Prepping for a Pandemic... 15

[FuckThisWind]

A lot of us have been here before. We Prepped for Brexit. Some of us are Heathcare workers. We prepare for the worst every day. It's difficult to predict what will happen in our lives. In our lifetime. Will we get Cancer? Will a huge meteorite wipe the world out?

One thing is for sure, this new virus is either affecting us, or is going to affect us all very soon. You are all already onboard. I hope you are prepared and much as you can be. And in the meantime this thread is here to support us all.

This week will bring many new challenges. We are almost certain to have some sort of lockdown. Like other parts of Europe. We aren't special. We aren't different. We are all
fragile souls. But I hope we live to tell the tale.

God Speed.

Very sad to hear what I was warned about - CAMH have cancelled all the appointments. Children receiving vital mental health services are being let go. Been told not to go to A&E if an emergency and told 111 not likley to answer. Mentally I knew this was coming. It's still a blow.

I don’t want to go on any WhatsApp groups either. Prefer the anonymity and support here. Have made the decision to pull kids from school at the end of this week, regardless of government plans.

@ofwarren grrrrrr at your family

That’s terrible news @YoursTunbridgeWells. so sorry to hear it.

morning all.

Hardly slept at all last night...I was having awful dreams - DD went missing. I woke up feeling very shaken up and have a splitting headache.

Sending hugs to all of you who need one today ((hug))

Out from the dentist.
I have to have 2 more appointments to finish this root canal....
I can't see them going ahead as they are in 3 and 4 weeks time.
Luckily my temporary filling was intact.

The reception was receiving call after call of people cancelling.

It's getting very real here. I've not been that concerned until yesterday when I went to the shops. The restrictions triggered a panic attack 🙄 I feel rather stupid but my youngest is autistic and has food allergies and eats a very restricted diet and being limited to only 4 soya milk, if they have it is worrying. He loves on hot chocolate and crisps and I'm now having to go out every day to try multiple shops to find enough milk for us. Everything else isn't so bad as we have been adding one or 2 extra bit. My daughter is worried about her rent though. Her job will be closing soon and her roommate is a student nurse and she is taking extra shifts to pay rent for a bit longer. They have managed to get enough food for 2 weeks at least.
I'm useless with names but I'm sorry to here that people are poorly or struggling with family members. We have a lot of family in the at risk age group and don't know when we will see them again as they all live far away.

Why is this thread unusually quiet today btw??

It's still taking me ages to catch up, and I'm also spending time between organising family/businesss and trying to have time away to stay sane! It in any WhatsApp group.

@Jade1976 thank you. That’s an important information many of us don’t know. I will remember to use a credit card if something like that happens.

@Waitasecond exactly. It’s very important for them to understand anger or worry is not going to solve this for us. If we think about it, everyday we have co existed with so many other organisms in harmony. Let’s acknowledge what’s happening but make sure we take all the special precautions.

Hey everyone,
I’ve been here since the beginning (name changed) but with the WhatsApp group I remember a poster on one of the earlier threads asking if anyone would like to join and saying to just PM her your number. I didn’t bother as I’d rather stay here but I don’t think they were meaning to exclude anyone and at that point anyone and everyone was welcome to join.
I’m glad we’re all still about here as WhatsApp groups annoy me with the messages constantly coming through and you’re not able to mark your place like you can here, when a new message comes through on WhatsApp you’re just pushed to the bottom of the page which is so frustrating as you then have to go back and find where you were.
Sorry to hear about people’s family members.
Sending healthy and calm vibes for everyone, it’s all starting to get more serious isn’t it 💛

There may be a better way than a whatsapp group if people need a safe space to talk to each other.

I'm quiet as I'm having to make fundamental changes to the way I do my business and its taking up a lot of space/mental load. I'm finding that difficult, especially as my family are also finding the transition very difficult.

I just read this tweet thread and now my brain has turned to mush. Cannot imagine doing this for 18 months.

twitter.com/jeremycyoung/status/1239975682643357696

Hello lovely regulars! Fab to see you all posting again and a sense of calm in the thread (it was making me a bit stressed the other day)

I had a dentist appointment yesterday as well @ofwarren and was shitting myself about it. They were very good about checking I didn’t have any symptoms etc so hopefully it’s all ok. If you’re is getting loads of cancellations could you get appointments sooner to get it out of the way?

