To do this week: It’s time to make some plans
To do this week: Deal with your health anxiety and schedule your checkups, and how to plan a summer vacation with kids this year.
On the to-do list this week: Get out your planner. There are some things to schedule. First up, we want to talk about those doctor checkups you may have missed. If you’re scared to go back, we’re with you. But we have a few tips to help conquer your health fears. And, so, about that summer vacation. Sure you may be vaccinated, but what if you’ve got kids? We’ve got answers.
And remember: We’ve collected our best Philly tips all in one place here.
Stay healthy, stay safe, and, as much as possible, it’s still a good idea to stay home.
Know this
🧑⚖️ What happens if I get called for jury duty right now? by Nick Vadala
🚴♀️ Where can I buy a bike in Philly? by Elizabeth Wellington
⚖️ Why does Pennsylvania elect judges? by Andrew Seidman
🔫 How can you get rid of an unwanted gun? by Nick Vadala
» Ask us a question through Curious Philly: Inquirer.com/askus
Do this
Here is one highlight from our weekly events calendar:
🌸 Subaru Cherry Blossom Festival (Seasonal event / virtual / multi-day / kid-friendly) The cherry blossoms in Fairmount Park are just about at peak bloom, and the annual cherry blossom fest is virtual. Celebrate with a 10K and 5K at-home run, complete with a streamable Japanese pop playlist, and a Saturday morning virtual ohanami, an online cherry blossom celebration streamed from Shofuso. (Virtual ohanami, April 10, 10 a.m., Virtual Run, April 10-18, japanphilly.org, add to calendar)
🔎 Find more of this week’s events, and we even have a kid-friendly events calendar, too.
How to go back to the doctor now
Are you scared of the doctor’s now? Yeah, that’s totally normal. After a year of pandemic precautions, a lot of us are a year behind on our checkups, and there’s a lot of anxiety about going back. Elizabeth Wellington felt it: “With all of my white-coat anxiety, you can imagine the sense of relief I felt last year when wellness checkups were halted as the medical community worked to get COVID-19 under control. I couldn’t go the doctor. It wasn’t my fault. The mammogram could wait. The pap smear could wait even longer.”
Here are a few tips to help you feel better about your doctor’s visit:
Sing it with us: You will actually feel better for taking this step forward. Fear of the unknown is actually worse than dealing with the reality.
Use telemedicine to shorten your actual in-person doctor’s visit. Schedule an appointment in advance, and you can discuss your concerns, and your doctor can order tests in advance.
Bring a friend, even just for the trip there. They can provide emotional support — like doing breathing exercises with you in the car — and serve as a second set of ears, if your doctor will let them come with you.
» READ MORE: Worried about going back to the doctor for a checkup? The anxiety is real. Here’s how to stay calm.
Summer vacation?
The CDC says you can safely travel in the U.S. once you’re vaccinated. Cool. But what if you have kids in tow? After all, they won’t be able to get the vaccine anytime soon. What does that mean for summer vacation, which, we can all agree, we all need right now? Grace Dickinson dug into it. Experts say it may be better to wait, but if you do plan to travel, there are ways to make it safer, including driving, if that’s an option.
If you must travel by plane:
Book a direct flight.
Do your best to avoid crowded areas inside the airport.
Look into infection rates at your destination. If they’re on the rise, your risk also increases.
Consider your return, too. If your kid’s going to school in person and it’s not feasible to quarantine them at home for a week, consider waiting.
A lot more advice on navigating travel, and how to make sense of the rules and the risks, in Grace’s full piece.
» READ MORE: Your pandemic guide to traveling with unvaccinated kids right now
Life advice
From Elizabeth Wellington’s story about how we all normalize hate, and how we can stop doing it:
“Hate doesn’t explode into violence overnight. It’s planted into our souls and watered with a lifetime of denial, avoidance, and guilt until it looms so large it unintentionally guides our actions. In this way hate is like a virus that is just as indiscriminate and as deadly as COVID-19. And, like the novel coronavirus, it’s spread through silent carriers. ‘It’s the small things that we think and do every day that are destructive and get us to this place,’ says Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, California State University.”
» READ MORE: Race-based hate is out there, but it’s inside of us, too. Here is how to disrupt the pattern.