We're in tier 4

Monica when I said I was sick of those bleating about our civil liberties I did not mean going about our everyday lives and the risk involved. I meant those objecting to being asked to look after each other by not gathering in large groups, not hugging each other, keeping two metres apart, washing hands, wearing a mask in enclosed places and much more considerate behaviour to beat the virus.

I’m due to have a second colonoscopy and biopsies on 31/12/20 and have to be Covid tested on the 28th. I am clinically extremely vulnerable and have a multitude of problems the last being a tumour in my chest removed which has left me with a great deal of difficulty breathing. We are now in tier 4 and the hospital I have to go to is in the highest spread in Britain, on top of that my neighbour whose boyfriend is in tier 3 has invited him over to stay for Xmas which he is now doing, blocking all the parking with his latest car, his dumped car of 2 years and her car neither of which have tax or mot. I know it’s petty but I think this latest bout of selfishness has brought out everything that has been simmering since March when I started shielding. I haven’t seen my grandchildren since then As they live in the cotwolds in tier 2. And I am doing my best to take care of myself but I am so cross at the arrogance of this behaviour. They have two children he has seen the kids just 4 times in 2 years and she is telling people he is her brother as she is on benefit, but the kids are calling him dad ! What do I do to find my sanity In This mess I’ve got stuck with

Mincub - I am very sorry indeed to hear of your poor health and all the challenges you are facing. I can see that the behaviour of your neighbours has got under your skin. I know it is hard, but I guess concentrating on getting yourself better is the way to go. There are always idiots out there , and we cannot really change that.

Telling people not to go to hospital is irresponsible and could lead to otherwise preventable deaths.
I agree

I had an out-patient appointment last week and, despite feeling apprehensive beforehand, felt perfectly safe.

My youngest DS missed a total of 2 years of secondary school due to illnesses. He ended up going to Cambridge and has a higher degree in maths. So I’m not convinced that staying out of school for periods is necessarily detrimental. There will be inequality but that’s nothing new.

vegansrock something similar happened to me, I missed well over a year's schooling through ill health and cinstantly moving,but what got me to university, and, no doubt your DS to Cambridge is that we were firtunate to be born with high ability and had the supportive home background and adequate resources to make up for the gaps in our education.

Not all children have that opportunity, they may have more problems in their capacity to catch up with missing lessons and missed topics, there may not be the home support, they may be less well nourished.

I appreciate that there can never be an absolutely level playing field, but many children from disadvantaged homes, who were doing well when they had the constant support of continuous schooling, may well, now, be falling irretrievably behind - and that matters.

For a year I have been going to a hospital monthly to take part in a clinical trial for a specific eyesight problem. I have had my eye injected and on the whole, I spend between 4=6 hours at the hospital.

I am careful as are the staff and so far my sight has not deteriorated in that eye so the trial for me is a minor miracle because with no treatment that eye would be registered blind by now. Take care, it is well worth the risk.

We'll all be in tier 5 soon !!

We are Plague Island. The virus is rife.

I agree, good post lucky girl

I was unable to go out or see anyone throughout January and February as I was on immuno-suppressants. That treatment finished in March, I had an MRI scan and the next day lockdown started! I haven’t seen any family, other than OH, during 2020. My only trips out have been medical appointments and one, very brief, visit to the nearby coast. Even my hospital appointments are now by phone, apart from haematology obviously!

This isn’t an ‘I’m worse off than you’ post, or a moan. I just want to say I feel your pain. I’m used to long periods of confinement because of my health, but all the little things such as visits from family and friends, trips to restaurants and cafes, are missing and it’s awful. We can get through this, so glad there are forums like this to help.

