Hi @SP7, oh, I bet you are over the moon and the icing on the ‘wedding’ cake is your daughter getting engaged. Virtual celebrations are a thing that has become a current normality, don’t forget the virtual hugs. A wedding to plan sounds really exciting. We await hearing all the plans.
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Let’s hope you can all celebrate together soon x
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Very frustrating @Franko! Let’s wait and see how your hospital appointment goes!
You’re poor niece. So many plans ruined 
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I don’t have the confidence to go away as although I am in remission I am on dialysis. However I have gone to a supermarket which after nearly five months of not being in a shop was quite exciting. I am also a volunteer at the local hospice and work in fundraising. I went back yesterday for the first time and it felt great, even though screens were everywhere and we all wore masks but it felt lovely. Alas as we are in North West can’t see the family even in the garden.
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Hi @Joan. I think staying close to home sounds like the sensible thing for you at the moment, not that you have much choice in the north! How has it been since lockdown has been reintroduced? My close friend was due to visit her parents in Bolton this weekend after not seeing them for 6 months - a difficult decision on whether she does or doesn’t go. . How lovely that you have managed to get back to your volunteer work. That’s such an amazing thing to be able to do and I’m glad you felt safe doing it. Did it make you feel better getting out and about? Are you managing to keep in touch with family and friends in other ways during lockdown?
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Nichola,
Yes it was really lovely at the hospice yesterday. All the staff were so welcoming too.
We have been keeping in touch with our daughter and her son in Wales via Skype as well as phone calls. My husband has been giving my grandson maths lessons, it is his favourite subject, and my husband was a Maths teacher but always taught adults so been a challenge with a nine year old. Before it was illegal my daughter who lives locally had been in the garden along with her family. Her son, a year younger has also been having maths lessons via Skype and we have played games with him that way too, eg hangman, beetle drive etc. My daughter was going to be coming for a meal, the first. time I would have had anyone other than health professionals in my house since early March.
I have had lots of contact with friends via email, phone calls and WhatsApp so am very lucky. Have started having Support Group meetings via Zoom, a challenge for me setting up, but we have had two so far with another in a weeks time. I count myself one of the lucky ones as I do have a garden, good friends, access to IT etc must be harder if you don’t have a garden and lack IT skills.
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It’s been so good reading all your experiences and knowing I’m not the only one with fears.
Franko I think you are an inspiration and very brave and in being brave you have benefitted.
Joan it was good to hear you felt able to go back to your volunteering, this is just the dilemma I have at the moment.
I volunteer in a hospital and we have all been asked if we would like to return and in what capacity.
I work in the main reception helping patients/visitors around the hospital, something I love doing, but not so sure that’s a good idea at the present moment. I do have an opportunity to work behind the reception, which is like Fort Knox, fully screened,
I know there will be people thinking a hospital would be the last place to go, but they have so many precautions in place and checks at the door can’t help thinking it’s probably safer than the shops!
Am I mad to want to go back?
Can I find that bit of courage to go through with it?
If this virus is going to be around for years do we all just shut ourselves away or try to get back to having a life?
I do hope I can find that courage.
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Oh I forgot to say, I’m really sad that the government can’t bring itself to make mask wearing mandatory in all indoor spaces. It would be so much more simple than people being confused about when and where to wear them. It would also make me feel much more confident with the pausing of shielding.
I can’t really understand the reluctance to wear masks, I think it’s a visual reminder to people that the virus is still about.
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Hi @AnnD. Its fully understandable that you’d be worried about going back to your job. It’s very brave to do so. All I can say is that when I’ve done something again for the first time that I feel better about it the second time and stop worrying. My employers are not forcing anyone to go back even though they intend to reopen in some capacity on the 17th. It will be staff only to start and no students with very strict measures in place to abide by whilst in the building. We all have to take an individual risk assessment before returning but the outcome of the assessment is entirely up to the individual. Anyone scoring in the higher risk categories can have an occupational health assessment. I deliberately scored myself so that this wouldn’t be necessary but put a caveat in that if my blood test results got worse or shielding was reintroduced then we would score it again. I’m not a natural work from home person and certainly for a while we wouldn’t have to work every day in the building if we go back, it would be on a rota basis so you would do as many days as you feel comfortable with (not more than 2 or 3). We’re not letting students in until probably the start of term in September and then on about a tenth of normal capacity with strict rules for staying at study spaces and time limited to a maximum of 4 hours which they have to book in advance to control entry. Therefore we’ll only be open 8 hours of our normal 24. Hospitals must surely have some very strict controls in place? Though I completely understand why you’re reticent. I’m sure you’ll feel better once you’ve had your first day. Do let us know though how it goes.
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@Joan it’s great that you’re experiencing going out again and working in your voluntary role. I haven’t got much family myself and they’re all in a different part of the country so I wouldn’t ordinarily see them that often anyway. So maybe I haven’t experienced the same sense of loss that others with family have. I hope that you’re able to see yours soon. Your support group must be a great comfort to you. Mine used to meet every 3 months at Guys hospital but I’ve lost touch with them since the pandemic.
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Hi Ann. I attended hospital with my husband last week, and it was so safe! The corridors were really quiet, and the staff were behind screens. Volunteers were stationed at the entrance to make sure everyone had a mask on and used sanitiser (and as they left too.) I had to wait for 2 hours for my husband in the corridor where they had set up pairs of chairs spaced well apart. I sat on one, and a stupid person sat next to me…I moved away and he gave me a look as if to say why? Apart from that everyone was so sensible. Perhaps give it a try, and see how you feel.
