Updated Recommendations and Battling the Blues

Update: It was brought to our attention by our Jewish friends that our original message did not include Passover. Regretable, not intentional, our deepest apologies. And Chag Pesach Sameach!

As we see the data shifting, we are updating our recommendations for our patients:

1. Wear a cloth covering like a bandana over your nose and mouth and wear glasses when you are going places where you cannot maintain a 10-15 foot distance from others like the grocery store. Do NOT use medical masks

2. Choose a person in your family or friend circle to “buddy” with. That person should be someone you check on by phone, facetime or skype regularly to help them not feel so isolated.

3. Get a three month supply of medications that you take regularly

4. Get a three month supply of supplements that you take regularly

5. Our patients, who are ambulatory MUST walk 40-50 minutes daily outdoors. If you are on well travelled paths, wear a cloth covering over your face.

6. Wash your hands frequently.

7. Do not touch your face

8. Avoid congregating at all, especially in public venues that have seating, like the lobby of your apartment building.

9. Our lung patients (COPD and Cancer), MUST make a 15 minute appointment with us to get a preventive protocol in place right away.

10. Avoid people who are sick. If you have a family member who is coughing or ill, you must isolate them in their own room, preferably with their own bathroom. Text Dr. Roy at 248 260 8866 with the words: 911: Name: symptoms and we will issue you CDC guidelines modified to your situation.

Finding the joy during the quarantine has been challenging. Here’s where it is for me: it has been a beautiful thing to telemed and see patients in their homes. I have had the opportunity to talk to an artist in her studio, to see rare pieces of china passed down from grandmothers, to see babies I have never met, and photographs of ancestors. It has been an honor.

What I have noticed is we are all anxious and vulnerable, our marriages are strained, our kids are stir crazy, home schooling doesn’t work for many of us, and many of us are “over” the “trauma/drama” of the news. People are starting to experience anxiety and depression in ways we haven’t seen before and it’s all of us.

The common driver seems to be grief and all of its stages: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance as people struggle with adapting to social distancing. We have lost a lot that we take for granted: our jobs, our routines, our favorite swim class, our yoga studios, our body work
people, our social connections.

Some resist the precautions, frustrated that spring has rolled around without the usual burst of socializing and activity. And with Spring comes birthdays, graduations, Palm Sunday, Easter, Ramadan, Passover….we are lost without the joy of gatherings, hugs, handshakes, and eating together. For
some of us it’s been weeks since we experienced a friendly touch.

For those of us with elderly relatives or far away loved ones, the challenge is more patent. I myself worry about my father in Florida. I cannot fly to see him without putting him and my patients at risk. I have made the difficult choice of watching him from a far, knowing that if he has another fall, a stroke, another event, he may not get swift care. He struggles with excruciating pain for which he was in physical therapy and water aerobics. My chest hurts as I think of how vulnerable he is to this crisis. And as a health care worker, not on the front line, but working nonetheless, Dr. March and I are devastated by unnecessary losses as our patients cannot receive the care we once took for granted.

And for many of us, isolation brings to the surface other triggers. I know many of you would give your kids away if you could now, and in fact, many of my colleagues have had to send their kids to live with relatives while they manage the very ill. My husband and I have not seen our nine year old son in 6 weeks as we both have risk of exposure and two of our son’s family members are front line health care.

For me, not having children has never felt like more of a failure than it does now, and where my relationships with my sisters or cousins may have already been weak, I feel a peculiar loss as I realize how petty our grievances may have been.

First off, stay the course. Many of you have heard that if the government instituted a mandatory nationwide complete shut down of everything including grocery stores and kept us in a stay at home order with enforcement for THREE weeks only, we would halt the virus in its tracks. Know that avoiding others is doing your part. And when you give up and give in, you give the virus ground to keep us out of work and out of touch.

Secondly, while we are in the midst of this viral pandemic, we have a massive mental health pandemic brewing in the shadows, and none of us are immune to it at this point. I talk to all of my patients about the fact that we are waiving co pays for April and May of 2020 and you have insurance coverage for mental health. This is a boon at a time where we have little resources.

Even if you have never spoken to a mental health therapist before NOW is the time. And it is NO COST to you. We have two excellent resources:

Michael Morris
o Masters level, in practice for over 45 years, has an existential approach that looks at “reframing your experience”

Jessica Blodgett
o Masters level, acute listener, very focused on gentle guidance to journey through your inner life.

Both are specialists in crisis, anxiety and depression.

Email us at dr.roy@aimnatural.com TODAY and we will set you up for a casual chat to check in and see if you feel comfortable talking further. If you don’t like either Jessica or Michael, we will find you someone you do.

Call at (248) 798-2942 for an appointment.

And try this meditation on gratitude in the mornings:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSM6hVkYhIs

We are all grieving, and it’s okay to not be okay. Now is the time to support each other, let each other cry, and lean on each other emotionally. Through our collective acceptance of our need to seek help, we will emerge as more grateful, grounded, and whole.

Drs. Roy and March, Jessica and Michael