How has the pandemic changed your life?

[velvet24]

For me its brought some positive changes. I now work at home which I love, I am less stressed and rushed. I now appreciate walks in the woodlands and village, I enjoy little things like feeding the birds in the garden. I have slowed down and I feel happier for it. I take time for me now, whereas pre covid i was rushing about 5 days a week.

I know people have lost jobs and loved ones and that is horrendous, this post is looking at how the pandemic has changed life, for better for for worse? Be honest.

Last two years have been a bit of a mixed bag.

Me and partner both lost our jobs which cost us most of our savings but our new jobs have turned out to be a real positive. Partner gets to work from home three days a week and my job is much better for my mental health. Our savings have also recovered so not been too badly impacted overall.

Nothing to do with covid but on a personal level we were able to move to a nicer house which combined with partner working from home meant we were able to get a puppy.

Sadly we had to put our wedding on hold but I'm now looking forward to getting married later this year now and and we're planning a two week honeymoon abroad so 2022 looks pretty bright.

I’m not at all happy that unvaccinated adults who have chosen not to get the vaccines are repeatedly of work because they are a close contact, those that are vaccinated have to LFT everyday, why can’t they do the same and if positive stat at home.l, and they don’t WFH either Can’t wait till changes in March.
To make it worse they all message and ask how work is, they miss us… oh just fuck off

Some friends and family stopped talking to me completely as they decided that it was/is unacceptable that I'm not singing from the same (government authorised) hymn sheet as them due to the fact that I've been critical of the use of lockdown and the over use (imho) of vaccines. I was also accused of not being sufficiently frightened of Covid (turns out I couldn't be shit scared when I was going to work on a Covid ward every day).

On a very trivial note I discovered during lockdown that my hair doesn't need to be washed every day. I now wash it a couple of times a month and rinse it with water in the shower ever other day instead. It looks much better than it did before.

It ruined my mental health, I’m still working on it now. I daren’t leave the house during the first lockdown at all, not even for a walk. I was pregnant and petrified after reading scare stories online plus we were advised to shield. The second lockdown early last year absolutely destroyed me. I was trying to get back on track when it happened and going back to homeschooling, DH WFH so everyone at home on top of each other again was just too much. I had counselling for months last year because I felt so depressed and anxious 24/7.

I’m still working on getting myself better now and I’m not 100%, I feel really anxious and flustered in shops now because I avoided them for so long so it’s an abnormal thing for me to do now.

I now have a garden office that I might never have got around to getting installed if we'd not had the pandemic, although we'd talked about getting one a couple of times.

It has messed up overseas holidays but then Brexit has done that too. Not a good combination really.

I think the lack of exams probably altered what grades DS would have got for his A levels, although I think in terms of UCAS points he got the same - just differently distributed.

@pinkstripeycat

I have a £12,000 debt to pay where I didn’t earn any money for 7 months as wasn’t allowed to work as a driving instructor and got no help from Government

Did you not get the SEISS grants? My friend who is a driving instructor did, although I think he has to pay tax on at least some of the money.

Lost some of the residents I have been caring for for several years, who were like family to me. It was horrible. Watched my colleagues and friends get sick but am glad they all are back to almost full health. Then lost some of the hardest working people I know when the mandatory vaccine came into force.

Felt a range like I have never felt watching Boris and Matt Hancock lie about how they had protected care homes and that it had been a priority, which was so far from the truth.

We moved house and I took up outdoor swimming which I think helped me get through some really tough times, times when I didnt want to carry on and wished that I had never, ever thought that working in care was for me and wished I worked in a shop instead. (I know working in a shop is hard, and was hard during Covid, but not life or death hard).

Due to the pandemic I became disabled one year ago today (!) I worked full time as a registered nurse in a busy referral hospital and I gladly received the Covid vaccines-three weeks later 3/2/21 I developed Covid like symptoms-Fever, aches, etcetera-PCR tests performed six times in ten days all negative. My heart had persistent tachycardia and I'm on four cardiac Rxs for it and developed thyroiditis, hypothyroid, elevated inflammatory markers, abnormal liver function and sky high cholesterol and lipids then diabetes and a skin rash on my trunk, tinnitus. I was discovered to have critically low ferritin levels, random fevers, brain fog. I attended physiotherapeutic rehab. I'm exercising daily just to be able to perform normal self care but nowhere 100%. Could I actually have had the virus? Is it possible this is long Covid? Perhaps. Could it have been the vaccine? Possibly. I'm in a gray area a medical orphan so to speak and I look 'normal' but I'm far from it.