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Pandemic personal consequences

A very close friend has just tested positive. He is double vaccinated for AZ. He thought it was a summer cold, but as quite a severe asthmatic rang gp for more inhalers, as wheezing like a good'un. Was told to get tested , although totally thought it wasn't. He's ultra careful too, due to the asthma, always masked up and sanitized.
 
The NHS texted me last week to say I could book an earlier appointment but there were none in fact at that centre. I didn't want to risk cancelling it to be offered a centre a train + taxi ride away.

But just got a text from my GP, first one. I've been able to book second jab with them, 16 days before I had the original appointment with NHS at the big centre. I'll cancel the NHS appointment, once I've had it.

A bit relieved to be getting it earlier, with case numbers so high. I'm generally pretty healthy but you never know...
 
On trains, have been on a few recently, to and via London. Has been fine. Not travelling at peak admittidly . You wouldn't think the tube is going to be very safe but at least on the couple of lines I've used, there's been good airflow in the carriages.
 
I just went to the dentist - first time since 2018 apparently :oops:

I broke a bit of tooth off before Xmas, but wanted to hold out until I'd been vaccinated ...
Luckily I apparently haven't lost anything by waiting and was given a temporary filling and getting it properly sorted in a couple of months' time ...

I've come home and maybe it was just because I've not had anyone to talk to for ages, but I've semi-lost my voice :hmm:
 
Been offered a surgery date in the next three months if I move to a different surgeon's waiting list that they've opened up for the people who've been waiting longest coz covid backlog. Probably gonna have to turn it down unless they can guarantee me a date in August, because of covid travel / pre-op isolation rules (which are totally understandable and I don't blame the hospital, it's just fucking annoying).
 
My Mum's just tested positive. 75, only recently recovered from open heart surgery. That's the bad news. Good news is she's double jabbed and only has a cough. Waiting for results to see if my Stepdad has it and if I do.

Almost certainly caught it from a guy who's been doing some building work at our house. He's got it and we've subsequently discovered he's an anti-vaxxer. :facepalm: He's also given it to his son. :(

Side point: My Mum had three negative lateral flow tests in the run up to her positive PCR. They're really not very reliable are they?
 
Voley said:
Almost certainly caught it from a guy who's been doing some building work at our house. He's got it and we've subsequently discovered he's an anti-vaxxer. :facepalm: He's also given it to his son. :(
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Hard to know if you have any comeback on this. Does he work for a firm or sole trader? Is he on checkatrade or have anywhere you can feed this back?
 
Red Cat said:
The guy talking had done some experiments that showed the technique made a huge difference. so it's not that the lateral flow tests are unreliable per se but they really are if you don't get the technique right.
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And this is why having them done in a test centre is likely to make them more accurate - the first time I did one I had to be "encouraged" by the person supervising the test to stick the probe right to the back of my throat so I almost gagged and right up my nose so it felt like it was going in my brain.

People are understandably less likely to do that when unsupervised, because it's uncomfortable and feels invasive, and this leaves me wondering if the switch to unsupervised home testing was such a good idea.
 
andysays said:
And this is why having them done in a test centre is likely to make them more accurate - the first time I did one I had to be "encouraged" by the person supervising the test to stick the probe right to the back of my throat so I almost gagged and right up my nose so it felt like it was going in my brain.

People are understandably less likely to do that when unsupervised, because it's uncomfortable and feels invasive, and this leaves me wondering if the switch to unsupervised home testing was such a good idea.
Click to expand...

yes, it wasn't new information in that sense, it was a piece with a scientist who'd done some experiments on his housemates who had contracted covid that looked at the differences in results depending on the technique.
 
Has anyone else's mental health been going very definitely down the toilet in the last few weeks and months? I am fortunate enough to have the money to see a therapist and I get from her that this isn't unusual and that a lot of her other clients have had similar. But I've been at a stage of some sort of burnout for a while now... actually, it's focused my mind on how people think of this "burnout" concept, like it's something where you are fine until you hit a particular point and then suddenly you are completely fucked, whereas in reality you're actually just increasingly fucked and regularly just lose days until the point where, yknow, you lose all the days.
 
FridgeMagnet said:
Has anyone else's mental health been going very definitely down the toilet in the last few weeks and months? I am fortunate enough to have the money to see a therapist and I get from her that this isn't unusual and that a lot of her other clients have had similar. But I've been at a stage of some sort of burnout for a while now... actually, it's focused my mind on how people think of this "burnout" concept, like it's something where you are fine until you hit a particular point and then suddenly you are completely fucked, whereas in reality you're actually just increasingly fucked and regularly just lose days until the point where, yknow, you lose all the days.
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I’m calling it lack of residual capacity to cope

I see myself as very resilient and historically have been but I’m fucking wilting at the smallest of issues
I’m a fucking trembler switch and everyone is stomping around in big boots

the worst thing is I recognise it and it’s becoming the norm, only sleep gets rid of it

I can’t unload on my friends as per usual because they seem to be going through their own flavour of it.

and I am surrounded by fucking dipshit asshats
 
I’m better than I was during the winter in terms of mood but this is doing nothing for any latent anxiety I have. Tired of home and tired of feeling it’s best to stay away from people as much as possible.

Very much resent the uncertainty of what to do and where to go when out - are things open, have I got mask, am I going to be able to nip to the loo. Walking about used to be a major part of my life, just seeing things and taking the odd photo. I have the forest nearby but it’s just not that varied.
 
yes

i was overloaded at work and trying to get a new job before all this shit started

got as far as a provisional job offer that got put on hold then didn't happen because of lockdown.

spent most of last year working damn silly hours (less than some, not public facing, and not in the NHS, so in a better position than some)

intermittent silly hours since new year, but just feel absolutely bloody knackered on all levels.

have had days when i've come close to hitting some twat, but haven't had the energy recently.

i've managed to get another job (got a couple of offers over the winter but both would have meant moving house and couldn't face that in lockdown) and i'm supposed to be starting next month. i'm seriously considering whether to make my apologies and not go. leaving current job with nothing to go to now could mean involuntary early retirement. starting this job then crashing almost certainly will.

bugger.
 
FridgeMagnet said:
Has anyone else's mental health been going very definitely down the toilet in the last few weeks and months? I am fortunate enough to have the money to see a therapist and I get from her that this isn't unusual and that a lot of her other clients have had similar. But I've been at a stage of some sort of burnout for a while now... actually, it's focused my mind on how people think of this "burnout" concept, like it's something where you are fine until you hit a particular point and then suddenly you are completely fucked, whereas in reality you're actually just increasingly fucked and regularly just lose days until the point where, yknow, you lose all the days.
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I want to elaborate on this rather than be vague to do the big man tough guy thing, which I still feel that I have to at work, and which I probably do have to, because, work.

When I talk about "losing days" I mean that I work from home but wake up feeling blank and thinking everything is pointless and even if I do try to force myself to do anything, I can't concentrate or get anything done. I've learned that I might as well just not bother rather than beat myself up about it and still not get anything done. I feel fatally exhausted yet naps don't help.

Sometimes I'm okay in the morning and then sag later, or sometimes I'm fucked in the morning but can pull myself together in the afternoon, or sometimes it bounces around between the two, but it's not predictable. I often think "oh well so I guess around 2pm I'll probably be able to start some coding" and then that turns out not to be the case. The inability to predict anything is one of the more frustrating aspects.
 
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