March 28, 2024

News from the Town Nurse

Posted

Hello all,

Welcome to February! The month most commonly associated with reaching our hearts out to our secret, or not so secret, love! In this spirit, I wanted to encourage you all to become the keeper of heart health, specifically by becoming CPR certified. The town offers free CPR classes on the third Thursday of each month at the town library. When football player, Damar Hanlin suffered his cardiac arrest during a recent football game, it brought to the forefront of my mind how important CPR and most specifically the AED (Automatic External Defibrillator) use saves so many lives. So, how better to demonstrate our commitment to our loved ones and their heart health than to be certified in the most important resource we have during a cardiac arrest.

Just a brief update on our ‘flu and winter COVID incidence: though we had a significant rise in the incidence in both, along with a significant rise in RSV, particularly in age groups 0 years -4 years, we are now seeing a downward trend in all 3 infections. Just prior to the holidays we decided to closed the Senior Center to large gathering, particularily those involving food and beverages, because of this very concerning trend. This decision was so hard to make as we had just begun to really enjoy our gathering, socializing and comradery. But our commitment to keeping our town residents safe and healthy outweighed our genuine hope to have stayed open. I still urge that you consider getting vaccinated against the ‘flu and COVID. It is, along with handwashing, masking and social distancing the best way to protect yourself, your family and others in your community from getting sick.

But to our immense relief, the decreasing trend of the 3 infections at this time, we; myself and the 2 medical advisor to our town, Dr. Lambe and Dr. Thayer, are meeting again as I write, with the sincerest hope that we can safely re-open the Senior Center to our Monday Luncheon and our Wednesday cake and coffee gathering. Though many of the activities at the Senior Center continued with indoor masking, we are so looking forward to returning to full participation in all activities!!

And, of course, the wellness screening clinics will resume on Mondays and Wednesdays from 12n-1p along with the caregiver support group on Monday 1p-2p and the bereavement support group on Wednesdays from 1p-2p. Check in on the town website for further information. I try to update the nurse’s page daily

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