Let's have a chat for those still sticking with restrictions, shielding etc.

[gallbladderpain]

It would seem in recent days that this is now a minority group on here but there are still some of us whether you are shielding, vulnerable yourself or simply following the restrictions to protect others.
Not a pro-lockdown thread just somewhere hopefully supportive to others in the same situation while we wait for the light at the end of the tunnel.

Aren't most of us still following the law, even if only to avoid a fine?

Well I am, it is what it is. It is more by design though then an active choice to be protecting others.

I just moan a lot. and send one to school

I realised quite a long time ago that moaning isn't going to speed it up for us unfortunately. If it did we would have been over it a long time ago so we just accept it for what it is for now and hope that there is some light in the near future.
I look forward to the day the DC can return to school....I will just be overjoyed to be able to clean my house and have it stay clean for more than 15 minutes

I have to be honest after this lockdown ends I’m not going to shield anymore. I don’t care how many letters Matt Hancock sends me, I’ve had my first jab and by 8th March I should have enough protection to stop me dying.

Even my DH king of the lockdown, worry wart, who never misses a covid briefing has had enough.

It will have been a year and I cannot do it anymore. I’m starting teacher training in September and I refuse to let covid stop me.

I will Go up to London and demonstrate for my freedom if I have to.

One more month, one more month and then the children can go back to school and I WILL visit my family (all vaccinated now). I am coping because I now have a goal and I refuse to be terrified into hiding inside to prop up the NHS.

I understand your frustration @Fucket especially after shielding for so long but unfortunately I fear a rise in communitu transmission again until we find out how well the vaccine reduces transmission. We are on the other side of the coin where what we need right now is the herd immunity aspect of the vaccination as our shielding one can't have the vaccine. I fear there might never be an end in sight unless the vaccine impacts on transmission which fingers crossed it does !

Well done on the teacher training though ! I planned a career change last year to return to education in September 20 into the education sector as well. Was just getting all the ducks lined up at the end of February 20 and well it couldn't happen in the end !
I'm now aiming for 2022 as a starting point !

pretty good reduction in transmission... in two out of two contacts with a positive vaccinated case...

keeping to the rules but as a single parent of disabled children I do have one in school, both going to occasional respite, and children going to their dad's for a bit. lockdown would have ended this week if moaning in this house made it quicker.

good idea for a thread.

I’m sorry but you cans shield of you want to. I even went to work in November and December, a school which at that point had 9 members of staff ill. I am in lockdown because it is the law, but my kids and everyone else’s are being sacrificed on the altar of the NHS. But not in my name. I will not be blamed for this shitshow.

My dad has cancer and we’ve decided we’re going to meet up. We didn’t at Xmas because cases were high. But it will be spring and cases are falling away.

You be frightened into a non-life if you want to. I’m going back out into the sunlight and seeing my family again. That is my focus, that is my end point.

We are having the usual fatigue before the school breakup. To be fair we also experienced this when they physically attended school as well but it will definitely be a welcome break. I've been finding that we always come off the back of a break feeling more focused and ready to get settled down into the routine again. A break every 5th week would be ideal in this house !

@Fucket I would suggest this thread is not the one for you. There is many more on here right now that would be more suited.

Maybe, I’m sticking to the rules though and I am shielding. I guess I just don’t fit into how you want me to do those things, I.e. through gritted teeth. I will leave you guys to it.

I was just being honest about how I’m getting through it. I have a goal, it’s freedom, and this is prison.

Please don’t let yourselves become institutionalised.

Please don’t let them turn you into scapegoats (and it’s always the vulnerable in a society who end up being used this way). For the high levels of public debt, and the public outcry when the furlough scheme ends and the rise in unemployment.

If you are working and shielding becareful they don’t get rid of you by the back door I.e. be sure you are ‘too sick’ to work. Statutory sick pay won’t last forever.

