Is anyone else becoming neurotic?

I’ve deployed my alternative staff, Callistemon. He says he doesn’t remember taking a vow to ‘love, honour and hoover.’

He’s actually very domesticated, lucky for me.

My cleaner comes through an agency and I have suspended my contract for the time being. He is also a mature student of social admin (?), so I have a feeling he will be volunteering.

SueDonim

My inhouse domestic help offered to vacuum upstairs today and I found myself saying 'it's ok, I'll do it' [comfused]

Why?
And no, I haven't.

Greymar, that's the YouTube video I recommended. Glad you knew how to post a link!

Jeffrey Van Wingen, family physician? Not Pammy Dean, biologist, then? Or Pammy Neil? Are these all the same person?

On a chat show this evening a couple was asked if they check if they "have it" they said most days, another expert on immunology said "just thought I havent felt anything for days, so we are all neurotic I suppose.
My worry is, in the country where we live, nothing much is being done at all, the PM here has said today we mustnt gather in crowds of more than 50, this is instead of 500 people yesterday.Why cant we be sensible and have a lock down and feel safer!

SueDonin I think you might have had a mild dose, one of the acknowledged symptoms is loss to taste and smell. Hopefully when the tests come out you can confirm that!

Out cleaners don't want to come, so that was it, list compiled of all jobs that needed doing, and we ticked what we were each happy to do and not so keen. Then divided the list between us and got stuck in. A few grumbles about 'I'm not going to be tied down to doing this at a set time each week', but when my list was getting ticked off faster, the competitive spirit came into play, and he has now completed his list. What happens next week remains to be seen!

^Until I read this thread, I was feeling fairly happy and mildly confident.
Now, I feel paranoid and upset.^

Greciangirl, my advice is to do what I’m about to do. Carry on following official guidance and using common sense. Then leave this thread and don’t look back!

I don't really see why a thread about cleaning should make anyone blue. If anything, it should make people better because it gives them the feeling that they can control something in their lives. That is something generally lacking in this battle against an invisible enemy.

www.bbc.com/future/article/20200317-covid-19-how-long-does-the-coronavirus-last-on-surfaces?ocid=ww.social.link

We did it over two days, Callistemon - we’re pacing ourselves.

B9exchange I don’t think it was CV, I reckon it was just a good old British Standard common cold. Sore throat followed by runny nose, followed by blocked nose and loss of taste/smell. Darling GD had a mild dose while her parents, Dh and I had two week illnesses. ?

www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/new-coronavirus-stable-hours-surfaces

I do my research and then make a value judgement before posting. I stand by my first explanation of the precautions my husband and I take. I have a rare autoimmune disorder and my life literally depends on this, so we take no chances. We are well rehearsed and don’t fret about what we do, we just do it and it becomes part of everyday life. For the time being anyway. We are both medically trained.

My levels headed dil is a senior nurse. Tonight during FaceTime I saw her cry for the first time ever. I felt so sad for her.
This more than anything told me the seriousness of our situation.

There is s microbiologist reply to that video going around about washing food etc with some informed common sense twitter.com/bugcounter/status/1243319180851580929?s=21

Whatever makes people feel at ease. The worst thing for CV is if your immune system is low and that is caused by anxiety so keep calm as you can. My bugbear is that the park which doesn’t allow bikes (dogs chase bikes) that I have used every day for ten years to walk the dogs will now be out of bounds because it is in the next neighbourhood ( couple of miles away under ten minutes in a car). It tends only to be used by dog walkers because it is so safe large. And empty. To make me use the local patch crowded with bikes and children seems insane. Not many people can officially use the larger park as the houses nearby cost over a million or it is farmland! It is run by the council.
When rules are made that make no common sense people will take less heed. And I need a long calm walk as I have rare type of asthma and nothing relaxes me more. Exercise and the outdoors is important. 90% of our country is green land. To force everyone together in cities is senseless and cruel. I keep wondering how people in high rise flats are coping where they have to use lifts etc. At least they are housing the homeless. It has essential we are kind and generous and non judgmental but remember children are virus factories.

grannygranby thank you for that link. Common sense prevails.

