Update on Safety Protocols and Health

Folks,

We know many of you are frightened. We want to make sure we continue to update you with the intent of educating and preparing you.

Fear, when it is indulged, distracts us from life itself, from being in this moment, from loving each other, from living out our purpose on this earth.

This is a moment in time. It will not last forever. As uncomfortable as it may be, it does present us with opportunities for growth…look for these.

IF YOU READ NO FURTHER, READ THIS:
Your Number One job if you are in treatment or two years out from treatment; have diabetes, heart disease or lung disease (which includes asthma and emphysema), is to AVOID getting sick.

There is only one sure fire way to do this.
—DO NOT touch your face
—AVOID people who may unpredictably cough in your direction.

WHEN DO I CALL?
If you are trying to reach Dr. Roy or Dr. March and you do not have access to a computer, you call (248) 798-2942

WHEN DO I TEXT?
If you have a CLINICAL emergency, you text (248) 260-8866
Use the words “911: your name: symptoms”

WHEN DO I EMAIL?
If you have ANY issue or question that is not a clinical emergency,
you email dr.roy@aimnatural.com

PREVENTION:
—It’s important to wash your hands. Why? Because you can’t help touching your face

—You MUST wash your hands if you have walked outside of your home

—You can use hand sanitizer but it needs to be 60 percent alcohol

—If you are coughing or sneezing, you MUST cover your face with your armpit and wear a mask around others

—You MUST avoid crowds, this includes the grocery store. It’s been observed that people do not always avoid close contact in the stores, and it’s impossible to predict if someone will cough near you. You cannot know if the person who coughed is a carrier. So when you do have to go to the store, the gas station, or places like that, you MUST wear a mask. If you do not have one, it’s okay to tie a scarf around your face, and it’s helpful to wear glasses, if you have a pair

—This is NOT a time to travel by train, plane, bus or use share rides. IF you MUST, email dr.roy@aimnatural.com so Dr. Roy can prepare or supply you

—This virus lives on surfaces for 6 days or more.
So if on Sunday, someone coughs and covers their mouth with their hand, then picks up a box of mac and cheese and puts it back on the shelf; and then on Thursday you go to the same store and pick up that mac and cheese and take the box home, you are taking the virus with you. If you put in the cabinet and your loved one grabs it to make the mac and cheese, and rubs their eyes, without washing their hands, they have delivered the virus.

—In our clinic, our current recommendation is to disinfect any object or surface you bring home. Bleach, Ammonia or Soap and Water is fine.

—It’s helpful to wear gloves in public so you can be cued in to avoid touching your face

WHAT DO I NEED TO DO TO IF I HAVE OR HAD CANCER, DIABETES, HEART DISEASE OR AN AUTOIMMUNE ILLNESS?
Please note, part of the reason why we are encouraging our patients to contact us for a 15 min phone call to protect and preserve their health is access to medications, supplements, surgery, surgical procedures and surveillance is and will continue to NARROW.

Email us at dr.roy@aimnatural.com
Go to aimnatural.com and click on “Contact Us”

We can reliably predict at this time that we will see a peak in the impact on the health care system in mid to late May…and it may take months after that to recover services. Do not expect things to return to our new “normal” until early Fall 2020.

Examples of patients who are being seen by Drs. Roy and March at this time:
1. Patients who cannot see their primary care doctor and need support with primary care
issues.
2. Patients who are not as closely surveilled in survivorship and may be taking or have taken
drugs that are hard on the kidneys and heart.
3. Patients who are newly diagnosed and are not able to get surgery at this time because they are not emergent cases and need “alternatives” to standard of care.
4. ALL patients who are IN treatment, 2 years into survivorship or post-surgical, to evaluate and tailor risk precautions.
5. Patients who are being seen to lower risk of recurrence and need lab evaluation. We have access to safe labs for our patients only.
6. Patients with diabetes, heart disease and autoimmune illnesses NO EXCEPTIONS.
7. Patients with symptoms of CoVid or cold or flu that need home management.
8. Triage for families in crisis.