Shielding because dc is palliative. Completely housebound and isolated. Waiting to hear if underage vaccine will be permitted. If not I don't know what the fuck to do anymore

You are ending shielding because you are lucky enough to be vaccinated. To tell other people who are at equally as much risk as you were and also shielding not to be scared into a non life, institutionalised , a scapegoat etc when this person CANNOT be vaccinated and is still in the vulnerable shielding position you were in before is not of a supportive nature.

@amhereliveamnotacat

Shielding because dc is palliative. Completely housebound and isolated. Waiting to hear if underage vaccine will be permitted. If not I don't know what the fuck to do anymore

I'm sorry to hear this. I feel your pain its an underage vaccine that we are also waiting out for ! It seems to be at the discretion of the medical team involved, I'm presuming you have had a conversation regarding vaccination with them? I know many are reluctant to confirm anything at this stage though !

Medics want to do it, permission is being sought. Red tape. I am trying to be patient but feel like I am failing dc completely.

You aren't even though it feels this way. This is out of your control. We have been so hopeful for vaccines all along but didn't consider that under 16's wouldn't be included (maybe stupidity on my behalf to believe they would be) it just seemed a given in my head due to them being a priority group for flu vaccination !

I know it is childish but I just feel like dc shielding have been completely forgotten about.

Anytime I try to talk about how difficult things are in rl I am immediately cut off by "things are difficult for everyone just now"!

dc is so ill and there is no empathy. It is just feeling a lot like nobody gives a damn or worse that palliative care is best hastened and quality of life is not important. Support was shit before but now it is just a crime to even discuss problems managing disability or basic care needs.

Sorry for moaning. I'm so dejected for dc, I can't imagine how shit it must be to be cut off from people for this long for a child.

They have been forgotten about and I cannot even begin to imagine how it is during all this while also relying on palliative care services.
It feels everyone is vocal about the effects of school closures on children. Children not being able to see friends for a few weeks because of a new lockdown but there is never any mention of the children who haven't left their homes in almost a year now !!
I watched pretty much every briefing until around the end of last year when I gave up and there was never a mention of these children !

@amhereliveamnotacat

You can say how shit it is as much as you want here. Not much I know but can listen

I'm in for the thread. I'm shielding.

Friends have dropped off and picked up stuff from the doorstep and we have had short conversations (mainly about what is in the bags) while they stand outside on the pavement (so about 4+ metres away) with masks and I am at my doorway.

I go outside daily and keep within the boundaries of my garden except for Thursday evening when I put the bins outside the fence and Friday when I take them back in. (don't shake too hard with excitement now)

Friends pick up my prescriptions, any bits I want locally or to be posted.

Other than that exciting bin coming and going, I haven't left the house in months apart from the end of November when I had to go for scans.

I live alone and am recovering from a physical illness which knocked me for six for several years, I left hospital after a long stay at the end of January and moved house 3 weeks later and soon after the first lockdown hit.

I have a lot of stuff that needs to be done to sort the house out but I can't physically do it myself and so need to wait until my handy man is allowed to work and I can have physical help with stuff. This is not an essential need so I won't even consider someone coming in at this point. My to do lists are miles long.

My mental health from a lockdown point of view has been quite good as I am quite introverted in general but force myself to appear extroverted so I have been able to let that mask slip altogether. I had a personal assault in March which has affected my mental health badly which I am having a lot of problems stemming from that. Lots of panic attacks, dissociation etc but I think that being able to be alone has helped in that respect as I think it would be a lot worse if I didn’t have the opportunity to retreat.

My partner is ill long term and a couple of years ago we made the decision that he would live with his parents so he is in situ there (the decision was down to my care needs at the time and his current ones, he is mostly bed bound) and we speak/ video call as often as possible and are in agreement that due to the conditions involved that we don't see each other for now. It's very difficult but we are coping. This is a marathon not a sprint.

I know that sounds crap but having lived through hell for both of us over the last number of years and I was lucky I got a chance to grasp at recovery, I arrived in the hospital in a wheelchair and I used the same chair to carry my bags when I was leaving. Neither of us want me to lose any of that progress. We are fighting for the help my partner needs in the long term but many many hoops to jump so he might have a chance to get some life back..

