As we go through these difficult times, one source of humor has been the constant passing around of “memes” such as these. It is good to laugh - it decreases the stress levels and increases your endorphins.Here is the latest from Cara Direct Care.
1. FRIENDS AND FAMILY DISCOUNT:
We are going to open up new spots for friends and family at Cara Direct Care during this pandemic. If anyone you know has no medical care currently and is would like to have a medical team who will monitor them daily when sick, please let them know that we are taking patients on as quickly as we can at this time. Our goal is to help as many people as possible manage their infection at home and keep them away from the overwhelmed hospitals. There will be a 50% discount on the enrollment fee (Single enrollment $50, family enrollment $75). Membership fees will be the same. Please have interested parties contact us by email as caradirectcare@gmail.com with inquiries.
2. ANXIETY/SLEEP/FEAR/ANGER
Many Cara Direct Care patients have reached out with questions - PLEASE CALL/EMAIL/TEXT IF YOU ARE STRUGGLING AS WE HAVE MANY WAYS TO HELP YOU GET THROUGH THIS. This is one are that individuals may differ, so please call/email for a video visit, we would be happy to help.
Some patients are more afraid and angry about the economic and societal disruption and the negative effects that this will have on many lives - we understand that too.. Some are lonely and isolated - please consider reaching out to those around you who live alone. There is no good answer to this problem except for supporting each other and helping those less fortunate than us. We have faced extreme diversity in the past, we can do it again if we work together.
3. ADVANCE DIRECTIVES:
One of our previous medical students who is now a medical intern at Christ hospital in Oak Lawn was in contact this week. Christ is full of COVID patients now - 50 on ventilators at this time. Four resident physicians have tested positive. One of the worst things the healthcare staff have to deal with is discussing advance directives with patients who are in isolation, of all ages, when they are terrified, and very sick. Advance directives is basically knowing your wishes, what do you want, do you want to have full resuscitation measure, would you want to be on a ventilator etc. Please consider having this conversation early, at home, with your family, and discuss your wishes, write them down and sign them even if you can't write up a legal document. If you don't know what to do, call your physician to discuss together. Of course, we hope you will never have to use these but it is good to be prepared and will take some strain off the hospital staff and your family if you are prepared for this worst case scenario.
Please pray for our frontline healthcare workers who are working flat out, exhausted, afraid and traumatized by what they are seeing. THE NEWS VIDEO BELOW reveals what they are going through (it's rough to watch). This is already happening in our Chicago area hospitals:
https://youtu.be/OVp2U2p4lmE
4. GROCERY/ERRANDS/EATING OUT:
It has been advised that we minimise our public trips especially in the next two weeks as the cases are expected to peak in this time. Some have asked about how to safely buy groceries etc. This is a very helpful document which gives good advice on that, taken from the website of Peter Attia, MD - please click on the link below:
https://peterattiamd.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/COVID19-Patient-Update-3.27.2020.pdf
5. TESTING: We do have access to testing at two sites at this time which has gone smoothly for patients with a 2-5 day turnaround. Currently we are testing symptomatic patients only. At some point this may open up to contacts of positive cases that may be asymptomatic.
ANTIBODY TESTING: Also being developed are antibody tests which are currently poor and unreliable. You will see these tests offered at many locations - for now Cara Direct Care will not be offering them until the evidence shows they are reliable (following guidelines from the IDPH. Hopefully in the next few months these will improve and we can test people at Cara Direct Care.
Dr Clodagh Ryan
Family Medicine Physician/Owner
Cara Direct Care