In MD, the MVA (aka DMV in other states) is reopening today but by appointment only, and only at some locations, whcih appears to be, one per county which doesn’t seem to make much sense. Also, it appears that they are not opening up the online appointment scheduling but rather contacting first those with previously scheduled appointments that had been canceled. So it sounds like it will be a long while for anyone who needs an actual appointment to get one. I feel bad for all those teen drivers; thank God my son got his license in January before all this!
My daughter just turned 21 and her license expires in a month. Because she was underage when she got her license, she has the portrait style. Normally when one’s license is expiring, the MVA sends a renewal notice in the mail. Hers would have come in May but she never got one since the MVA was closed. As a result, we’ve had no idea whether her renewal required an in-person visit so she could obtain a normal horizontal license or if she was eligible to renew online. After a bit of research, I finally found a link for her to try and apply for online renewal which she did yesterday. We were starting to get concerned b/c she is living out of state in her college city (requiring a flight home) and is about to buy a car so wanted to make sure she had a valid license. Hopefully her online renewal will be quickly processed so I can mail it to her. Though her license technically won’t expire until 30 days after the MD SOE is lifted, she’d feel more secure living in another state with a license that doesn’t physically appear expired, esp since it is a U21 license.
@garland I’ve been to the Asian Food Market in Marlboro a few times in the last couple of months. Pre CV I liked to walk up and down every aisle looking for something new but I’ve tried to curb the tendency to make food shopping an outing. I do always spend more than I intended, usually on interesting and unusual produce.
And yes, it’s good that doctors now know more and are learning more at a relatively rapid pace. If only society could keep up with the current info.
Unfortunately, I took weight off too quickly right after radiation when I decided to use the “pro” side effect of never getting hungry. Not much food in = quick weight loss.
Little did I know (or anyone else know at the time) that it would forever decrease my metabolism so now even eating small amounts compared to normal people, I can put on weight. The TV show, The Biggest Loser, ended up showing us all just how bad that is.
I can usually maintain myself at home, but when I travel, esp to relatives where the “chore” and exercise load is not up to normal at my home, the weight comes on at about 3/4ths to 1lb per day. I only wish it would come back off as easily. I still need to lose 20lbs I gained taking care of my mom in her last days - and that was with eating very little (esp since she ate very little). I just wasn’t as active as I am at home and my metabolism had been changed for the worse so my body needed less just to maintain what it had.
Now I probably have the added issue that my thyroid is going. I was “promised” it would from radiation, but it hadn’t and I thought I missed it. With recent numbers and possible side effects besides easy weight gain, it’s probably getting there. More numbers are supposed to come in July.
I envy those who can eat normal amounts and not put on weight. At least my bp is in the normal range.
I expect many who haven’t been able to get out and exercise with Covid are putting on lbs even if they want to take them off or remain where they’re at.
I’m sitting outside waiting for H’s colonoscopy. I like this change. I’d rather sit in my car vs a room full of people virus or no. I did have to go in to use the bathroom. It’s an hour drive here and an hour wait before the procedure. But it felt clean and fine and I wore my mask, of course.
We are a week into the government order to wear masks. Compliance is definitely up, but certainly not 100%. I would estimate 65-75% wear masks now.
We had our first free drive-up and test anyone center Friday and Saturday. They had hoped for 2000 people to show. They got about half that. But, our numbers only edged up 3 cases Sunday and they said that included Friday’s tests. I thought that sounded good, but they didn’t specify if they had processed all of the tests. Time will tell
Yes, I’m male, 50, relatively healthy, about 20 extra pounds.
Thank you for the informative post. I probably sounded ruder than I really wanted to. My metabolism certainly has changed in the last 10 years so I understand that.
As far as other issues besides obesity, I was going off of the reporting that healthy people were dying but that they may have been obese. Perhaps there were/are other underlying issues. I’m sure there are things not being reported.
I can’t take off weight like I used to. I have been able to lose some recently with mostly adding exercise and just eating more sensibly. I’m not as strict as I could be although I think I should either step up my exercise game or get more serious and try to shave some more off.
I do feel better physically and mentally. Either way it’s been a positive change.
Anyway, thanks again for the education and for not completely slamming me for my thoughts.
@oldfort I’m with you 100%. I’ve started stocking up already. I wasn’t an “early adopter” hoarder, but I plan to be very opportunistic over the next two months. I plan to have a large inventory of all the necessities by August so I can send my son back to school with everything necessary to reach Thanksgiving.
Doctors ought to offer evidence-based advice and evidence-based treatments.
Is there any evidence, any at all, to suggest that a doctor telling a patient they’re obese and should lose weight is a way to make the patient lose weight and keep it off? Does this work, ever?
I suggest that it doesn’t work and is counterproductive. People who are fat know they are fat, most of them want to lose weight, and most of them have tried and failed to lose&keep off their weight. Hearing a doctor tell them they are fatty fat fats (and let’s be honest, that’s what they’ll hear) is not going to help. It’s not going to work, it’ll make patients turn on their doctors, and doctors should stop doing it unless they have a way that works (for example, bariatric surgery, for those for whom it is indicated).
If a doctor has a patient in front of him/her with an obvious health issue (obesity) the doctor absolutely should mention it. If obesity and the attendant issues that can come with it make one higher risk for COVID complications, it should be stressed a LOT, in my opinion. After that, it’s up to the individual. No, it isn’t easy to lose the weight, but it can be done, and if you want to stay alive, maybe you try harder to make it happen.
