Thread 3 shielding chat

[AuntieSocia1]

I hope this unimaginative thread title doesn't put off all the amazing posters from this group!

As we transition into this new phase things could get interesting....

Waves to lurkers

I’m optimistic that it will @MarieVanGoethem, provided enough people are prepared to be vaccinated that we reach herd immunity.

Soo frustrating that I can't get a laptop, so still on a fitnote. Got the equalities officer and welfare dept involved and they've both said there are laptops available and forwarded my line manager the link to get me one.

I don't want to go back to the control room until after Xmas now. Found out there's at least 4 despatchers who never went back so if they can do it, then so can I. Got an occupational health phone appointment on the day I'm supposed to return, but gp is giving me a new fitnote to say light duties/ wfh only.

I'm healing nicely now. Got a good range of movement in my arm thanks to religiously doing my physio exercises and lymph massage a few times a day. Scar has healed even though I have a small seroma. My chest is ugly as f*ck though. Wish I had both boobs off then at least I'd be symmetrical and never have to wear a bra again.

Ds is back at college, ferociously wearing his mask in class, despite lecturers saying he doesn't have to. DH only leaves the house for a 30 minute walk and I'm glued to the sofa.

Glad you are healing well Babyshark. Can you just order a cheap laptop to be delivered? That’s what I had to do in the end (NHS).

I’m staying in apart from horrendously non-socially distanced visits to the fracture clinic.

The vaccination threads certainly make for... interesting... reading. Not that I’d ever assume MN to be a representative sample of the population. Genuinely worries me that so many people believe that the vaccines are being “rushed” in the sense of skipping necessary steps/breaking protocols. How people can fail to comprehend that things can happen faster when they’re given far more funding & have far more people working on them than would usually be the case... and how exactly are they such experts on the timeline of vaccine development to start with? I’m going to go a bit rash & suggest that most of them haven’t the faintest idea how long is “usual”.

Am glad you’re healing up well @Babysharkdoodoodood - hope that work behave themselves about facilitating you working from home.

The government are doing an excellent job of announcing plans for universities to the public without any warning to, er, university staff. No support being offered to universities to implement the government’s plans either, obviously. Things are thus... rather tense here. Thankfully the cats zoom-bombed only meetings where their presence was Welcome Distraction yesterday. That brings their total number of invasions of my brother’s work calls to four or five. Would that they were so circumspect with my Zoom calls...

@Egghead68 - am sorry fracture clinic aren’t managing the social distancing well: that must be horribly stressful.

Thanks Marie. Yes, lost my shit when they sent medical students in to practise on me without asking my permission, telling me they were medical students or telling me that this was purely for their benefit. In any other circumstances I would welcome students but not when I’m trying to avoid all unnecessary contacts!

Government letting down universities sounds par for the course.

We’re pretty low down the vaccine priority list (below healthy 65 year olds I think). Not sure how they justify that, given that we had to shield and they didn’t.

The more anti-vaxers there are at the moment the sooner we get our turn. I’m hoping that (if it is found to reduce transmission) they change their tune when enough people have had it.

@Egghead68

Glad you are healing well Babyshark. Can you just order a cheap laptop to be delivered? That’s what I had to do in the end (NHS).

I’m staying in apart from horrendously non-socially distanced visits to the fracture clinic.

No. It has to be one from work as it has all sorts of security on it as its police databases etc. And a data plan so I don't use the wifi. Unfortunately. Still no reply from boss. Think he's ignoring me now

As I understand it, Shielders [mostly] can’t have the Pfizer vaccine; & the priority list is determined partly by which vaccines are available - a non-RNA vaccine becoming available here might move things round again.

That’s diabolically bad about the medical students. Just... no...

Oh no! I hadn’t heard that we couldn’t have the Pfizer vaccine. Do you know where we can find out more about this please?

I’m sure I’ve seen something else, but this BBC News article mentions that some people including those with compromised immune systems won’t be able to have it. It’s my understanding that includes people whose immune systems have been reduced to the efficacy of damp cardboard by medication as well as those who got that number in the genetic lottery. As to whether there’s wiggle room in “compromised”, of course...

