Is anyone else feeling like COVID is circling them like a vulture?

[Yellownotblue]

We’ve been extremely careful throughout. Obeying rules. Doing lockdown. Wearing masks, even outdoors. Isolating when pinged by NHS app even when it made no sense.

But in the last week, we’ve had lots of close contacts who tested positives. DC’s classmates, then school bus driver, then my walking buddy. It feels like the circle is tightening around us, and it’s just a matter of time before we get sick.

I’m finding this very stressful as DH is abroad for work for several months. We have no relatives here. So if I get sick I’m completely on my own with DCs. They’re not tiny, but they are too young to look after themselves.

I know it’s not entirely rational but I’m very anxious about it. It’s almost like the tension you get from a horror movie. Every new WhatsApp from friends telling us they got the virus, is like a turning of the screw. It’s like the soundtrack to my life is ominous double bass, playing the Jaws theme.

Am I alone feeling like this?

No. I still only personally know 3 people that have had it and only one of those in my area. None if them were actually I’ll either. Hardly any cases at my kids school either.

Yes. Tier 3, both secondary schools shut because of staff shortage. I personally know three families with it currently, shipped for two of them this morning. I do have an underlying health condition too.

Shopped obviously, not shipped!

I think it seems worse this time because more people are being tested. God knows how many of us had it last wave and didn’t even know. We had over 1000 deaths a day at the last peak, about half that now, there must have been tons of folk had it before and we were all just in blissful ignorance and carrying on as normal.

Yes you’ll probably get infected if you haven’t been already.

You’ve got no basis to say this! Numbers are high but the R number is below 1 so the epidemic is shrinking and there’s a vaccine on the way. It’s by no means inevitable that everyone is going to get it!

I felt fine about it a week ago
Happy about the Christmas exemption
Looking forward to getting my hair cut, going Christmas shopping and a long awaited hospital appt to deal with a chronic issue.
Barely knew 1 or 2 people in my personal life who had had it and all were fine
Hardly any cases in my kids schools

What a difference a week makes

Two massive outbreaks at my place of work 20+ people infected in each
Multiple classes shut at both kids schools
Have probably got it myself
Christmas is cancelled

I think it’s getting more common to know personally or to know of people who have or have had covid because, at the end of the day, it is a circulating winter virus and has been with us for over a year.
Maybe it would reassure you a little to know that it is possible to get a mild case of covid and make a full recovery because there really is very little information out there about this, even on here. It’s clear that older and certain vulnerable people are more at risk but then we are told that younger people can still get seriously ill or if not that they will then suffer from long covid.
Well I am in my early 40’s and I caught covid towards the end of October. I got the cough and then a general feeling of malaise with a decent headache for about 3 days. It took me about a week to feel I had properly shaken it and about 12 days for the cough to subside. I never had a temperature or breathing difficulties but did lose my taste and smell. They took 2-3 weeks to return but I can honestly state that I have suffered no lasting effects and feel completely back to full health.
I don’t mean to sound dismissive or flippant but I do think it’s important for accounts like mine to be available to help with the anxiety around covid.

@ZenNudist

Do you actually know anyone younger who got it and was really ill? Probably need to put this in perspective.

A friend of DH's in his early 40s and otherwise healthy died from Covid in June after two months on a ventilator. His family didn't see him from the moment he was taken away in an ambulance.

I'm mid 40s but I have an autoimmune condition which means if I get it it could be very nasty. DH is wfh and we only go out to do shopping/occasional walks. But I'm hearing about more and more people catching it from their supermarket visits, especially now the shops are packed. I'll be getting the vaccine fairly soon but until then I'm shit scared and constantly waiting for it to land. The worry and stress is just awful. I feel like I've aged 20 years in the last nine months.

Also I'm in a tier 3 area and infections are through the roof, particularly in my postcode area, which doesn't help with the worry.

I'm not bothered about me or the kids having it. It's the people we might give it to.

DH (50s a bit overweight) I am a bit more worried

DF very worried. In his 70s. Lost my mum already this year and cannot face losing my dad too. Just can't.
I want to see him as I know he is lonely and grieving but I don't want to kill him. How do I square that circle?

My patients at work. All elderly and vulnerable. What if I unwittingly caused an outbreak? How could I live with the guilt of killing off other people's loved ones. I am struggling a lot with that at the moment. It's not an unrealistic scenario. We have 2 massive outbreaks on a ward and in a crisis team right now. If they trace that back to a staff member how will that person feel.

If it's me I know how I will feel. Unbearably guilty.

I did in October.

It passed. Things are currently getting better.

I expect it to get worse again.

I do think different places in the country are getting very different psychological experiences based on where they live and what the restrictions have been. And how high case numbers are.

There is a noticeable difference in attitude between people I know who have so far avoided T3, those who have been T3 but escaped and those who have been under harsh restrictions since July.

