Covid-19 Response Update

Mar 24, 2020 | Fox Valley Pulmonary News

Covid-19 Response Update

To our valued patients:

Fox Valley Pulmonary Medicine has made some changes in our way of caring for your Respiratory and Sleep needs during this Covid-19 outbreak. We appreciate your patience with these changes and please know that we value your health and the health of our communities. While not comprehensive, these are a few of the changes you may experience:

Routine, non-essential, in-person visits will be rescheduled 2 to 3 months later to avoid unnecessary Covid-19 transmission risks.

Essential in-person visits will continue but only at our Encircle Health campus or outreach clinics that remain open. Standard infection screening at the entrances are mandatory

Tele-visits, while not allowed before this outbreak, are now allowed by certain insurance companies including Medicare and Medicaid. These visits are new but hope to be up and running by late March. Details to follow. Please note that Tele-visits are only temporary during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Office phone calls are still being performed but please be patient since the volumes are higher given the circumstances.

Please be aware that we are not able to perform Covid-19 testing. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has sent out guidelines on who should be tested and how. Primary Care offices and Urgent Care Centers take the lead on this. They should be contacted first if any of the following are present:

Experienced fever, cough, sore throat, muscle or body aches, headaches, fatigue (tiredness) or shortness of breath within the past 48 hours.
Exposed to anyone exhibiting any of these symptoms within the past 48 hours.
Had contact with someone known to have coronavirus or actively being tested for coronavirus within the last 14 days.

We continue to adjust to this pandemic as you all do. Your health remains our top priority and hope these disruptions are temporary. Thank you for your support.

Understanding Sleep

Jun 6, 2017 | Fox Valley Pulmonary News

Sleep is an important part of your daily routine—you spend about one-third of your time doing it.  Quality sleep – and getting enough of it at the right times — is as essential to survival as food and water.  Without sleep you can’t form or maintain the pathways in your brain that let you learn and create new memories, and it’s harder to concentrate and respond quickly.

Sleep is important to a number of brain functions, including how nerve cells (neurons) communicate with each other.  In fact, your brain and body stay remarkably active while you sleep.  Recent findings suggest that sleep plays a housekeeping role that removes toxins in your brain that build up while you are awake.

Everyone needs sleep, but its biological purpose remains a mystery.  Sleep affects almost every type of tissue and system in the body – from the brain, heart, and lungs to metabolism, immune function, mood, and disease resistance.  Research shows that a chronic lack of sleep, or getting poor quality sleep, increases the risk of disorders including high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, depression, and obesity.

Sleep is a complex and dynamic process that affects how you function in ways scientists are now beginning to understand.  This booklet describes how your need for sleep is regulated and what happens in the brain during sleep.