Good evening lovely patients.

– Logistics
– Information
– Resources
– Advice (and general ridiculous musings by myself to you)

LOGISTICS

• Office open tomorrow from 8am.
• Staff will arrive 8:30 so phone calls after 9 please.
• Still only partners, no kids, no others (unless previously arranged for very specific reasons. *No Jessica, you can’t bring Meghan Markle. I don’t care how much she wants to spread love and improve our mental health).
• Visits will be brief. Have your questions ready. Register at the desk on the way out for a call later if you need one.
• Please bring your OWN PEN to sign documents. You cannot use mine and it is too for me to clean a pen after every use.
• If you have purchased a BP machine (as I have previously requested by SMS – yay for you if you have) then take BP in the morning before you leave home and write it down so you are ready to tell me the result. I may take your BP myself anyway but please get into the habit).
• If you have purchased Uristix, have a go at peeing on the stick and interpreting the result. DO NOT STRESS if you have not bought the BP machine or Uristix (some people are reporting they have been unable to buy them). I will talk to you about it. I am hoping that patients may be able to on-sell a BP machine to another patient of mine down the track to recoup some of their outlay.
• If you are scheduled for a Glucose Tolerance Test (GTT) in the next couple of weeks, I suggest you start at 9am as indicated in my information sheet. Park in the car park behind St Vincents Private. In between blood tests at 1 and 2 hours go back and wait in your car. (Tell path you are doing this or just lie to them and come directly up to me. Sorry, not ‘lie’, that would be bad. Just be ‘vague’.) Regardless of your ‘true’ appointment time, come up after one of the blood tests and I will see you next. As the visits are brief these days anyway (it’s killing me…can’t have a laugh…can’t tell an anecdote…I am becoming addicted to social media, good grief!) you should not have to wait long.

INFORMATION

The most important information regarding pregnant women and C19 (volde-virus) is contained within the RANZCOG (our obstetric college) statement:

https://ranzcog.edu.au/statements-guidelines/covid-19-statement

“However, at this time, pregnant women do not appear to be more severely unwell if they develop COVID-19 infection than the general population.

For women who are trying to conceive, or who are in early pregnancy, there is no evidence to suggest an increased risk of miscarriage with COVID-19.

Furthermore, there is also no evidence that the virus can pass to your developing baby while you are pregnant (this is called vertical transmission) or that the virus will cause abnormalities in your baby.

Some babies born to women with symptoms of COVID-19 in China have been born prematurely. It is unclear whether coronavirus was the causative factor, or the doctors made the decision for the baby to be born early because the woman was unwell. Newborn babies and infants do not appear to be at increased risk of complications from the infection.”

RESOURCES

For other resources, here is a list of other links. Many info sites are repetitive. As you are my patients, you are obviously more intelligent, so you don’t need the repetition. (If you are seeing another doctor and are ‘cheating’ by reading I can simplify it or recommend lots of repetition to help get it into your head). I have cherry-picked the most helpful pages (in my opinion).

Our RANZCOG college statement:
https://ranzcog.edu.au/statements-guidelines/covid-19-statement

Statement from the British (Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists) O&G website (they have been very up to date and informative):
https://www.rcog.org.uk/en/guidelines-research-services/guidelines/coronavirus-pregnancy/covid-19-virus-infection-and-pregnancy/

If you are struggling with the anxiety regarding volde-virus then read this:
https://headtohealth.gov.au/covid-19-support

This information for patients is issued by an excellent (especially for the Yanks… ;-)) American medical app:
https://www.uptodate.com/contents/coronavirus-disease-2019-covid-19-the-basics/print?topicRef=126981&source=see_link

General LOCAL information:

National:

https://www.australia.gov.au

https://www.health.gov.au

https://www.health.gov.au/news/health-alerts/novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov-health-alert?utm_source=health.gov.au&utm_medium=redirect&utm_campaign=digital_transformation&utm_content=health-topics/novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov

Victorian:

https://www.dhhs.vic.gov.au/coronavirus

WHO Q&As on coronavirus (I have an issue with WHO so I left it until last but this is kind-of good).
https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/q-a-coronaviruses

Australian National Coronavirus Helpline

Call this line if you are seeking information on coronavirus (COVID-19). The line operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

1800 020 080

*Interestingly, the CDC has a Coronavirus Self-checker page. I started doing it. See the results in the photo below.

ADVICE

Hang in there people.

I am still working on setting up Instagram (Katie Babs……)

And now I have heard about Facebook live I might do that. (Until I do please get hold of a soft filter for your computer so I look ridiculously young and fresh on video).

RIDICULOUS MUSINGS

The following information is rated MA. It contains horror and adult themes….

*and it is a joke, don’t actually try this at home (that is for the other doctors’ patients. My patients will get it.)

Just in case we go into full lockdown and you are too scared to venture outside your home, I have taken a photo of necessary items to perform home births. I can even Zoom conference you to provide guidance. If you cannot work out what the items are or what they are for, then just add a comment. Happy to take you through it later. Maybe that can be your activity for the day while you are in lockdown…pick the birth kit items.