Doctors’ visits in the time of COVID-19 ….

Visiting the doctor or dentist seldom has been what you’d call an enjoyable experience even if you like your provider, which hopefully you do or else you should find another one. I’m fortunate to like my doctor and dentist, the former whom I’ve had for about 35 years. 
But in the last several years, far too many doctors’ and dentists’ offices started treating their senior patients like we’re all one step away from being “dementiaed-out” when it comes to receiving numerous “friendly reminders” about our appointments. 
We used to get a text, email and at least one phone call reminding us about the appointment, which was redundant, but now – in this depressing and horrid age of COVID-19 --- patients are receiving multiple notifications on different platforms followed by questionnaires asking us whether and when we left our house – not quite, but practically. That practice isn't likely to go away when and if the pandemic ever ends, since the medical community prides itself on collecting voracious amounts of data from its patients in a Big Brother sort of way, and won't stop doing that.
But now, the reminders have gotten way out of hand.
In the past week and a half, for example, I had two dentist appointments and one annual physical, and I received multiple texts, emails and phone calls to both my land and cell lines, and that was in addition to the call-back to or from the office to do my screening to make sure I was safe to enter.
The only exception to that overkill has been when I go to my acupuncture and massage appointments. That office trusts its patients to remember their appointments and merely takes their patients’ temperatures and has them fill out a brief questionnaire when they arrive. Outside of getting a call to say the appointment had been canceled when the pandemic began, the office typically doesn’t send out reminders or call its patients in advance.
The good news is that the medical treatments I’ve received have been done courteously, and my doctor in fact spent the first 15-20 minutes of my physical exam just talking to me like a human being, given the stress and nerves that are affecting most of us during this tumultuous and chaotic year that has stolen most of our everyday routines and activities --- and killed close to 230,000 in the United States alone. 
But that doesn’t excuse getting all of the reminders about the appointments. Maybe it’s a sign of the times, but it’s rather annoying to be treated like a 2-year-old when going to a doctor’s or dentist’s office.
Don’t get me wrong: After having most medical offices closed from March until May or later except for emergencies, it’s a relief that they’re again accepting patients for routine exams and treatments. 
But I just wish those medical offices could find it in their hearts to treat people with a tad more empathy, especially since our government leaders have not only failed us big time, but have shown no empathy for what we – the working- and middle-class citizens of this country --- have been experiencing for most of 2020 with the nation under siege from COVID-19.
And, with NO end in sight to the pandemic – and with beloved events and traveling already getting pushed back or canceled in 2021 – the Boston Marathon made it seem like a return to “normal” will be light years away by postponing its April 19^th 26.2-miler for the second year in a row until at least next fall – and there’s no guarantee that even a marathon reduced in scope will be able to be held before 2022. 
The bottom line: We’re feeling isolated, upset and depressed enough without being bombarded with messages every time we have to go to a doctor’s or dentist’s office.