Shielding chat continues - thread 2

[AuntieSocia1]

Shiny new thread for anyone shielding.

You can vent/moan/cry/chat/lurk whatever you need.

Please do ignore me! The info is from today’s Royal Society of Medicine Covid seminar. They do them twice a week and they are all available to view for free on their YouTube channel. The one with Jenny Harries has quite a bit about shielding.

Link to vaccines seminar:

I got that call too, Egghead68. I told them I'd said no to it the first time but was still being sent it (mine goes in the food bank every week, helps that our place is a food bank drop off but still). I think they will understand your frustration. It is really tough for us all :(

I don't know if some are given differing advice but my friends caller from that line told her in no uncertain terms to not go out, even for a walk as the government have said we could. It's left her feeling even more scared and she's struggling enough with her MH as it is :(

That sounds a lovely celebration for your dh, @Redcherries. Enjoy it! I agree with you about people being so obtuse about this and seemingly refusing to listen, and to keep blaming their situation on the vulnerable and particularly the shielding. It's not as if many of us haven't already had to deal with this kind of thing for much of our lives already... I don't get it at all.

Thank you so much for the lovely welcome.

I received a letter today from my employer saying that they will be placing me on annual leave for a week later this month as “furlough is forecast to continue for a significant proportion of this year before it is appropriate for you to return to workplace”. Obviously I’m still accruing annual leave and they don’t want to have to fit it all in later in the year but it seems someone knows something within my section of social care (I’m a community carer)

Just wish the government would just tell me how long so I can get on with it.

@Madhairday yes - someone is advertising a service round here specifically to collect unwanted shielding food boxes to take them to food banks!

I donated ours to a food bank too. I text the collage watsapp group and someone collected it from my doorstep and took it for me

Have never been rung up, given food boxes so hopefully will not be rang up to ask if don’t want them (as did not tick the box as due to stocking up a few weeks earlier and eventually getting an online delivery and funding out what local butchers were doing we managed. I have some food allergies so a food box would not have been well used!

In fact not had any texts for ages either.

Did my first solo walk this week. Not feeling like doing any for a bit - quite overwhelmed and exhausted!

Outside is definitely over-rated!

I was outdoors today, going to hospital for a second set of xrays

I haven't had any texts in ages either @RhubarbJelly, just the call last week and before that a load of texts and the letters back in march and April. People do seem to get different things!

I too went for my first outside walk today just round the park on my street. It felt very strange and hardly saw a soul but it was nice to be out, just a bit surreal and scary.

Are many of you shielding within the home ie sleeping apart from partner etc? I have been but had enough and weighing up the risk now to get back to semi normal, still shielding but possibly not quite so extremely.

Madhairday surreal and scary are good words to describe my experience. I did get my first 10,000 steps since lockdown - otherwise with sitting to work and home educate 2,500 is normal!

Sleeping apart yes but not from my toddler - well I try to but distancing is not something ds3 can understand! So probably futile. However, toddler has not left the house at all.

The last NHS text I had was on the 11th May! I also hadn’t ticked the box to state I needed food delivered so no phone call to ask if I still needed this.

I did however have a delayed phone call from my GP surgery a few weeks ago asking if I was aware that the shielding date was currently the 30th June! Actually the nurse asked if I had received a shielding letter! Good job I had.

I just don’t know what’s going to happen next. We really need to know don’t we! If I’m ok to get back to work I want it announced, I don’t want to have to make that decision myself!

I received this gov text message today after a central government phone call (first text since April 4). Note I have been registered since 23 March:

Hello - we've received your registration as someone who's extremely vulnerable to coronavirus.

We'll check that you're eligible, then you'll start getting support if you asked for it.

This can take up to a week. Contact your local authority if you need urgent support and cannot rely on friends or neighbours: www.gov.uk/coronavirus-local-help

If you want priority supermarket deliveries and do not already have an account with a supermarket, set one up now. You can set up accounts with more than one supermarket.

If your support needs change, go to www.gov.uk/coronavirus-extremely-vulnerable and answer the questions again.

!!

Please can I have a rant... I am livid... absolutely seething. This was an interview my MP (Tory) gave to our regional BBC political correspondant & posted on Twitter. I have no words... 'One or two might get a little ill...'
As a Teaching Assistant shielding with a teacher wife in the vulnerable catagory I find this abhorrent!
Hope the link will work

twitter.com/i/status/1270425817596772352

rant away. Unfortunately that's the sort of talk I'm seeing again and again :(

I don't think the government are handling the schools thing well at all but sadly it means that people are in their minds blaming 'the shielded' more and more for all of this :(

Hello everyone. Sorry I haven't been around for a while. Well I have big news - I have toothache AGAIN! Called dentist and they gave me another antibiotic. I think I must be nearly in double figures for the number of antibiotics I have had for my teeth and my chest since lockdown started! And my asthma has been playing up for a few days again too. Thought it might be the good weather and the pollen but today has seen ridiculously heavy rain showers and an autumn-esque day where pollen would be low and still having chest trouble. I think I might try and get a telephone consultation with GP tomorrow to discuss my asthma. It is definitely not what I would describe as well managed at the moment.

The social worker attached to my GP surgery called me yesterday aswell to check in with how I and the family are getting on. She gave me registration details for supermarket priority deliveries. I done as she said. Got an email back today to say according to their records I am not on the shielding list!!! Waiting for her to call me back in the morning as was on training course when I called today. So this is my rant. I am so fed up. I got a letter after chasing it myself after being hospitalised and hospital consultant insisting O had to shield. Since then heard nothing. And now I am not on the list? I mean the whole thing is shambolic and a disaster. Grrrrr!!

