Do you sit or stand when you have the jab?

[Remoulade]

Not had my first jab yet and going today. Pregnant and incredibly anxious about it. Want to minimise touching anything with any part of my body (yes I know I am over worried, saying it really won't help) and was wondering if you stood up or sat down when you had yours? The thought of sitting on a possibly covid infested chair is making my skin crawl.

Also, if you're meant to sit, can you ask to stand?😐

YABU - I was sitting down
YANBU - I was standing up

@babynameneeded

OP: AIBU? Everyone: Yes, downright ridiculous OP: I AM NORMAL

Not everyone.

But I think some of the comments on this thread have been very harsh, and some posters have completely neglected the fact that the OP is a real person. You can disagree with what she does, you can think her levels of anxiety are irrational rather than proportionate. But telling her she's ridiculous is not going to make her feel any better and/or change her behaviour.

Is the point of people replying to offer the OP an opinion/some help, or is it just to fight amongst themselves? I don't disagree with AIBU being a place where people offer home truths, but I do think some posters view it as a source of entertainment, and that's just an incredible level of Schadenfreude in action.

Living with anxiety during a pandemic with the Government we have is really, really, hard. Giving people facts (especially with verifiable sources) is helpful. Telling them they're ridiculous is not.

I lay down for both of mine as I'm a passer-outer. It was on a hospital trolley/stretcher thing with paper pulled over the top. Once I got up, they tore the paper off, wiped the bed down and pulled a new paper sheet over the top..

Bloody hell. I'm a bit worried by all of this. You know your child will probably want to do things which involve germs, right? And might find living in a small village where you don't go anywhere or do anything a bit claustrophobic?

They invite you to sit but I’m sure you could stand if you want to. Please don’t worry though - the seats are thoroughly cleaned in between each use with disinfectant spray.

@Remoulade

It may not be normal but what we do works. I can't remember the last time DH or I had a sick day and our employers absolutely love us for it.

Yes I will start getting things once our kids are in day care/school. I'm not afraid to have a cold or the flu, but I am afraid of covid. I honestly don't see the issues in trying to minimise how many colds etc. we get though.

I've never had a sick day and I'm pretty lax about germs.

I went to the GP and sat. My boyfriend was at a mass vaccination centre and stood.

They sanitise everything so don't worry about germs, but it might be worth speaking to your GP about your fears as they do seem to be restricting your life

Both mine were standing.

Those people giving you a hard time would do well to have a word with themselves.

I stood for both. Centre did not have any chairs that I could see though no doubt if you told them you faint with jabs they'd have produced one. I was glad just to stand.

We had cards on the seats that got turned over after they had been cleaned ( W Sussex)

I get why you’re worried about your husband but stressing over non issues like germs on a chair is potentially a bigger problem
I would actually be concerned about your mental health once the baby arrives though. You do know children need a certain amount of dirt to build immunity. Children raised on farms have a much lower rate of asthma and eczema. Continuous stress is as much a danger as anything else.

And to PP saying about people using this as entertainment; I've been around long enough and have thick enough skin to deal with it. I've seen it so many times, even when the OP has very clearly been a very vulnerable individual. I have literelly cried seeing a woman struggling and coming here for help being attacked by the vipers 🤷‍♀️It's sickening and I will never for the life of me understand the mentality.
Unless you're a bad person behaving badly, as in doing mean things or saying mean things, I would never attack you or try to ridicule you. But that's me and these people are who they are. They don't know me, they don't care about the reasons I've stated for worrying (like having a husband who should have been on the shielding list according to the nhs but being missed due to our gp being rubbish) and that's fine. Have at it I say.

@LividLaVidaLoca

Both mine were standing.

Those people giving you a hard time would do well to have a word with themselves.

I don't think people are giving OP a hard time, but I don't think we should be encouraging people to think they can catch Covid from chairs, that's just simply impossible.

What will you do if you end up with a child who licks handrails? You will also need to use a variety of public conveniences when you have a child. You do realise that regular, limited, exposure to germs is good for you? My DD caught a stomach bug recently and it was much worse than the usual dicky tummy / upset bowels which I'm putting down to lack of exposure to germs over the last 16 months. Thankfully I'm sure she'll be back to unnecessarily touching everything in sight before long.

The chemist wiped the chair down between people at my centre

At the Covid clinics I’ve worked at we prefer people to stand, otherwise we have to wipe down the chairs in between patients which is a pain. Obviously if someone asks if they can sit it’s fine, but otherwise they stand. With the Pfizer we asked everyone to take a seat after for 15 mins, with AZ we asked them to sit in their car for 15 mins if they were driving, otherwise they were free to go straight away.

'Are you getting help for your anxiety?' is very snide. Posters who routinely done out with this, just pack it in. I think it's fair to say that you are seen in what you are doing.