“OK. Mr. Jones, you’re a guy so you’re at higher risk of covid.”
Should a doctor say that? I don’t think so. What would be the point? Is the person going to stop being a guy?
“OK. Mr. Jones, you’re a fatty fat fatty, so you’re at higher risk of covid,” has approximately the same chance of causing the patient to get rid of the risk factor–zero–and is therefore equally to be avoided.
In some imaginary world, doctors telling patients they’re fat makes the patients lose weight and keep it off. In the real world, it doesn’t. Doctors should not antagonize patients for no productive reason.
Let’s hear from people who are obese. Does a doctor telling you you’re fat work? Or does it just make you get mad? Does it sound like the doctor is concerned about your health, or does it sound like condescension and virtue-signalling?
What you say has validity for what your friend or co-worker should not say, but we are talking about a medical professional! Do you want your doctor to not tell you about some other health issue you might have? So what if it is hard to hear! Hate to tell you, but a lot of people are in serious denial about their own weight. “Oh, looks like I’ve put on a few…” when they are seriously obese.
It has been established that losing weight is not just a matter of will power and people who are overweight and therefore at greater risk of dying if they are infected with Covid-19 do not deserve to die.
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No one deserve to die. But your first point is incorrect.
If calories consumed is more than calories burned = weight gain. If calories consumed < calories burned = weight loss. It is just that simple – and hard.
Absolutely metabolism and age play key roles, as does income (fresh fruit and veggies can be expensive and hard to find in inner cities) but slow metabolism itself does not generate weight gain without eating the calories first.
Absolutely a doc should remind him: ‘Mr. Jones, as you have probably heard on the news, as a guy you are at higher risk of dying from COVID, so you need to make sure that you always wear a mask when you can’t social distance, wash your hands…Stay safe and healthy and we’ll see you next year.’
I live in a regional medical community serving several counties. I am a healthcare professional within this community. That doesn’t mean that I know anymore about this than anyone else but it does mean I know what’s happening in this community.
We have nearly 1500 beds and we currently have 2 (yes that’s correct, single digit 2 ) Covid-19 patients in the hospital. In our county alone that’s .00001 % of our counties population. Add in the additional counties we serve and it’s much less.
I don’t personally know anyone who has contracted Covid 19 and I know a lot of frontline workers. I do know many healthcare professionals who have been furloughed or outright laid off. My close friend has told me she won’t be called back until the hospital can break even and they can’t break even as long as these Covid restrictions are in place.
I said I don’t know anyone who personally has contracted Covid but I have three family members who I consider victims of Covid-19:
My husband has cancer. In March his oncology appointment was cancelled and postponed for 2 months. He was finally able to talk to his oncolologist last week but only via telehealth. We love our oncologist but his signal kept bouncing in and out. Not ideal.
My daughter is having medical issues, although not deemed essential. Watching her in significant pain several times a day is quite essential to her. Finally able to get appointment 2 weeks ago. She has a procedure next week and will be having her Covid test 72 hours prior. Her instructions state she needs someone with her when she comes out of anesthesia, standard of care prior to Covid but now I’m told I have to drop her at the front door and can’t be with her.
My mother had a heart attack a few weeks ago. She wears a life alert system and she told us “I was real close to pushing the button but I didn’t want to go the ER because of Covid”. When we finally convinced her 2 weeks later that she needs to get to a Dr because she is struggling to breathe, they confirmed after several tests that she has significant heart damage. I suppose we are lucky she didn’t die. I have more siblings than would have been allowed at a funeral based on some arbitrary number someone came up with.
“Oh, sorry sibling 1 and 2, you can’t come to moms funeral because our governor said that’s too many people”. Or “Hey, how about we draw straws to decide who gets to go to moms funeral”
All the talks about stocking up gives me anxiety…I am barely recover from the the nightmare of hunting for TP. How many months of TP supply would you think is sufficient to stock up?
Also, does anyone know what “phase” is NJ in at the moment? I am so confused.
So doctors shouldn’t tell their patients that something is harmful to their health because the patients don’t want to hear it? That’s just bizarre, imo. Dr’s tell their patients who smoke they should quit - which, like losing weight, can be a difficult thing to do. They tell them their diet needs to change because of high blood pressure or high cholesterol.
I don’t go to my doctors so I can only hear everything is dandy.
No matter how much the doctor loves to virtue signal about weight, it doesn’t work. Doctors should not harangue patients about their weight, because it doesn’t work. It never works. There’s no point antagonizing patients, if it achieves no goal that a doctor wants to achieve.
“It’s a little secret few moms discuss: After giving birth vaginally, new mothers are instructed to use a perineal irrigation bottle to clean themselves off after using the bathroom. While some of Teigen’s followers had no idea what she was talking about, the responses to Teigen’s tweet from moms show just how much women rely on it post-childbirth. “Best thing ever after giving birth,” one wrote. “That thing is a blessing,” another said.”
It does sound like, if there are strict Covid restrictions in your community, they may be too harsh for the status quo. Very hard IMO to justify laying off medical staff if there are 2 hospitalized Covid patients and the infection rate is stable. Is there any pushback from the local/medical community to reinstate regular medical services?