I got a phone call from the ophthalmologist in Santa Fé. I suspect everyone whose job involves contact with people is feeling the effects of isolation. He talked more than I would have expected.
He first wanted to assure me it was safe to see him. He said everyone who came in the office had to be wearing a mask and had their temperature taken. Then, they had to wash their hands.
He also told me he has a UV/ozone system installed to clean the office that runs in the night. I’m not sure how effective that is—some reports on the internet indicated the procedure was used in laboratory conditions, but others indicated there were a great many scam companies. Whether or not it works, it was a signal he cared about his practice and that practice included the sort of upscale or New Age people who would be aware of such cleaning procedures.
Next, he told me he had just read an article that indicated there’s no evidence yet that the coronavirus has penetrated any of the cells in the eye. That told me he’s one of those doctors who seriously tries to keep up with the literature.
I told him I had been seeing someone in Española, but that Eye Associates had closed the office. I said I was looking for a new doctor because I didn’t fancy driving down from Los Alamos with dilated eyes.
He knew my doctor. I rather gather Angela Bratton is well known, and highly respected. He said he had seen her at various professional meetings. He also understood why I wouldn’t want to make the drive down the hill after seeing her.
He told me Eye Associates had had to shut down its Santa Fé office completely. There was no way it could enforce social distancing, and the lobby seating area was a real problem.
I’d been in it once, and knew it was carpeted with upholstered chairs. The place in Española had a vinyl tile floor and aluminum chairs with plastic seats.
Environment and sanitation are everything. I’ve gotten so I judge every store and office I enter by how easy it would be to keep it clean.
My greatest anxiety about seeing an eye doctor was all those machines they use. There’s the one where you place your chin in a particular location, and then press your forehead against a bar. That puts your face in the exact position of the last person there. If he or she were infected, it is likely you would be exposed to surviving droplets containing the coronavirus.
The other contraption is the one used to do the refraction. I wondered how one ever keep all those lenses clean. And then, there’s all those mechanical parts that hold them together. Again, it helps that things are sanitized at night, but the machine is only as safe as the people who were before me on that day.
I got the impression he might have been open, at least partially, during the lockdown. He mentioned some of his patients were beset by intense fears of the virus.
Someone recently died in his family (not from coronavirus), and I deduced that may be one reason the office is closed for a couple weeks.
The person had been in military and the cremated remains would be interred at the National Cemetery. Of course, there currently are no military funerals with Taps.
In addition, he said he was trying to get a mass said. Again, nothing could be public, rituals still matter.
I suspect every person with a private business is hurting. I have an appointment just a few days after he reopens in June.
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