Those I know who were in T3 but are now T2 are possibly coping best atm. They are taking it seriously understanding the implications of T3, but also trying to make the very most of T2. They know its going to be up and down.

Those in T3 pergatory are just fed up. There's lots of disregard for the rules which isn't helped by attitudes from the South which seem to have forgotten this and seem to be shocked at how awful T2 is.

And then there's though maybe about to go into T3 who are experiencing that moment of grief and awful sinking feeling that things are FAR from over. And its compounded by that feeling of the vultures about it getting closer and closer when you start to hear of people affected or it affects you directly.

My point here is that, there is a bit of a fracturing of the country on this. So have been here before and perhaps won't be terribly sympathetic about the wailing when they feel there was a lack of sympathy or even awareness before. Others will just completely get that feeling and be supportive.

I think everyone would do well to acknowledge that everyone is in a different position and journey based on where the hotspots are and that this is affecting people in various ways psychologically.

The blame game is the most unhelpful bit of it though.

It is all psychological but I can't seem to make myself think differently

The cruellest thing for me is that I had been a bit hopeful. Vaccine coming, bit of relaxation possible at Christmas, feeling of the end in sight

And now I feel we have fallen at the final hurdle and it's all gone to hell in a handcart

Like those 70s disaster movies where one person always dies just as they are about to all get rescued.

I am mad with myself for daring to hope basically

Yes. I feel like this. I think it's the being "pent up" during lockdowns and then being "free" but there's more people out than normal.

I've a hair app and a pedicure booked and am worried about them. Cancelled my leg laser appointment.

We've been clear so far and DH is extremely vulnerable so it's a worry.

It is a constant cloud but I try to remind myself that I have more chance of dying in a car crash and just to be brave and get on with it. Agree with posters who say the worry about getting it is probably worse than getting it.

Interesting in my area - we are tier 3 but numbers are much much improved. People are now seeing people they know get it and recover, including a couple I would have thought would be absolute goners. It seems to be making people much more frustrated with the restrictions especially when their families are being negatively impacted with job losses

Absolutely feeling it here too. A lot of people close to us have it as we speak. We've been careful too - where we live masks outdoors are compulsory so been wearing one everywhere (not that we go out much).

I'm not worried so much about the virus per se but rather the logistics of isolating completely for 2 weeks, shopping, etc etc.

@MissEllaWater

Can you not get your shopping online?

@lovelemoncurd

I caught it March this year. I knew very little about it then and then a week later I couldn't breathe. But no. I don't feel it circling and could have happily got on with my life. Cue all the people saying 'but we don't know if you can get reinfected' - where are all these reinfected people then?

eu.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2020/12/12/covid-coronavirus-reinfection-michigan-prisoners/3876185001/

Yes I felt like this march and very much feel under threat again.
School cases in our secondary are ramping up, also where I am, touch wood, primary is OK so far

[quote BlueBlancmange]@MissEllaWater

Can you not get your shopping online?[/quote]
We've been able to get the occasional delivery slot but they're rarer than hen's teeth. Unfortunately neither of us drive so I have to use public transport, which is another worry. I do try to do so as little as possible but my rheumatoid arthritis makes carrying heavy shopping difficult.

I feel like this too. Feel life is a game of Russian Roulette every time you go out. DD2 just finished first period of self isolation and I found it really stressful- watching her like a hawk for symptoms.
No one in my family understands how I feel and already been arguing about Christmas restrictions and what we can and can't do.

I feel like this too

I'm a nurse working on a covid ward, second wave we have had a much worse time and far more staff sickness... 21 staff on my ward are off with covid!

Feel like I've dodged it since March and my luck will run out soon, probably nicely timed for Christmas

bikerWife do you think more staff sickness is because we've slacked off on SD and PPE with colleagues etc? I will admit we probably did a bit on breaks etc. Never with patients.
Our outbreak is being blamed on that.

But actually
Our kids are at school
People are out shopping and in the gym and the hairdresser
The last lockdown was nothing like the first one.

I think it's no wonder outbreaks are happening and staff should not get the whole blame. There's just more of it about and more chances to get infected outside work.

I feel guilty anyway.

I am super careful with PPE and social distancing and most of my colleagues who are sick I know are super careful too. One nurse has a husband with MS and has been terrified of covid since the start, she is now poorly... I honestly can't explain what's gone wrong but nearly 20% of our staff across the trust have covid We did not see anything near this in 1st wave and I can't see that we are doing anything differently. Its very scary!

My dil is a nurse and had covid earlier in year when they were staying with us awaiting a new build house, no one else in the house got it. We just don't understand this virus

We’ve got it. The kids and I have had fairly mildly, though I am still wiped two weeks later and dh has been quite ill throughout.
I also felt that it was just a matter of time.
Just keep yourself healthy, take vitamin d, keep taking precautions like wearing a mask (maybe reducing viral load) and washing your hands to give yourself the best chance for a mild illness.