Are you about over all of this COVID crap? You know, wear your mask or you can’t come in. Enter this door and leave via another door. Walk-in one direction down this aisle and the opposite direction down the next aisle. How about that thing to call and ask permission to enter an office. What about all of those damn questions about your health and have you been out of the state or the country in the last decade? Isn’t this a pile of crap?
Well, it is not. Believe it or not, contrary to what those in Washington D.C. say, this COVID-19 pandemic thing is legit. People get sick from it every day. Some of those poor souls die from it. Unfortunately, a lot of people do. Nobody wants to be one of those statistics, not you, and not us.
Believe it or not, we don’t enjoy interrogating you any more than you enjoy answering all of those lousy questions. The thing is, we do not want to potentially catch that bug and possibly come down with COVID. We sure as hell do not want to spread it to our friends, our family, or our patients. So, there really is a reason for making you stop before you can pass GO and enter.
This is not an exact science. We ask certain questions to TRY to ascertain the possibility that you MIGHT be “dangerous”. You might feel well and show no outright symptoms but still be infected. It is possible that you could be infectious to others. You don’t want this and neither do we. If we decide to reschedule your appointment, even if you are in the office and feel well, there is a method to our madness. Based on the answers that you gave to the questions that we asked you, we may decide that there COULD be a risk, and better to be safe than sorry. Is this a pain in the butt? Yup. You made the trek just to be told that you need to reschedule your appointment. We do not want to have open time that could have been used by another person. A double whammy.
Ever hear the saying “Don’t shoot the messenger”? The ladies that are asking you those lousy questions are just doing their jobs. Do not complain to them about having to answer more of those damn questions. If you have a problem with it, complain to me. I am the person who told them to do that.
Eventually, this will pass. Vaccines will be readily available to everybody. Sooner or later, most of us will develop immunity, one way or another. Until then, we ask that you respect our wishes. Answer our questions truthfully. Wear your damn mask properly. Wash your paws. Stay socially distant. Do not tempt fate.
Happy holidays. Here is to a much better 2021!!
Dr. Marc