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Thank.you Pisces56 and Franko I will take the courage and give it a go. Nothing ventured nothing gained.
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I am so pleased for those that have or are managing a break away. We went to my daughter’s last week for a few days spoiling, as we decided it was better to see them now than after the children return to school, especially as they live in Birmingham. We were able to go for a walk at Sarehole Mill (which was inspiration for Tolkien) and it was lovely for us all to get out.
I really feel for those returning to schools. When I first taught in the 70s if a child needed a cuddle it was ok. I had a 5yr old in one class whose brother was in hospital and she didn’t see much of her parents for months, and she often came for a cuddle. When I was in hospital having treatment whenever someone was discharged from the ward they went round the other 3/4 people and gave them a hug. It is going to be so strange not being able to even high 5 when someone has done well (and surely the elbow bump brings you closer than 1metre plus)
@Strad, I took the decision that I would use this window of opportunity to do a few things like going to the supermarket (during the allotted time for vulnerable people) which was not as bad as I thought. I drove my car to my local church and went to Mass on Tuesday. Our priest has been ahead of the game all the way through, and has a rota for cleaning after the four Masses held each week, as well as people greeting us with sanitiser, and sanitising our hands on the way
out. If we go in lockdown again I won’t feel that I can’t get out again. Maybe if you drive you could get out into the countryside, wind a window down and have a read of a book until you feel safe?
@DickM I think I might have also had the windows down. I hope the car comes through with flying colours.
@SP7 So pleased to read that your results showed improvement. It is good that you are still being monitored regularly. Congratulations to your daughter. It will be fun planning that wedding. We should have been going to one at the end of September, but the couple decided to move it to May next year, as the groom comes from a big Italian family. We had also deferred our holiday to Scotland until next May, so it is going to be a busy month. I do feel sorry for your niece @Franko
@Joan, my son lives alone in Central Manchester and has been working from home throughout. This week he went into the office for the first time. The company paid for him to have a taxi…hopefully safer than using train and tram
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You sound like you have some amazing family and friends! I’m with you, I would struggle without my garden. Really makes you appreciate what you have!
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Hi @Nichola75 and @Joan, I actually live in a flat, albeit quite a spacious one with greenery I can see, and weirdly I did not miss a garden whilst isolating. I used to find gardening quite hard work and that it was like the 4th bridge. I really appreciate my walks now in a local park with all the nature and wildlife.
However lockdown has really made me realise that family and friends and human interaction and contact are the most important thing in the world to me.
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Hi all, at first I thought that I would be out straight on 1st August, but unfortunately I live in North West England and we have new lockdown measures brought in too. I spent a day trying to figure out if the shielding advice had changed too (I feel it should have) which it didn’t, but meant that didn’t hurry out!! Only Thursday I went to my work place to sign off some building works. I wore a mask and gloves the whole time but it’s clear from my experience on Thursday that some people just don’t understand that my PPE means keep away 
I so look forward to get my shielding badge! I also needed to go hospital yesterday for bloods and it was the most awful experience… yes, everyone was PPE’ed but it doesn’t mean that you have to be on my skin, right?
Overall, I have to now start figuring out how I can make my physical work place a Covid safe for me and others… Such fun 
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Oh, @MoMo, I am sorry you have had such unfortunate experiences one after the other. Firstly having new lockdown measures where you live must be very confusing and disappointing. Then your work place experience, my shielding badge has just arrived and it looks good and I hope it is ideal for a workplace. Please let us know how it is for you in lockdown and work, take care.
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Hi @MoMo. I think many of us on here understand a run of bad luck. I particularly feel for people in your situation who have had some of their freedom taken away again.I know that I’ve found lockdown and shielding very tough and have really valued each new freedom I’ve had released in recent weeks. It’s not a dissimilar feeling to the one I had when I was able to do each little thing again after my treatment and after learning to walk again. I do hope the northern lockdown gets released soon and you’re able to experience some semblance of normality again. In the meantime we’re all here to chat with anytime.
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@MoMo my youngest lives in Central Manchester, and with the new lockdown I do wonder when we will be able to see him again. My sister has spent a fortnight in the SW of England and called in to see my parents on the way home to Yorkshire. She was teaching during lockdown, and was fortunate to get away before 2nd lockdown. It is worrying the number of people who do not keep to social distancing. Never mind locking down over 70s/over 50s/obese, looking at behaviour of young folk, and rising number of cases amongst them, perhaps the 16-40 age group should be looked into. What age groups are flaunting the rules in parks and on the beaches (and leaving all their rubbish too)?
Rant over…@Erica knows me well, and knows that usually I am so mild mannered 
@Franko I felt better prepared than most for lockdown as during my treatment my only trips away from home were mostly to hospital, which became a second home. Like you I had to slowly gain back my independence, and although I never reached the same level of fitness again, I was able to enjoy life again. This week I drove for the first time since lockdown. It is not something I enjoy, and it took 5 years to go back to it after my SCT, and I knew that if I didn’t do it soon then I would never go back to it. Transport links are poor where I live (semi-rural) so if something happened to my husband, I would be very isolated.
Take care everyone
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