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Tatiana Prowell, MD

@tmprowell

30 Dec

Please don't panic about what this tweet means. I say this as a doctor in a #pandemic, as well as a daughter who lost a parent this year: please make sure your will is current & your loved ones know where it is & that your wishes on end-of-life care are known to your family.

It is an enormous & avoidable source of stress when people become seriously ill or die without them. You can create a simple will online, often for free (consumerreports.org/estate-plannin…).

If you don't have an advanced directive of some kind, you really should. Even if you are young & healthy. Even if there were no #pandemic. It is a great relief to families not to have to guess whether someone wants to be put on life support, etc. aarp.org/caregiving/fin…

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Tatiana Prowell, MD

@tmprowell

30 Dec

Life in the US in Jan-Feb 2022 is going to be almost unrecognizable to most Americans. Even the people who have managed to pretend #COVID19 wasn’t happening are about to get a major wakeup call. When we call 911 & no one comes, when we literally cannot enter the ER for crowds…

When we go to grocery stores & find shelves empty, to pharmacies & find them closed because every single employee is out sick themselves or tending to a loved one. Please get what you need to look after your household. Fill prescriptions, get over the counter meds & staples…

As much as I hate it (and I really do, I’m a mom of 3 kids who had virtual school from Mar ‘20 til Sept ‘21), the idea that schools will manage to stay open in any meaningful way in Jan is a joke. Staffing issues alone will close them.

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Tatiana Prowell, MD

@tmprowell

28 Dec

🧵Twitter is getting pretty hot tonight. Lots of people stressed about #Omicron, & it's manifesting in fights with one another & a desire to kill the #MedTwitter messengers. So I want to share something I started doing years ago, in traffic. Maybe it'll help you. I don't know.

2/X: One day I was driving to work, & a woman cut me off in her car. Really cut me off. Weaving lane to lane, wildly between cars, causing me to swerve & almost causing a multi-vehicle accident. I'd just had my car totaled by someone who ran a red a few mos before, & I was livid.

3/X: I found myself asking what in the hell could possibly be such an emergency that she needed to drive like that. And then suddenly, I thought: maybe her childcare provider was late & she's at risk of being fired if she's late...or maybe her baby vomited on her as she left...

Read 10 tweets

Tatiana Prowell, MD

@tmprowell

28 Dec

It's one thing what people tweet, it's another thing what they do. Our household (me a physician, my infectious diseases physician husband, & 3 kids, all #vaccinated, all elig #boosted) are back to:

👉Grocery delivery
👉Drive-thru pharmacy
👉Take-out food only
👉No airplanes

P.S. To those who say this disregards the safety of grocery store workers, pharmacy workers, restaurant workers, that is false. ALL OF THOSE WORKERS are safer if their workplace contacts are limited to a small # of core staff & not open to the general public. This benefits all.

And for context, which is important since we all come into this #pandemic with diff situations & risk tolerance, 3 wks ago:

👉 We got all groceries/prescriptions in store (😷)
👉 Husband ✈️ (N95 😷) for work
👉 Had fam Xmas trip & late Jan ✈️ friend trip planned (all cancelled)

Read 4 tweets

Tatiana Prowell, MD

@tmprowell

28 Dec

Being blunt: No one is coming to save you. To save any of us. Timely tests are all but impossible to get.I’m personally driving home rapid tests I bought online wks ago to people. The effective therapeutics we now have are in VERY short supply. #Omicron

What we do have, abundantly, thank God, is #COVID19 #vaccines, #boosters, & #masks. That is the major difference between now & March 2020 for most of you at risk of #Omicron. If you do not go #GetVaccinated & #GetBoosted the minute you’re eligible, & #WearAMask…

You’re are gambling with your life WHEN (not if) #Omicron finds you, or you have any other need to access medical care. In the absence of #leadership, we are it. You are it. Do the right things. #StayHome if you can. This is like a 🚀. Many people are going to get sick QUICKLY.

Read 5 tweets

Tatiana Prowell, MD

@tmprowell

27 Dec

From direct comms to #Maryland physicians:

🆘 State just set record for new daily cases
🆘 Hospitalizations ⬆️ >180% in month since #Omicron identified by WHO as a #covidvariant of concern
🆘 8.8% of unvaccinated #Maryland adults account for >75% of #COVID19 hospitalizations

2/4 Quit scrolling & listen to me. This is a big f-ing deal. If you are indoors in public without a high-quality mask, #Omicron will find you. If you are not #vaccinated, you are at high-risk to land in an overcrowded, understaffed hospital. Most Americans have no experience…

3/4 With what it means to be in a hospital where conditions are frankly unsafe, which is where we now are. I have worked in countries where there aren’t enough hospital beds & pts are on floors, where 1 dr is overseeing care of WAY too many patients. I have been that dr.

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