Daylight Saving Time-March 8
Most of the United States changed to Daylight Saving Time on Sunday March 8 2020. However, since then, not much else has been the same due to the pandemic caused by the novel Coronavirus that began in China at the end of 2019.
Your body has probably adjusted to the time change by now but WebMD offers these tips to make the change easier.
St. Patrick’s Day-March 17
Of course you know that March 17 is St. Patrick’s Day. Cities around the world have cancelled their St. Patrick’s Day parades-Dublin Ireland, New York City New York, Boston Massachusettes, and Chicago Illinois.
Not only is the parade in Chicago cancelled, but also the tradition of dying the Chicago River green. Fortunately, I have this photo from a previous year taken by my son who lives there.
Welcome Spring.
We will welcome the first day of Spring, March 20, in the northern hemisphere, with the occurrence of the vernal equinox. I don’t think the virus can stop that, but may make it less enjoyable. Many families are cancelling or limiting their spring break vacation plans. Even Disney World is closing all of their parks.
This link to The Weather Channel explains what the vernal equinox means.
National Residency Match Day
March 20 is also Match Day. No, not the kind of match you light fires with.
It’s the day graduating medical students find out what residency program they will join through the National Resident Matching Program , which “matches” them with available positions in residencies all over the United States.
Why should you care? This matching process determines who will care for our medical needs in the next 30-40 years; our family physicians, internists, pediatricians, general surgeons, obstetricians, dermatologists, psychiatrists, and the multitude of other medical specialties. Most doctors will continue in the same specialty their entire career, although some switch after a few or many years.
For those graduates who match to a residency, especially if it is their top choice, it is a day for celebrating with family and friends, almost like a graduation. Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 outbreak many medical schools are scaling down or even cancelling festivities this year, disappointing after 4 years of long hours of study and hours of tiring clinical work.
Match Days Cancelled, Pared Down Amid Coronavirus Outbreak
Read this previous post about the new doctors who will care for you
National Doctor’s Day
March 30 has been designated National Doctor’s Day in the United States. You may not have heard of a day to honor doctors.
The first Doctors’ Day observance was March 30, 1933, in Winder, Georgia. The idea came from a doctor’s wife, Eudora Brown Almond, and the date was the anniversary of the first use of general anesthetic in surgery.
The Barrow County (Georgia) Medical Society Auxiliary proclaimed the day “Doctors’ Day,” which was celebrated by mailing cards to physicians and their wives and by placing flowers on the graves of deceased doctors.
In 1990, the U.S. Congress established a National Doctors’ Day first celebrated on March 30, 1991.
In 2020 we’ll be thanking doctors for tackling this new and largely unknown disease that just a few weeks ago we knew little about. Since then we’ve learned it’s name, it’s genetics, symptoms, transmission, and complications, and slowly learning what does and does not work, and how to contain and stop it.
RESOURCES FOR understanding COVID-19
CDC-Coronavirus Disease 2019
Tips from your Family Doctor
March Madness- college basketball tournament
Even people who don’t follow basketball regularly, get excited about March Madness-when college football teams vie to be named the National Champion. Sadly, that has also been cancelled this year, along with other amateur and professional sporting events. Even the Summer Olympics is in question.
exploring the HEART of health
I invite you to follow Watercress Words on Facebook where I share links and occasional posts about the current status of COVID-19.
Use these links to share the heart of health wherever you connect.
watercress words by Dr Aletha 
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