Thread 4 Shielding chat

[Egghead68]

Thought I’d set this up as we don’t seem to have one. Please delete if we do and I’ve missed it.

Happy belated birthday Marie! Luckily mine falls within the five day free-for-all.

Wondering about the vaccine too... I have probable MCAD but never faffed with getting it diagnosed as I saw no benefit, so I'm curious if I can have it or not. Have close family who have history of anaphylaxis, and I have the same allergy but mildly.

I'm so excited to go back to the gym, that I'll probably risk it and hope the medical staff have enough epinephrine!

Thank you @Anewuser, @Egghead68 & @BeyondThunderdome it was a quietly lovely day - & the cats obviously realised Something Important was happening & decided to bring me a LOT of their Best & Favourite toys to remind me how much they love me. I’m not quite so fond of the smell of valerian as they are, so my duvet still smelling faintly of it is not the delight for me it is for them, but I’m taking it in the spirit it was intended. Much as my daddy did the enthusiastic hairwashing he got from my blond!cat on Monday. Daddy stopped in for a VERY wee bit which may not quite have fallen within his Marie-minding remit, I admit, though he did help me with a couple of things while here AND cleared up results of the back garden being SE London’s top fox nightspot. Wee vulpine ravers are at least providing substantial meals when it comes to obeying The Rules, but I don’t think the Rule Of 6 is happening & certainly there’s no social distancing & they’re just getting going at 2200. Probably insufficient paw hygiene; but clearly foxes in masks would just be silly, & frankly ought to be added to the exemption list forthwith (obviously THAT would not be at all silly...).

The news about the Pfizer vaccine was a bit of a blow, but the way things are trotting along I’m hoping that authorisation (& supply) of at least one of the others will coincide with invitations for vaccination for the ECV group. I’m very glad the two people who reacted badly “only” had anaphylactloid reactions - they’re not exactly fun & there can be a really horrible period where you don’t know if it’s going to tip over, but they’ll be feeling ok now whereas if it’d been anaphylaxis they could still be really unwell even having been treated immediately; & even in the best-case scenario of a quick catch just using a single EpiPen does a number on you on top of dealing with your body having decided trying to take you out = perfectly sensible & reasonable.

BeyondThunderdome - at the moment, at least, the restriction seems to be only for people who have a history of anaphylaxis (to anything) & a resultant current prescription for Adrenalin autoinjectors. I don’t know if the mastocytosis/MCAS/MCAD charity will [be able to] offer any advice... I suppose if there’s reluctance because of the possibility they’re likely to look at what [special] arrangements you have for the flu jab/any other vaccinations; & they might want/need to know about how low dose you have to start new drugs at & how slowly you titrate up; & how severe your reactions to your different allergens are/have been... I hope you don’t find yourself having to wait - but tbh mostly am hoping by the time the ECV group’s turn comes round approval for [at least] one of the others will’ve come through

Happy birthday @marievangoethem Let's hope a suitable present is another vaccine very very shortly.

@Teaistheanswer thank you
Perhaps I should write my first ever letter to Santa/Santy/Father Christmas & see if he mightn’t be able to oblige? In a magical-expedition way, I mean. Pretty sure anything requiring MHRA approval is on the list of Things Elves Do Not Make...

Gah. Feeling bad as my daddy said he’d not go to my neighbour’s funeral as he takes me to my hospital appointments & I’m shielding. Luckily her son i. totally gets why that’d be a thing & ii. is English, so while obviously him asking daddy when the spaces are so limited is A Big Thing, funerals aren’t at all The Thing they are in, say, Ireland...

So many people out to see her leave for last time. But if 2020 could just, um, 2020 a bit less now, that’d be awesome...

@MarieVanGoethem, I'm sorry you're feeling bad but you know your dad has to make you priority and I'm sure your neighbour would have wanted that as well. Lovely that so many came out to say farewell.

@Anewuser
She’d not have [had] it any other way, I know, but...
As for her farewell, she was much-loved. And the Right Bits of London are very friendly.