Hopefully the other companies are going to see breakthroughs soon - Pfizer’s needs two jabs & storage at minus 80 so it’s feck-all use globally speaking...

Bearing in mind the It’s Late And I’m Tired so even rereading this about How The Shiny New Vaccines Work (was mentioned in an alumni email somewhen this year... if I start watching the physics online we know I’m lost, though the Pudding Seminar about SQUID [not the marine sort, the MRI kind] when I was a student was glorious only one never there for the cake...) potentially wonky immune systems i. cannot cope with instructions of kind being delivered by this type vaccine or ii. if you’re really lucky, and you’ve an autoimmune condition, things might go swerving off dramatically.

Interestingly, the Pfizer information page doesn’t answer the “who can have it?” question that’s on its Q&A page. It’s rolled up in another question they do answer, but... bit weird. I think that they’re not entirely sure because it’s so new, & they can’t afford to guess. Can’t see the BBC having made that up in their heads though - I mean, it’s far from flawless that they are, but...

Thanks Marie. I heard Jeremy Ferrar speak yesterday and he said the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine should be reporting within a month.

In one of those wee google-spirals one occasionally falls into I just made the discovery that Percy Ingle is closing all its branches as a result of Covid-19. They are Proper London Bakeries - & have always been job for life employers & had a rep for being good to their staff. There are staff in my local branch who’ve been there since I was a tiny wee thing going in with my mummy to get bread &/or rolls after buying fruit from the market. The vast majority of their regular customers are elderly, so I suspect they’ve struggled even on reopening. They’d held their own against not one but TWO Greggs in their immediate vicinity (one a couple of doors down; the other all of about a minute away inside the shopping precinct [& that one has a wee seating area too]) so this just seems... cruel, almost?

Ech. I suppose it adds to that all-too-familiar feeling of marking time as the rest of the world dances on; & wondering-worrying about what things’ll be like when I’m able to safely wander where & when I will again. (Yes, I know, terribly wet & self-indulgent... in slight mitigation, my lovely neighbour used to shop there, & I was sent a link so I can watch her funeral service today. Which feels beyond strange, but is all part of The New Normal I suppose.)

@MarieVanGoethem im so sorry to hear about your neighbour and that you couldnt attend the funeral. I hope being able to watch has made up a little for being stuck at home.

Too many businesses are closing and won't reopen. It is so sad. Covid has been the final nail in the coffin of the high street unfortunately. I was just saying this to my hubby the other day. I dont really go out much normally due to ill health but we do look forward to going on the train to Ballymena at Christmas every year and wondering around with the kids looking at the lights and enjoying the atmosphere of the shops. I will really miss that this year. We have all as a country missed so much but for some reason this really hit me that our one day out as a family that we do look forward to every year will not go ahead and it seemed so sad. I know so many have lost so much more and i shouldn't really complain but it did just hit me and stop me in my tracks for a minute. Pathetic I know.

I am normally a christmas person. I have always loved it. The carol services and the decorations and writing cards and wrapping presents but this year I just dont feel it. It doesn't feel like Christmas at all. I do suffer so much with mental health and normally looking forward to Christmas helps to keep me going but this year its just bleurgh!

Bloody bastards at work have just told me I'm on half pay from 25/11 and nil pay from 12/12 as there is no reason for me to be off. After a bloody mastectomy!

I've fired off an email to my union rep. I've got sick notes for my absence and when I self isolated prior to op, I used my leave. I'm absolutely fuming. Due to return on Tuesday but working from home as ECV. But still no laptop!
Just in time for Xmas!

@Babysharkdoodoodood i am so angry reading this. Surely they cant count it as "off" if you are willing to work from home if they would just pull their finger out and sort the necessary hardware. I really hope your union rep stamps on this and shuts it down. Would it be worth contacting HR? Put everything down in writing with dates regarding which days were leave, which dates you were in hospital and the dates the sick line covers you? State that you are willing to work from home but that you havent been given the necessary equipment despite several requests?

I really hope you get some good news and this is all just nonsense.

Honestly I despair of my MN notifications: if I can’t rely on them not to be acting the maggot, where am I?

