Bunions hurt? Bunion surgery cancelled?
The COVID-19 pandemic might bring relief to some as they are no longer required to stand, or be on their feet for 8-12 hours per day working. For others, their anticipated bunion surgery has been cancelled by the medical facility or by the bunion patient themselves, as their health insurance coverage evaporated with their job.
Someone in the former category, with an abundance of time and adequate health insurance might be utilizing their newly wide open schedule to seek relief from bunion pain through their podiatrist or orthopedic surgeon. For those eager to take control of their health and capitalize on the plethora of available appointments at your doctors office, this is what you should be prepared for at your first appointment. It’s worth stating that each office may take different precautions but here are some that are now commonplace at medical facilities.
Bunion Patient Only
Unless medically necessary (and even at that, we urge you to call ahead for approval), only the bunion patient is allowed. No spouses, parents, children, or caretaker. Less is more these days.
Call Ahead
And we don’t mean, to schedule an appointment. Often doctor’s offices will request that you call from the parking lot when you arrive for your appointment. This helps them accomplish a few things;
- Minimize the number of people in the waiting room. This might also be accomplished by having patients wait outside (if the office isn’t inside a larger facility),
- Allows them to adequately disinfect between bunion patients without exposing them to a cloud of Lysol,
- Gives them time to shuffle other patients from room to room as needed, without unnecessary contact with others,
- Provides them time to get organized to make your appointment (and those before you) as efficient as possible. All good so far right?
Stay in the Car
Some medical assistants or receptionists will actually come out to your car to take your temperature. Others might do this upon entry into the building.
Sit in Silence
Shuttling patients into rooms to prevent any spread of COVID might mean you are sitting in the exam room instead of the waiting room.
UV Me
Some physicians are exploring UVC options to effectively sanitize shared materials or instruments. This might be in the form of a wand, portal or box like ViriShield’s UVC Conveyor, recently released by the company by experts in the lighting industry.
Sit. Stay.
Some physicians prefer you to stay in your exam room and allow the receptionist to bring your your checkout paperwork, take payment, and bring you your receipt. (Hope they don’t have bunions because they seem to be doing a lot more walking than pre-2020.)
Much as changed since March. Hopefully for our fellow bunion patients, they can now find or get relief for their bunion pain. Did we mention we also highly recommend Bunion and BunionETTE Booties? 😉