I have to take the train today to a medical appointment. First time I’ve used public transport since early March. I’m in a tier 3 area so it’s pretty terrifying.

Hope everyone’s doing OK

Good luck @Egghead68 !

I know it's scary, but I hope you can get some pleasure from it.

It's the beginning of the end

@Egghead68
Good luck! Hope it’s all ok & people distance properly & are wearing masks etc.

@MilesJuppIsAnOldSlutOnJunk
I think it might be a bit more “the end of the beginning”, probably the only piece of Churchillian rhetoric that’s actually permissible/applicable. Though tbf some people might have discovered working in the bath as A Thing since March. Hopefully not anyone doing Zoom/Teams/whatever meetings though, unless they’re on voice only AND muted. I mean, even then, inappropriate, but at least their colleagues will have been spared the squick...

Thanks both! I ended up walking most of the way (28,000 steps) but took the train (double-masked) the last few stops as I got lost and was running late.

However...the nurse had a dry cough and one of her colleagues came in to say their other colleague was self-isolating with Covid... I’m hoping my single vaccine dose gives me some protection...

I think the end of the beginning sounds about right @MarieVanGoethem.

Hope everyone’s starting to feel Christmassy!

@Egghead68
Hope that all goes ok - will keep my fingers crossed for you. I hope your appointment was ok & being coughed at wasn’t too distracting/stressful.

Excitement for the day here was the British Gas engineer blithely ignoring all instructions from my father (who was here precisely so I’d not to interact with Possibly Plaguey Person) & coming into my room - where the boiler is - while I was very much in it. Having, as is my wont, been skulking up here while we was working downstairs. Mask wasn’t covering his nose & I was such a mix of tired & a bit panicked I just froze (which as the hot press is right beside my bed was REALLY not great). Had my window open (my lungs really enjoyed that ) but all I could think was what’s the point of my being so careful when THIS happens?! (Apparently I’m making up for the teenage melodramatics I never got to indulge in?)

Am back to the hospital tomorrow - just to get my port flushed & locked though.

I have such strange feelings about this. I am still considered to be CEV but I really don't think I am. I'm back at work (teacher) and feel fine as I'm a year out of treatment now. I really want the vaccine but I feel like a fraud as I'll probably be offered it quite soon and feel a bit like I'll be taking it from someone else!

Thanks @MarieVanGoethem. How worrying about your gas engineer. What was he even thinking coming into a room without knocking? And what is it with people not covering their noses? Fingers and everything crossed that any exposure you had was completely minimal and hasn’t done any harm. It’s so worrying though. Hope hospital visit today goes well.

@MacDuffsMuff I think you should not have any qualms about having the vaccine when you are offered it. The government have purchased way more than enough for the whole population (at least if the Oxford/Astra Zeneca one gets approved). And you’re doing it to help protect the families of the children you teach and your elderly relatives (provided it reduces transmission) as well as yourself.

Very impressive @Egghead68, that's an amazing amount of steps. Fingers crossed the vaccine has started working already.

Good luck @MarieVanGoethem at hospital today, I hope it all goes smoothly after yesterday's unexpected visit by the gas engineer.

@MacDuffsMuff, I'm in the same boat that technically my treatment finished earlier this year and I don't think I should be CEV. However my adult son is CEV and I'm petrified of bringing it home from my school to him. I'll be there immediately I get notified and I don't feel guilty in the least bit. You're providing a service to parents as well as educating their children.

@Egghead68 & @Anewuser - thank you so much for making me feel better about this. You're right of course but I hadn't really considered it this way.

@MacDuffsMuff & @Anewuser
It must feel a bit weird, but they’ll have worked on your body needing time to pick back up after finishing treatment, even after you feel ok & you’d not get any big red flags in, eg, blood results, it takes a bit for a body to be Really Back, doesn’t it? If they didn’t think you still needed to be on the list they’d have yeeted you over the summer with no compunction, let’s face it. Plus there’s the fact it’ll [hopefully] help protect your colleagues & students. Certainly don’t feel bad about it.

