Field Notes #39: Routine check-ups are being delayed ⏰ 📅 🩺
Plus, news about upcoming Odyssey of the Body events
Hello, friends! I’m working on a couple of projects for 2023 to help us turn the cold, dark season of winter into a joyful time.
Winter Camp, an online gathering from mid-February to the first day of Spring. Registration opens in early January, but you can get on the Winter Camp Wait List to hear about discounts and special gifts. I’m really excited about this! I hope you can join.
Best Winter Ever Workshop, two hours that will help you plan the season ahead. We’ll help our mind expand out of its winter runts to think of cozy, enthralling ways to spend the time. We’ll do a visioning exercise and consider the three parts of anchoring a different season. This isn’t a passive webinar — it’s designed to be a true gathering of people, energy-fueling, with lots of connection and inspiration from others. You’ll leave with a concrete, inspiring plan for getting through the end of winter. The first Best Winter Ever Workshop will be held sometime Dec. 17-19. I’m trying to figure out the best time, so if you are interested, please select all the times that work for you in this form. Thank you!
1 health insight
Primary care visits are down 10% in America since the pandemic, writes Dr. Sanjula Jain, in an opinion piece in Stat News titled “Deferral of primary care signals a troubled future for Americans’ health.”
She worries about the routine checkups deferred, and what that might mean for illnesses caught later than they would have been. She writes:
Among the emerging signals are excess mortality (more people dying than expected) and the increased severity of certain diseases, particularly among people aged 25 to 44 years. Forecasts are already revealing growth in demand for cardiovascular care for people in this age range, which has also seen a disproportionate increase in the number of deaths since the summer of 2021.
Our household hasn’t been immune to this delay. One of us accidentally skipped a well-child checkup last year, because well, it was 2021 and just a hard year. I haven’t gotten my regular colonoscopy yet, and I know I really really need to schedule it this winter. When something has a tinge of unpleasantness to it already, external conditions like a pandemic can mean it just slides off the to-do list altogether.
So this is a gentle reminder to you and to me: It’s time to schedule those routine appointments:
Is it time for your annual physical or primary care check-up?
Is it time for a colonoscopy?
Is is time for a mammogram?
Is it time for a annual skin check?
Is it time for a dental cleaning?
You know your own list of needed appointments. Now’s the time to schedule. Many doctors offices are booked out months, so if you call today, it may be February before you get an appointment. So just call. Make the call. You can do it!
Your Future Self will thank you.
2 quotes
“Process saves us from the poverty of our intentions.” — Elizabeth King
“How common is trauma during a pandemic? On average, 22.6% of people experience symptoms of PTSD after any pandemic. Health care workers are the most affected at 27% percent, followed by infected individuals at 24%, and the general public at 19%. This is according to a 2021 meta-analysis that looked at the results of eighty-eight different studies of PTSD after pandemics in the twenty-first century, including SARS, Ebola, Zika, MERS-CoV, and COVID-19. Even if we cut these percentages in half … that leaves nearly one billion people on earth experiencing post-pandemic trauma. And if 50-60% of them go onto experience some kind of post-traumatic growth, as studies suggest, that’s more than half a billion people who are actively rethinking their core beliefs, opening up to new possibilities, and looking for a bigger mission to serve.” — Dr. Jane McGonigal in Imaginable
3 links
In the hunt for a male contraceptive, scientists look to stop sperm in their tracks (NPR)
Science has a nasty Photoshopping problem (gift link; The New York Times) by Dr.Elisabeth Bik
Pediatricians and parents on the brink: This is their March 2020 (Stat News)
I hope you can call and make your routine health appointments today, and I hope you have a wonderful December weekend ahead.
To our journeys,
Brianne