I don't have any children but I do have 2 kittens/ cats who are 10 months and very lively and a real source of joy and comfort to me.

It must be so hard having children at home all day every day, trying to get through the day. All fed no one dead is a good motto. Unwashed clothes or another film won't do any harm if something has to slip.

I have always found with services that you have to be a squeaky wheel. Hugs you need proper support especially for a child in palletive care, my best approach has been email chains so if the GP verbally agrees x, email after the consultation to confirm that x was agreed, you only need a one word reply - Yes (that's agreed), then cc onto all other relevant people as by the time things have been processed and agreed with everyone chiming in often the need has changed and so back to square one. Paper trails...

My past care plan was proudly announced to be fully up to date by my sw who had spent a full day sorting it out, I felt bad to tell her that the reason I was ringing was to update on X action which made 14 pages of the plan immediately out of date and irrelevant. The plan was approximately 100 pages in total. The email chains made it easier for each person to see who agreed to what and when.

I'm self isolating since the beginning with my disabled, adult daughter I have literally since the very start only gone out on Monday for essential shop we both wear ppe and steer clear of others.
My DD was born 11 weeks early and therefore her lungs are not great and she has asthma. We are both bored stupid and her MH has suffered due to covid but we are alive and so far healthy so that's great. Sadly friends and family members who work in the health care profession have or have had covid and been really poorly resulting in 2 deaths. The risk is too great to ignore.

Following lockdown in this house. It's boring at times but I think the country has turned a corner and whilst you can argue about booking holidays all you like, I do think with the vaccine roll-out that things will slowly return. Human interaction.

So we are home schooling at kitchen table whilst I attempt to make vaguely healthy food for all.

Trying to enjoy these cold dark mornings without a manic school run, taking life day-to-day as I am sure there are aspects of this slower pace of life I will miss, not enough clearly, but not having to be at X with XYZ at a certain time every morning used to be a struggle.

So here we are.

Just an average family, doing the average lockdown. Having the average financial, health stresses.

It's not great, but I hope the kids can look back on this time with a couple of fond memories, with an appreciation for school and appetite for life that perhaps they didn't have before.

I could write a list of things that are awful. But there are many posts to display those opinions, so this is not to belittle what other households are going through.

A lot of our friends are the same, just average people trying to make a headfuck situation as least damaging for their kids and themselves as possible. What other options are there?

It's really hard when everyone keeps saying 'if the lockdown continues, we won't be abiding by it any more'. Easy to say if you don't have anyone vulnerable in your family. Dd is CV (officially CEV but no one can agree on whether she should actually be shielding or not). She's only 7 and so won't be getting the vaccine. But we have been (and continue to be) as careful as possible. I work in early years and have been lucky enough to be working from home since January, but I will be going back in after half term. It does make me anxious, but I have just had my first dose vaccine and will be doing twice weekly LFTs, so hopefully won't bring anything home. My big worry is when schools open up, as I will feel forced to send dd in, along with her 3 older siblings. I had hoped the govt would introduce rotas, smaller class sizes, masks and funding for better ventilation - but none of that looks set to happen and now it just feels inevitable that infection rates will rise again. When I'm at work and the children are at school I feel like we are so exposed as a family, and so frustrated that we can't protect most vulnerable family member 😞.

@amhereliveamnotacat so sorry lovely.

It must be so annoying to hear all the whinging about kids not being in school when they do have more freedom than the shielders.

DD was the middle category at first. They think asthma makes no difference now. We were pretty much staying in for her.

Sibling is back at school. (Sen) but we have done repeated weeks of self isolations in a flat with not going outside so can understand how much more difficult it must be to shield.

Agree that it is so hard to read the "I'm not going to bother" posts.

I did hear that they are going to start testing younger people with the vaccine to get more information on dosages etc.