I do worry about the younger members of my family, but they are doing some amazing things and I’m quite proud of them,

I’ve decided not to go to my hospital appt.
Ive weighed up the to and fros and I think I’m doing the right thing.
I’m a governor of a hospital and currently there are 164 members of staff with Covid, now I know that’s quite high and we are in a particular fast spreading location, but what has given me a little more foresight is the fact that our CEO said elective surgeries are going ahead and we are trying to catch up with cancer treatment lists but what really concerned me was the blasé way this gem of information was given out.
‘ We are swabbing patients for Covid before electives and treatment ie day surgery but we’ve found they’v e come in clear and a couple of days later have caught Covid in hospital, we don’t really know what to do.’ That’s enough for me.I’ve been shielding since March and I haven’t come this far to come just this far.

Mincub Difficult to comment, since you do not say what the appointment is for.

If it is for a life threatening or life changing illness. I would go, no matter what. If just a non-essential check-up, your decision makes sense.

We up here in rural Norfolk blame you in London for the fact that we are now in Tier4.

Ok, not all of you, obviously, and we also get quite a few visitors from other places. However the second homeowners have flooded in. We are not going to the popular places on the coast for walks because they are very busy. They didn’t seem to leave on Boxing Day.
A friend’s neighbours had a party last week in their holiday home. She says they park around the village so the cars aren’t obvious. I think that they were reported but not by her.

PamelaJ1, that is a little unfair. Londoners can hardly be blamed for the mutation of the COVID virus to a much more infectious one. Nor is there much evidence that Londoners flouted the rules anymore than any one else. It is just in the blame game being played country wide, when COVID rates began to rise in London, it was easier to blame them than a mutated virus.

Big cities are inherently more dangerous than more rural areas, more people living in close proximity, people everywhere in sight, social distancing difficult and every knob and knocker and surface being constantly touched by other people.

I live in Oxfordshire, we were in a low covid area, even during the second wave. I still know no one who has had the illness, nor does anyone else I talk to, but a few weeks ago, of a sudden, the rate of COVID in this area rocketed, not because people suddenely decided to ignore the rules they had stuck to for so long, but because the virus circulating was much more infectious. It is exactly the same in London.

The 'Blame someone - anyone else' syndrome is (so very sadly), alive and very well.
Think this is one of the very tragic outcomes of this virus.

Divide and Rule is the name of the game!!!

We went from Tier 2 to Tier 4 without passing go it’s absolutely irritating as we do not have a bad rate in my particular area but we got lumped in with a bigger area
So no more work for me which is depressing and no end in sight
I agree franbern this blame game is really bad and extremely damaging as is our young people’s mental health

Psychiatrists are now saying that mental health problems can by cause by long Covid even in people with no history of mental health issues.

Franbern

The 'Blame someone - anyone else' syndrome is (so very sadly), alive and very well.
Think this is one of the very tragic outcomes of this virus.

Divide and Rule is the name of the game!!!

Sadly, that seems to be the case.

My area went from Tier 2 to Tier 4 too. We now have doubling of cases every couple of days, which is frightening.

Viruses mutate naturally. The only way to slow down the number of mutations is to suppress transmission.

MOnica, yes I was generalising and of course the mutation can’t be blamed on any particular group of people I don’t think.
However the rules are there to try to stop the spread.
There are a lot of people up here who live elsewhere and shouldn’t be here.

We are borderline London/Kent, so Tier 4 for us. My neighbour, a matron in a London hospital, had 3 relatives from Liverpool staying from Christmas Eve to Boxing Day! MOnica An earlier thread from Minicub explained what her hospital appointment was for.

We will have to go from our tier 4 to Kettering which at the moment is tier 3 in January. DHs BIL died just before Christmas and we will be going to the funeral, as far as I can see this is allowed.

Patsy70, thank you for that. My reply was even handed. I hadn't seen the previous thread. This cannot be assumed so it is always easier if the OP gives a resume of the prequel when starting a second thread on a subject.

Sorry MOnica, I should have said ‘previous post’.

Just a quick update
I phoned the hospital and asked to speak to endoscopy. I explained my position re the Colonoscopy on 31/12/20 and gave name address details etc and was told ‘no worries, we will send out a new appt.´ I said. In the new year sometime and was told yes.
The the person I was talking to then said ‘we have no nurses so chances are it would have been cancelled anyway’.
Talk about God moving in a mysterious way!