surprised by the question, and the patient was surprised by my answer—we were in the middle of a telehealth visit. I realized that the common picture of telehealth conveys a complex process, perhaps similar to calling a customer service line.
What About Prescription Refills?
Even if a clinic no longer has routine patient appointments, the office is probably still staffed. Patients can call the clinic and may also be able to request medication refills online.Staying On a Diet
Diet is often one of the toughest adjustments needed for controlling chronic medical conditions.Watching what we eat can be even more challenging during a pandemic. Following a low-carb diet for diabetes, following a low-salt diet for congestive heart failure, or following a low-cholesterol diet for heart disease isn’t simple when people are sitting at home with stocked pantries and unable to get to the grocery store for fresh produce.
To avoid snacking out of boredom, try creating a daily meal and snack schedule.
Staying Out of the Hospital
Even if you don’t get COVID-19, it is still critically important that you continue to manage your chronic medical conditions.One of the best ways to help them is to take care of yourself. Stay home. Stay well. Stay connected.