Thanks for the link .*Grannygranby*.

I think you have to have a balance, or you will really drive yourself crazy. I think people on here practise good hygiene anyway.

If you're self isolating and practicing good hygiene why not leave milton steriliser, hygiene wipes, sprays, tissues, bleach, etc for new mums who can't go out, can't have visitors, too tired to get a shopping slot, and key workers coming home to babies, toddlers and children at home who need protection at a higher level. Extra hygiene stuff could be more useful in a foodbank.

Hello all! I actually registered on GN because of this thread - which might give a lot about me away!

I want to say thank you all for a such a helpful and open discussion. I've been so worried about the likelihood of
surface contamination and the gvt didn't give out any effective advice at all on groceries and surfaces. Here, I found out a lot of things about The Bug, some of which calmed my anxieties.

I live alone, am disabled and immuno-compromised, have been self-isolating for 4-5 wks now, and I'm far from family. Until I found this thread and read how scared and cautious many others are, I was beginning to think I was going doollally with my fears. I'm very lucky to have a good number of kind friends here yet all seem to be very nonchalant about handling packages and groceries.

Inspired by you all here, I've stopped randomly plonking new groceries in spare places til the possible bugs deactivate. Instead, I've instituted a proper place where there's a tight little stock rotation thing going on. It's in the sitting room which I'm not using now (don't want to have to sanitise it as well as everything else every day!)

I'm using time scales from the US NIH advice/research: Bug stays viable up to 3 days on metal/plastic/glass; up to 1 day on cardboard/paper. So there are two areas of little lines with items that have served their time at the front for easy grab and go. Either they go in the food cupboards or get made into some dish.

Fridge things are difficult, aren't they? I'm doing my best to get all the plastic in the bin first and put contents in clean containers that go straight onto bleach-cleaned glass shelves. That's coming along, beginning to work better. It had got to the point where I was getting anxious about opening the fridge and food cupboards doors.

The 3hr coughed-out aerosol is something else. In the kitchen I've got a hepa air purifier with UV light hidden inside it (nice machine, thanks to John Lewis). Even if it doesn't have to deal with The Bug, it really does refresh the air and pumps out lots of negative ions (the good type) which actually is uplifting. I'm spending most of my time in the kitchen now. So that works well. I'm trying not to trail any possible germs (of any sort) around the house.

Ok, so I've channeled a lot of my COVID OCD (just wait, there will be an official diagnostic category for this if the lockdown carries on much longer:-( But I'm still picking up dodgy looking items with a piece of doubled up kitchen towel! And washing my hands countless times a day. I use gloves very sparingly because online shopping is literally impossible here and gloves were amongst the first things to become unavailable (I think they've secretly stopped delivering because they're much to busy to come out to the sticks).

I guess this is our new normal. Especially since the gvt science woman dropped a heavy hint today that lockdown could continue for 6 months:-(

Great post GrannieIggle with sensible advice. Wonder whether we will carry on all these procedures when the emergency is over! I provably will together with the social distancing, much more hygienic don't you think? They help my OCD anyway.

Hello GrannyIggle and welcome

I have a letter rack which I found with various bits and pieces in it, no longer required, so have put it on the hall table, where the post remains until the required quarantine time is up.

A letter today arrived from a grandson who struggles to write a sentence. No way am I leaving that for 72 hours! Opened it, read it with enjoyment, binned the envelope and washed my hands. Job done!

I’ve been to Sainsbury’s today. Our branch considers ‘older’ shoppers to be 65+ so I needn’t have taken my tame pensioner (DH) with me. I had wipes and gloves at the ready and used the self-scan machine so no one else touched my goods.

I washed it all in dilute Milton when I got home. My house now smells like there’s a new baby in the place and I’ve got no finger prints left.