@Remoulade

And to PP saying about people using this as entertainment; I've been around long enough and have thick enough skin to deal with it. I've seen it so many times, even when the OP has very clearly been a very vulnerable individual. I have literelly cried seeing a woman struggling and coming here for help being attacked by the vipers 🤷‍♀️It's sickening and I will never for the life of me understand the mentality. Unless you're a bad person behaving badly, as in doing mean things or saying mean things, I would never attack you or try to ridicule you. But that's me and these people are who they are. They don't know me, they don't care about the reasons I've stated for worrying (like having a husband who should have been on the shielding list according to the nhs but being missed due to our gp being rubbish) and that's fine. Have at it I say.

1. Other, much more supportive, online forums are available.
2. You could have just asked the question without the backstory
3. There are other places to get the info you need such as GP, friends or a local fb group
4. This is AIBU where people offer up themselves for judgment from the vipers. If you aren't prepareto be told YABU there are other MN topics.

I stood, but then I am a care assistant and we don't get such luxuries as chairs and things, there wasn't even a chair there, we were allowed a moment in our day to have this mandatory vaccination, though of course, we weren't paid as we weren't working for those couple of minutes and we should expect these things as what we do is a vocation and we shouldn't be wanting to be actually paid for what we do because that means we're only doing it for the money, as long as we're continuing to be good little worker drones looking after the unwanted of society, then all's good.

I honestly don't see the issues in trying to minimise how many colds etc. we get

Read about immunity debt, OP.

One day OP will just be grateful her small child held it in until they actually found the public toilets.

@Remoulade

And I will be just short of boiling myself in the shower when I get home, have no doubt.

I won't say how far gone I am as I have said so many different things on the forum that could be linked to me irl and "everyone" has been told about it.
Have no fear, baby is very safe and and I will feel safer in the coming weeks having had our first doses. Will not put myself in any settings I don't have to until double jabbed though. So if I have to go into work I will, and I will go for my appointments. Luckily she knows me well and knows just how stressed I am around germs so she will be very accommodating and just have a bit of a chuckle about my interrogations about what's been cleaned and what hasn't.

I’m extremely CEV. I was one of the first to be vaccinated in my whole family. I was lucky and got asked for a research reason

Anyway. Like your husband. I have a very rare disease. (I’m only the 38th women right now in the world with it) covid could kill me. However. I’ve found that after 6 months. We stopped worrying. You can keep on carrying on with worry. I do believe you might need a mental health intervention or some kind. Health anxiety to this level does need some help. To be almost boiling yourself in the shower. Whilst pregnant. It’s a weird turn of phrase.

However. My 7 yr old DD is also CEV. I do have slight anxiety from her point of view. But even then I still go out. I’ve got to go into central London tonight for a hospital appointment. So we carry on with life.

Hope you get it sorted. Good luck

@Waxonwaxoff0 we wipe chairs as we see how people sit down and stand up from seated. They use their hands to push up and sit down. They then touch their faces unless they consciously control this. Not an issue pre-COVID or 'flu season and there are costs to running a personal campaign against germs (hygiene theory) but there are good infection control reasons to wipe down the arms of chairs.

I sat and the seat was wiped down immediately.

You honestly do need some support with your anxiety. I had two friends with similar who have passed their anxiety to their children. This is meant helpfully, not critically. My friends child held her pooh in because she was afraid of creating germs for her mummy. She ended up in hospital.

I can't resist and I rarely comment
But OP
You really need to get help. Seriously - keep an open mind, and think about it.
Otherwise when you have a child it'll be tough on you and your poor child will really suffer.
The way you are feeling and dealing with the fears is not normal.

@Luminousnose -- why sit in the cars but not if they travelled by any other mode?

with AZ we asked them to sit in their car for 15 mins if they were driving, otherwise they were free to go straight away

*1. Other, much more supportive, online forums are available.

1. You could have just asked the question without the backstory
2. There are other places to get the info you need such as GP, friends or a local fb group
3. This is AIBU where people offer up themselves for judgment from the vipers. If you aren't prepareto be told YABU there are other MN topics*

Case in point I would say. I told you to have at it, viper. I don't give a crap.

But when you people are attacking a mentally unwell woman who has just been told her husband is leaving her because of her illness and you can see the absolute despair in each and every word of her posts and people keep attacking, attacking and attacking, there's simply no excuse. It doesn't matter if it's in AIBU. People who behave like that may as well go to 4chan (is that still around) as that's the only despicable enough dark corner of the internet where that would be considered even remotely okay.

I use public toilets all the time and manage to find clean ones. How are you managing to be pregnant and only use the toilet at home?!

By her own description OP hasn't left the house in 18 months.

This level of germaphobia is genuinely not normal. You've made yourself a tiny life because of it and it's not healthy. Even if your husband met shielding criteria, which he didn't, shielding is over - and he presumably had both of his jabs some time ago. The initial phrase you used betrayed your thinking pretty well - that's not the way infection works. The price you are paying is not worth it.