
Ask HN: Would You Go to the Doctor Right Now? - _bxg1
I have a minor doctor visit I need to make that&#x27;s <i>probably</i> nothing serious but there&#x27;s a small chance it could be. It&#x27;s something that has to be looked at in-person, so I can&#x27;t just do a remote appointment.<p>But I&#x27;m also in Texas and we&#x27;re having a COVID spike right now. I&#x27;m thinking about just waiting a couple weeks to see if there will be another dip, but if there isn&#x27;t then the virus situation will be a couple weeks&#x27; worse with potentially no end in sight.<p>What would you do? Do you think we&#x27;ll keep having a seesaw effect as restrictions are lifted and then re-instituted over and over, or do you think a lot of people are just done quarantining for good?
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AnimalMuppet
If it is something serious, how fast is it going to be? Is it something that
will cause you significant issues in five years, or in a few months?

If you have, say, a 1% chance that the thing you have is fatal, well, you have
a 1% chance of dying from Covid... if you get it. You aren't 100% certain to
get it if you go to the doctor, though. In fact, it's probably in the single
digits that you'll get it from a doctor's visit. (All numbers made up on the
spot - I have no actual data.)

In fact, if your thing has some time urgency to it, maybe going _now_ is the
answer. My personal impression is that Texas isn't going to get better for a
long time. Six months? Two years? It's not going to get better, and it may get
worse.

Note well: I am not a doctor, and this is not medical advice. I'm just some
random nobody on the internet, shooting my mouth off.

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giardini
My scheduled physical at a medical center was last week. It was different to
say the least.

I was met in the lobby by 6 nurses and guards, told precisely where to stand
and to answer 10 questions which were shouted to me by a frightened nurse. She
moved forward, pointed a temperature gun at my forehead and then jumped back.
It was as if I were about to be arrested; very unsettling.

Once "approved" an orange sticker was put on my shoulder and I was permitted
to proceed to the hallway elevators. Once inside I began to notice discarded
orange stickers at random in the building.

During my visit I asked my physician about all this. He said no one with covid
symptoms is allowed in the bldg. Instead they're handled by tele-medicine
and/or directed to a hospital or ER. He has seen _NO_ covid patients _at all_
, nor had his starr. Here was a medical doctor in the middle of a pandemic who
had _never_ seen a covid-19 patient: the irony of the situation apparently had
long since escaped him.

Anyway, a medical center may be one of the safest places to go right now since
a sick person, especially a covid-sick person, is unlikely to get past the
guards! So likely covid will eventually enter these medical centers via the
staff, cleaning workers (who can't afford to not work), someone fixing the
windows, or suppliers, &c.

Unless you have covid I recommend you relax, go see your doctor and enjoy the
theater of entering a locked-down secure and armed medical facility. Leave
your handgun in your car or they might shoot you (seriously). Any quick move I
made was _immediately_ attended by multiple guards startling. Way, way too
much caffeine and imagination is fueling these places!

And FWIW my cholesterol is really looking good!8-))

Aside: for a month I've been asking everyone 2 questions:

\- do you know anyone who has/had covid?

\- has anyone _you_ _know_ ever spoken of someone _they_ know who has covid?

Results: only one person said "yes" to either question: he knew some workmen
who had it: They worked through it b/c they'd lose their jobs otherwise.

So it appears covid is really, really rare, on the order of unicorns rare. I
can see why some people believe the pandemic is a giant hoax.

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caiobegotti
Try a remote screening first so the doctor or at least someone with an actual
medical background can have a chance to tell you a technical opinion whether
you can wait more or not. Men usually underestimate health issues so don't
count on your "probably" from your post being nothing really, but please don't
expose yourself out of pure fear just yet. If the remote screening tells your
odds of needing an on site visit are over 50% then plan accordingly, then be
paranoid with self-care/clothing/hygiene and good luck.

~~~
_bxg1
Already did a remote screening and the current thing is a referral. The
symptoms are definitely real and not in my head, but my doctor said the chance
of it being something serious like cancer is "small".

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mech422
I'm in AZ and going for a full body PET scan Monday. I'm also high risk for
covid-19. However, medical facilities require everyone wear a mask, have temp
checked on entrance, etc. And I'll probably only be out a couple of hours.
TBH, the Uber ride is probably a bigger risk then the doctor. On the other
hand - I won't be going to any hospitals till this all dies down. If I need
biopsies, they'll have to wait.

Anyway, I think you'd be ok

~~~
_bxg1
Yeah, unfortunately what I go to is a "medical center", which I don't believe
counts as a "hospital" in terms of having emergency rooms and such, but it is
a large medical complex including lots of GP offices; not just a one-off
specialist's building.

~~~
mech422
Still - if its not an emergency room, people there are probably in for routine
checks and not covid related. The place I'm going is an 'imaging center' \- so
they do xrays, CAT scans, PET scans, etc. Probably not going to bump into
anyone infectious there. My endo and pulmonologist's offices have been pretty
empty, with short waits. Both the imaging center and the office's had the full
mask, social distancing (empty chairs blocked), temp, and sanitizer routine at
the door..

If you're going to a 'medical complex', I'd expect them to have something
similar at the doors since they usually have a receptionist type desk.

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tomohawk
If the personnel there wear masks and require all visitors to wear masks, then
go.

Many people are forgoing routine checkups, and this will lead to extra death
and morbidity going forward.

EDIT: also worth checking: some facilities have been set aside for non-covid
symptom patients. In some areas, whole hospitals are this way.

~~~
_bxg1
I checked and mine filters people by symptoms at the door and has symptomatic
people wait in their cars. But then, something crazy like 70% are
asymptomatic, right?

~~~
tomohawk
I saw a recent study of an Italian town where they exhaustively tested
everyone. It was something like 40% got it but had no symptoms.

The main means of transmission appears to be when people are talking,
coughing, sneezing. If someone is talking without a mask on, they are spraying
droplets everywhere. If they have a mask on, then the risk is much lower. If
you have a mask on, too, then it is even lower.

In Singapore, medical personnel had excellent success by wearing surgical
masks at all times, and wearing N95 masks only when performing procedures
where lots of droplets were expected, such as extubating a patient.