Jealous of whoever said they have bought chickens!

Also, do you all have a landline phone already? I’m getting one as it’s been hard to get through on the mobile recently and I still want to be in touch with family of mobiles and WiFi goes down

Also for the next thread is it worth changing it to a new name now that Armageddon has actually now started? 😔

@rageagainst84 that's a good point about cancellations.
I will ring them and ask them if they can bring it forward if enough people cancel

@YoursTunbridgeWells I expected that but still bad news, although our appointment for counselling wasn't until July anyway (assessed in January!). I have a teen with depression who started self harming last weekend, he has already suffered the loss of both grandmothers in the last 5 months and now isolation from his GF and friends. It's going to be hard going.

Hi, I've lurked from the start and have my Brexit stash still. I've only commented a couple of times but used everyone's advice thank you.

I'm just sitting crying after getting the work from home packs from school. It feels like it made it real. I'm a single parent, no family and friends are all at a distance. I WFH, which will end/suffer if isolation is imposed.

I just feel a massive responsibility that I'm the only one able to provide for DC, look after them if they are ill - and what happens if I get ill? I feel really alone. I've kind of watched and expected it all to happen, but now it's here I don't know what to do.

Sharing your worries as a fellow single parent @originalcatlady 😞 genuinely scared about getting ill myself now having read some of the descriptions of how much it knocks you out (having originally focussed on worrying about dc) xx

I think I'm still more worried about the financial and lifestyle changes than getting it. I think.

DD birthday tomorrow. I'd bought her theatre tickets (and nothing else!) which is cancelled and her party Sat is cancelled 😢. I know these things don't matter in the bigger picture but it's making me feel like a failure. DS birthday was a massive affair just a week ago and I feel for her.

@Gammeldragz So sorry to hear that. It;'s really tough. My son tried to go the whole hog (not sure peeps want details) and it's been a rocky road. I've had a further call with them this morning as we were due in and they are trying to set up telephone services but this could take some time. Our details are still there so hang on in there. Your CAMH might be more organised than ours (Took 6 weeks to send a letter to our GP which was needed for the next stage.) If you ever want a chat message me. It's a lonely path sometimes.

Prep thought - I realised my credit card which I use for everythign (and pay off in full) was going to expire in June. This slightly freaked me out on the basis that staff could be sick and I might not get a replacement before the old one expired. I phoned today and have been told they can issue me a new one now. Do check your card expiry dates.

@RageAgainst84 Our landline handset died about 2 years ago. I never replaced it. BUt then last month I decided having a phone may be important so I got a cheap one off ebay. Probably won't be vital but our phone number is on medical records, all sorts of stuff so may be needed

I just got a message from the Indian shop that it’s closed for deep cleaning as precaution (which looks very dodgy to me as I have never seen them clean anything until now lol) now I am getting worried because I was there yesterday. I texted them and they replied back saying it’s just for precaution. Thankfully I didn’t buy anything as i saw it was crowded on the other end anyway so left with my bag without touching anything.

For all the preppers here - I don’t know if it has been discussed already but I think having an ordinary press the button type of mobile phone is very useful when I am out and about and wearing gloves. (Reason: Gloves don’t work on touch screens) Also easy to disinfect. So if you don’t have one, buy it and you won’t regret it when this peaks.

Have been predominantly a lurked and name changed, but have been around since thread 3. We have now been told to self isolate by doctors as ds had a chest infection. They aren't testing, so l am certain he hasn't got coronavirus, but can't prove either way.

I thought I was prepared for lockdown as we have stuff in, but it turns out that preparing mentally is a totally different thing. Not doing nearly so well with that. Not worried about getting ill myself, but really don't want to think about kids and our parents / elderly relatives getting it. Can't even help them if we are supposed to be isolating. It's more the life logistics I am struggling with.

Also, I bought a radio as I normally listen to everything on phone or computer, but phone networks already struggling with the working from home traffic. Now we can still get music and news even in a power cut.