@Egghead68
Really not great stuff from the gas engineer, no. My bedroom door was open (feline Right To Roam is of course paramount ) but the layout of the house means he just sort of appeared & stomped through at such speed I was rather frozen-flummoxed. When you barely see anyone even such minimal exposure seems far more frightening than the sensible bit of your brain points out is realistic. I do wish people would just wear their masks properly though... (Hospital was ok thank you - should be last in-person appointment for the year...)

I’ve also been blown out of the Pfizer vaccine pool, I did double check but it was an unequivocal no.
I was devastated I’d pinned all my hopes on it just helping me survive the constant fear.
My child was ill last week, she often is with infections but this was a fever like no other as we waited for the result of the Covid test I was sure she had it as she hallucinated and thrashed I held her thinking supposing it is COVID this time. But she wanted me and needed me and I stayed with her, but if she’d been positive the consequences could have been awful DS and DH were terrified they both offered to take over but it was so hard to leave her, my 6 year old wanted me and my 11 year old was so scared of me being with her.
That’s the horror of this, shielded or ECV we can’t live as islands.

@Didkdt
I’m sorry your wee one was so poorly - I hope she’s better now. If it helps at all I watched a programme earlier (forget the name, was on the BBC, but on iPlayer, so is new, but I’m not certain when it went out) about the development of the Oxford vaccine & towards the end they were talking about hoping to have approval by the start of 2021, which is when they’re looking to start vaccinating the ECV group. I’ve not checked if I’d be let have the Pfizer vaccine, but given the information (atm, anyway...) is a no to anyone with a history of anaphylaxis & a current EpiPen prescription (yes & yes) and I also have a frankly silly amount of non-anaphylactic allergies (my immune system saves itself to go completely bananas on encountering the Real Dangers to me - sod the germs, ZOMG IT’S A HINT OF CINNAMON EVERYONE PANIC! ) so I’ve decided to assume it’s a no & then if suddenly things change that will be A Delightful Surprise. Tiny Wee Spark Of Hope for the Somehow-Maybe can thus continue to float along uncrushed: quite enough out there bent on crushing my spirits into dust without my helping; though ofc there is the argument that hope was what remained in Pandora’s Box because it was the last, worst, & very greatest evil of all...

I’m sorry about your daughter and the vaccine @Didkdt. I hope she is feeling better now and you haven’t caught anything. I shouldn’t have had the Pfizer vaccine either as I have an epipen but they didn’t know that was a contraindication when I had it. I don’t know whether they will let me have the second dose (I’m prepared to lie my face off to get it if necessary though).

Thanks both, like you @MarieVanGoethem it’s the previous reactions and the Epipens that have done me in, it’s good to hear the Oxford vaccine might be out earlier my DH said that as well.
DD did improve thanks, antibiotics are a marvellous gift when they are needed.
In the spring and summer when we shielded it was hard and scary but at the moment I feel like it’s closing in and I’m not sure if that’s anxiety or because testing is showing more of what’s going on in the community, whereas in the summer you had to fight for a Covid test. Then I think it’s costing the country so much to keep the country safe, but actually how bad is it and I look to America and I think wow that could have been us.

I think we’ve had more deaths per capita than America sadly.

If you didn’t see the Downing St press conference there was a shielding question. A member of the public asked why she was expected to go to work when she was shielding and in a tier 3 area. The OM said he very much hoped she was doing everything she could to keep herself safe and that she was NOT being asked to go to work. Clearly he has no understanding of the situation for shielders... Chris Whitty stepped in with a (non) answer that “there was a view” (based on what data, I ask) that the first lot of shielding did significant harm as well as keeping people safe so the rules had been rethought, although they were continuing to look at them.

The spike protein on the new covid variant that’s now dominant in London and parts of the south east has changed so I reckon the vaccines won’t be as effective.

The official answer from CMO/CSA was that there are theoretical reasons to think immune responses obtained from a previous infection or the vaccine might be less strong against this variant but that, while they need to gather data, the thinking is that the immune response from the vaccine/previous infection should be “adequate”.