That was very kind of you @Outnumberedwoman, thank you. I’ve actually not missed the funeral - things happen much more slowly over here, so I’ve been sent information about how I’ll be able to virtually attend the service in the middle of next month. Which feels a desperately strange idea; but I can’t imagine not doing it just because it feels so... uncomfortable? We’d someone to the door yesterday asking after her as they’d tried ringing several times & eventually went & knocked at her house but had no answer & were worried. Think they still live quite close - their son was at primary school with my neighbour’s (who was the dinner lady); this man’s wife was a District Nurse... & if they’re who I THINK (he spoke to my brother) she was later Health Visitor for my brother & I. (Many & varied are the reasons I laugh when people claim London is unfriendly, but this sort of thing is definitely part of it...)

I’m very sorry you’ll not have your usual trip to Ballymena & that your Christmas is so disrupted when it’s so important to you. Having a bright spot in the dark to navigate towards is so incredibly important, especially if you’ve mental health issues, & that particular light being so dimmed as it has been this year is very hard. I really hope you’ll be able to find some joy in the bits of Christmas stuff you can have & any new things you do this year.

@Babysharkdoodoodood
That’s... are they not coming quite close to hanging you a case for constructive dismissal there? I mean, clearly they’re being worse than utter arses, but... really hope you can get it all sorted out soon.

@Babysharkdoodoodood that’s outrageous. I’d get my MP on the case as well as the unions.

I’ve got an 8-mile round trip walk coming up for my mammogram to avoid public transport. Hope it’s not raining.

On a positive note it’s 11 days since I was in the crowded hospital waiting room where I worried about Covid exposure and I’m still symptom-free. I’ll give it another 3 days before I relax totally though.

@Egghead68
It’s cats, dogs & the occasional otter between the stair-rods here, so hopefully I’m minding the soggery & you can have a nice dry walk as a result. (Because that’s how these things work, right?) Hope your mammogram goes ok, too: will cross everything for you; & hold my thumbs on the Waiting. Covid has absolutely none of the ambiguity, mystery or subtlety of Godot: definitely don’t want it shipping up. Yes I do indeed desperately need to get out more.

I’ve had two phone appointments today. Am quite hospitaled out after that. Respiratory consultant was very sweet & apologised for being someone I’d not had a face to face appointment with before as she thinks it must be very strange to discuss things with a complete stranger who’s just a disembodied voice... she’s not loving the telephone clinics, no...

Thanks @MarieVanGoethem!

Your respiratory consultant sounds lovely!

We’re pretty low down the vaccine priority list (below healthy 65 year olds I think). Not sure how they justify that, given that we had to shield and they didn’t.

I asked my MP this very question and he replied that he could understand the issue and would be promoting the case of shielding people (unless there was a safety issue (test it on a few older people first))

@Egghead68
She seemed really sweet - I always used to see The [Respiratory Medicine] Prof but he (very rudely, frankly) retired a couple of years ago & it’s since felt a bit Pass The Patient (though technically I’m under the new clinical lead for severe asthma blah blah) as I’ve had appointments have to be moved & Just Missed People (etc).

I sometimes feel a bit weird being under the severe asthma team because in my little head my asthma really isn’t bad at all. My little head may require some flashcards on the subject of “they’re using objective criteria, not ‘in relation to when your lungs were trying to kill you on the regular’ nor even ‘other corporeal antics’”.

She was also Team Sensible Gap Between Review Appointments, which is always a win.

I'm now reading things that day they are discussing whether "unpaid carers" come into priority 1. Which would mean as DHs carer I'd get a vaccine a whole 5 priorities before him!!

Delete day. No idea where that came from.

They’re now working on an alternative for people who’re not able to be vaccinated at all due to immunosuppression, which sounds pretty positive...

@FuzzyPuffling

We’re pretty low down the vaccine priority list (below healthy 65 year olds I think). Not sure how they justify that, given that we had to shield and they didn’t.

I asked my MP this very question and he replied that he could understand the issue and would be promoting the case of shielding people (unless there was a safety issue (test it on a few older people first))

Thanks @FuzzyPuffling