Please do NOT cancel your appointment with Dr. Roy or Dr. March without talking to us first.
There is the impression among our population that for those of you in long term survivorship, you can wait. That may be the case, it may not be. We may want you to move a surgical procedure up, or ask you to stockpile a certain medication.

We will let you know if you can defer labs or care, how to get care safely, how long you can wait and what to anticipate.

Another major issue is access to supplements. We have permanent shortages now in immunomodulators like mushrooms and in antioxidants like elderberry.

Some of our patients are seeing delays of 2 weeks out of manufacture and distribution, even when they placed an order in early March. This may get worse. Even more importantly, some of the supplements we RELY on for keeping our patients in survivorship, well are no longer available.

We cannot stress this more urgently, we need to guard against shortages for our patients, and at this point, come up with alternatives. These have to be an individual consults. For these, do NOT text Dr. Roy, email us instead at dr.roy@aimnatural.com.

HOW DO I KEEP MY HOME SAFE?
1. Do not allow visitors. This includes family, friends, neighbors, grown children who are checking on you, etc.
2. Clean and disinfect high-touch surfaces daily in household common areas (e.g. tables, hard-backed chairs, doorknobs, light switches, phones, tablets, touch screens, remote controls, keyboards, handles, desks, toilets, sinks)
3. You can use 4 teaspoons bleach per quart of water, hydrogen peroxide, alcohol wipes, ammonia or soap and water.

WHAT DO I DO IF A PERSON IN MY HOME IS SICK?
1. FIRST OFF, the person who is sick should be isolated from the rest of the household immediately. If possible, they should have their own room and their own bathroom with doors that close.
2. Assume that it IS CoVid if they have a dry cough, fever and shortness of breath.
3. If they have tummy stuff and their mucus is green or brown or bloody, or they have a wet cough, it could be something else.
a. Either way, if a person in your home has symptoms, you must TEXT Dr. Roy at (248)260-8866: “911: your name: your symptoms.”
b. Do NOT go to the Emergency Room or Urgent Care unless your loved one is having shortness of breath that cannot be controlled with at home care like inhalers. Be prepared that once you take them to the hospital, you will not be able to stay with them.
c. Do NOT try to get tested, it’s not appropriate as there is no cure.
d. Please try to have access to a thermometer, a pulse oximeter, Tylenol and sugar and salt water like Gatorade or popsicles. That’s all we should need for many of you.
e. First contact Dr. Roy and we will start with managing you at home and have a nurse evaluate your symptoms.
f. You can also contact Emcura.com and create a patient profile. A nurse will call you to evaluate you over the phone.
g. Another option is to try to reach your primary care doctor for advice.
4. When you contact Dr. Roy, we will send you detailed instructions on the procedure to manage your family member or friend and protect the rest of the household.

FOR OPTIMAL LUNG HEALTH FOR OUR PATIENTS WITH COPD OVER THE SUMMER 2020*

In addition to the guidance given by the CDC for prevention of CoVID-19:

1. Take 500 mg of Vitamin C three times a day
2. Take 10,000 IU of Vitamin D with food daily (if you have symptoms, stop this)
3. Take your steroid inhaler every morning and night.
4. Take your Singulair, if prescribed, every night.
5. Take Claritin twice daily.
6. Run an air filter in your home while you are sleeping
7. Keep the windows open only if you have access to clean, fresh, air.
8. Wash your sheets and pillowcases with organic, dye and fragrance free detergent
9. If you have a nebulizer, do a breathing treatment as needed and make sure the parts are well cleaned and sterile
10. Do a neti pot every morning with saline
11. Steam over a cup of hot water with eucalyptus essential oil, 5 drops, then add a tea bag of cold and flu tea to the water like Traditional Medicinal “Breathe Easy”, let it steep for 10 minutes and drink the tea with the eucalyptus. Any mint tea will do.
12. Get in the habit of doing breathing exercises daily. There are many techniques, but one that is wonderful is called 4 square. Spend 4 minutes in the morning and at night doing the following:
a. Inhale through your nose for a count of 4
b. Hold for a count of 4
c. Exhale through your mouth for a count of 4
d. Hold for a count of 4
13. Take 1000-2000 mg of Quercetin daily
14. Take 1000 mg of fish oil with food, daily. It should only be from Pure Encaps, Nordic Naturals or Carlsens
15. Eat dark colored berries or dark leafy greens, four handfuls a day
16. Take something for anxiety like Theanine at bedtime, 200-400 mg is fine
This is a respiratory illness, so GUARD your LUNGS.

