I have an appointment (scheduled 3 weeks ago) with my doctor (GP, not a specialist) to assess whether or not a newly-prescribed medication is working well for me.
I'm not loving the thought of going somewhere that sick people are going every day, though I'm generally healthy (aside from mild, but managed, hypertension) and taking precautions to avoid getting sick myself.
Advice? Thank you.
Edna
If it weren't for all the media hype about coronavirus, you wouldn't have through twice about keeping your follow-up appointment with your doctor, even through you would probably be among "sick people" in his waiting room --- would you??
?
Take your GPs advice, but in general you should KEEP the appointnet for the sake of your health. Most of the other patients attending the surgery will not have any form of communicable disease anyway, and should now be self-isolating in any case if they have flu like symptoms.
Bort
Arm yourself with disinfectant wipes or protective surgical / cleaning gloves and go. Gloves are probably the best idea. Take a few sets with you and be conscious not to wipe or rub your face, mouth, eyes or nose. If you do the wipes thing wipe door knobs and handles before or as you're using them. Use the wipe as a barrier.
For people that have a normal immune system the coronavirus is not that bad. It's a strain of the common cold. The symptoms are the same as a common cold. The 0.0004% of the United States population that has been infected by it who had a normal immune system recovered from it. The people who have perished already had a compromised immune system.
370+ million people are in the US. Only 1,629 of them have been infected and only 2% of the people infected perished. You are more likely to win the lotto or be struck by lightning than you are to get infected with covid-19. Especially if you take extra precautionary measures aside from the common sense measures we should all be doing all of the time anyway to prevent ourselves from getting sick.
Tarkarri
Go but avoid touching things, keep away from other patients, use hand sanitiser as you leave, wash hands when you get home.
lilipop
What is the medication for? That matters. Can you call the clinic to see if your doctor is willing to do a call or a skype with you? If the meds are not needed for life-sustaining then perhaps you could wait. Do take into consideration that we don't know how long it will be safe to be around others. I suggest for you to check to see how bad it is with people getting affected in your home town. If it's a low count, you might want to see your doctor now as this pandemic could get worse. If you decided to go to the hospital, bring your hand sanitizers and use vigorously, don't use hands to press elevator buttons, etc.. and don't sit next to anyone in the waiting room. I'd not get blood tests right now.