And breathe!! Rant over!

If anyone is near Norwich there is a company called Toy like me, they are offering shielded families a 3 hour private access to their private land for a picnic, says bring own food and games and there is a dipping pond too. They are only offering this for shielded families, no one else, to keep the area safe for us and you would be the only family there during your time slot. They are on Facebook, I couldn’t find any mention on their website. I thought it might help someone in that area.

Redcherries, that's a fabulous offer from that company. I hope they get loads of publicity for this. Sadly, we couldn't be much further from Norwich.

What a lovely offer from that company!

Morning all!

@Pebble21uk That clip is just vile. She clearly hasn’t a clue what she’s talking about.

@Redcherries Is it raining?? Is the party on?? 😬 And that field offer is such a lovely thing for people local to it (sadly not us). Shame there isn’t a nationally coordinated plan for Safe Shielding Spots.

@outnumberedwoman hope your asthma improves. It’s not nice is it. I’m sure all the worry and uncertainty is causing lots of people to flare. Pred just beginning to make a little difference here. Look after yourself.

That Norwich company sound amazing (I did actually let out a little sob ) I even looked at it but it's over four hours drive so I don't think we could justify it (although DH could do with checking his eyesight....)

The separating in the house is where I think the lack of personal differentiation (is that the right word?) in shielding categories is obvious. I know we are adults and make our own informed decisions (well according to some MNers it's a simple choice fuck off). I can't separate as I am epileptic (plus we don't have enough bedrooms or bathrooms!) so we have weighed up the risk and I think the risk of a seizure outweighs the CV risk (especially when this is followed by a hospital visit!) We are all being scrupulous with hygiene though - well as much as teenagers can be!

I am another who has had zero phone calls, texts, or any contact - I don't need a food box and I will probably sound spoilt and whiny if I say but that's not the point - I have registered THREE times on the website and got the acknowledgement but fuck all else and I tried to ring the helpline but it doesn't recognise my (definitely correct NHS number) so the helpline and website can fuck off too.

My MP hasn't replied to me - luckily I am banned from Twitter (if anyone is on the FWR I am on a NC here) so I can't feel any more rage looking at that.

My DS's school are actually advising that DC who are shielding, or from shielding households don't return at present - they are in the exam years that are encouraged to go back - ironically and to give me even more guilt...

Lots and lots of to those are suffering for various reasons and end of tethers - what worries me is the announcement of shielding extension (which I think is a given) combined with the total fucking lack of support and even acknowledgement will tip lots of us over the edge. At least here we can teeter together

Actually rereading that post which is quite negative (and me me me, sorry) has made me a bit

Do you think it would help (or seem minimising and insensitive) to list anything that is good for us at the moment or any unexpected benefits we have experienced?

Ignore me if you think the latter but if it will help anyone it may be worth it. I have been surprised by

•My teenage DC are actually (not at all times ) very thoughtful and kind. They have been offering me cups of tea and have bought me lots of chocolate
• I already knew my DH was lovely but he really has gone above and beyond, he has bought me a couple of really thoughtful presents; like a bed table. He has also been shopping for my parents and picked things they like and treats for them
• the nice weather (this is very shallow) has actually given me a little colour on my vampire skin (sadly on the only on the front of my arms and legs so the DC in a not so kind way are calling me "drumstick" after a stripy sweet apparently.
• I am lucky to have a cat which gives us hours of entertainment (whole other thread in itself!)

If it makes anyone feel better I can also do a list of Things That Have Really Fucked Me Off that includes lots of teenage ineptitude including, but not limited to, washing machines and hoovers. Also homeschooling highlighting my total knowledge of anything that isn't history (which my secondary school DC aren't even taking very ironically!) or my extensive knowledge of the current stock in every single category on the Amazon website...

I could go on if people would be cheered up with a healthy dose of schadenfreude?

@MyEyesightIsBadLetsGoForADrive Brilliant Idea.

Here's my list of great things.

1. I have met my new neighbours - normally I leave the house at 7am and get home between 8pm and midnight. They are simply the best! I moved just before lockdown
2. My GP surgery have been fantastic as have the consultants and mental health team
3. I got "head hunted" for a new job and have my second stage interview next week
4. I have gone all cool and got netflix and everyone has given me brilliant suggestions (Tiger King... Oh my days!)
5. Ive got back into my hobbies (sort of, as much as i can)
6. Have lost much needed to lose weight (mainly due to covid)
7. I have a good morning routine set up now which has improved my health and wellbeing
8. I am closer to people than i was even though I haven't seen anyone face-to-face apart from neighbours since March 10th.
9. I have nearly done 100 days of this now which is huge for me as there were days when I didn't think I could get through to the end of the day
10. Seriously considering getting two ferrets

I think Highgate School in London have also let their field and sports grounds be used for shielding and vulnerable to exercise safely with social distancing in place!

I’m not local to Norwich either, but my kids are essentially adults now so it’s not really something I’d take a slot on depriving some little ones of the chance to run wild!

We’ve not isolated in the house. I’m the most tactile, needy person and I knew there was no way I could do it. Me and my daughter spend hours in the kitchen together and I cried so much when I read the guidance, I just can’t do it.

I will do a list, my fab teens will be at the top but need to make myself presentable for today’s party, it is raining but we are going to work around it!

@rugbymummy yup, rain all day! Luckily we finished an outbuilding project at the beginning of the year that was several years in the construction phase (3 of us work on construction sites, nothing ever gets finished) we plan to open that up, run an extension cord for music and fairy lights and put the big sunbrella up. Thank you 😊