WHY ARE THE NUMBERS RISING IN MICHIGAN?
They are not rising all over Michigan. The hospitals in Grand Rapids, for example have room still.

They are rising in urban areas where we have a larger population of people who may be under or not appropriately educated about the virus and not practicing social distancing.

To some, who have never had time off of work or a “vacation”, this can present opportunities for joy, and social gathering that is unprecedented. For others, losing their job and valuable income has forced them to live in groups or rely more closely on others, which puts them into proximity to others.

Also, in places like Sterling Heights, Canton, Dearborn and Detroit, many homes host large numbers of family members who depend on community contact to get by. Childcare is often the job of aunties, neighbors, grandmothers, and people go to each other for food, comfort and news. Visitation with children who don’t live with the visiting parent is still happening and this puts elders and vulnerable populations at risk. If one person doesn’t have dinner, their neighbor will have it for them. Social distancing presents a significant cultural challenge as it is antithetical to survival for many.

There are large assisted living and to some extent, unregulated, home care businesses and home care workers throughout the state, and high numbers of Michiganders with obesity and smoking related illnesses like COPD, cancer, diabetes and heart disease.

Please remember, just because it’s our birthday or it’s another historic event in our personal lives, just because you miss your kid, just because someone has news, does NOT mean we can have people come by, even to pick up food or have a piece of cake. Hold tight. This will pass.
For now, any contact right now, with people outside of your home, is dangerous.

HOW DO I PROTECT MY MENTAL HEALTH AT THIS TIME?
—Turn off the television, radio and social media and STOP checking in on this virus. It’s not checking for you. The news is unfortunately, a terrible source of information right now.

—For actual information, go to the CDC and the CDC alone.

—Call Jessica 269 808 6422 at or Michael at 248-390-3864

o They are both trained in crisis and will speak with you for as little or as long as you would like, to help you talk through your anxiety, sleep issues, coping mechanisms or family issues that are coming up with coping.

o We are waiving co pays for April and May and all consults will be covered under insurance so there is NO cost to talk to a counselor.

—GO OUTDOORS and EXERCISE. Exercise is fundamental to your mental health and will help you from feeling cooped up and caged in. Keep a 6-8 foot distance from others.

—Eat healthier. It may be counterintuitive, but maintaining a healthy weight and eating nutritious food is one of your most powerful weapons in managing your mental health.

—Get creative: paint, take photos, collect botanical specimens, draw, sew, write, read, do yoga, dance, make crafts, do puzzles, play games. This time will really challenge you, especially those of you with kids at home. Doing these kinds of things will keep you out of your head and in your heart.

—Journal, punch a pillow, shadow box, put on headphones and dance like an idiot. Put on headphones and ignore your family.

—Take baths, use lavender essential oil, Epsom salts, eucalyptus.

—Try to watch or engage with things that make you laugh.

—Those of you on mental wellness medications like antidepressants, sleep aids and anxiolytics, MUST take supplements to partner with those drugs and make them work better while lowering the side effects.

And when in doubt, go to bed. There is almost nothing that a good long sleep won’t help.

Dr. Roy and Dr. March

*This is not a substitute for social distancing, shelter at home, hand washing and personal protection equipment, nor does it prevent CoVID-19. It is a robust foundation for prevention of pulmonary events.