Lateral flow tests

We just plough through the gagging . It sounds horrendous in this house twice a week!

I don't think you can stop the gagging! I am just pleased I'm allowed to do my own tests, I couldn't cope with someone else doing them

I have been doing them for about a month and all negatives so far. I manage them okay but after doing the nostril swab I sneeze about 10 times. I have been given a different blood pressure tablet and so I have to take my blood pressure every
other day it's a bit like doing hospital tests in my house at the moment.

JaneJudge
I don't think you can stop the gagging! I am just pleased I'm allowed to do my own tests, I couldn't cope with someone else doing them

Strangely, I’m finding the opposite. I had mine done for several weeks by staff prior to being allowed in for a care home visit. In recent weeks I’ve been allowed to self test at home prior to my visit. Now I gag every time!

I have had both vaccines, but as a shielder have been advised to do lateral tests twice weekly by NHS Scotland Shielding Service.

This morning I completed a survey for them on taking lateral flow tests. I'm all for any assistance we can offer to help research.

I too can't fathom your reasoning, GrannyRose. Because of increased testing in Glasgow, people who have been asymptomatic have tested positive and measures taken to try to limit the spread of the virus.
No wonder the virus is spreading, if some posters think we should stop testing.

Yes, twice a week because I work in a school. All negative so far.

Twice a week for work. If practice makes perfect I should stop gagging soon.

Should probably take them but don't, because the false-positive rate is too high; though I can WFH, partner can't and wouldn't get paid if he had to isolate with me. OTOH we've both had our full set of jabs and I have taken the PCR tests whenever the Zoe app asks me to; several times so far because of my hay fever, and all resolutely negative. If we were in an area of high covid risk I would regularly do the tests, but we're not - I only know one local person who got it, and that was back in January. It helps to live in a bit of a backwater!

Of course there's a point in taking them! The only, "failing" is the occasional false positive which can be corrected within 24 hrs by taking a PCR test. So sorry for your inconvenience
If their prevailing fault was to throw out false negatives, of which there is no evidence, then you might have a point.

Whiff you may have already had it last year and not even known it, 10’s of 1,000’s people don’t even get a sore throat?

We don't do them regularly but do test before we visit other people or have visitors here, and luckily have been negative so far.
It's an uncomfortable experience but we feel reassured so worth doing.

no because I have got a frail elderly dog and don't go anywhere. I have got a pack though and would absolutely do it if I went out or if I got symptoms

I'm gagging less now I've begun doing the test sitting at a table with a mirror instead of standing in the bathroom. Perhaps that enables me to be more relaxed.

Blimey. I haven't done any. I work in a hospital and no-one's ever recommended that I should either.

As a volunteer at our local hospital I have to do the Lateral Flow Test twice a week and log them in on the computer. We get given them free and they are nose only - no back of the throat swabs. We get the results at home within 30 minutes. I've had both vaccines but still do the LF Tests - they may not be 100% accurate but like many times during this pandemic we are (most of us!) just trying to do our best we can to get through it.

My teenaged son who is still at school and dsd who works in a school, test twice a week and I believe ds3’s teachers test every school morning. Our grandson had Covid recently, caught at school but dsd, despite isolating and caring for him, didn’t get it. The rest of us have never had a test or any symptoms. Dh and I are fully vaccinated now and the numbers are very low here. Ds1 and ds2 are working from home and have registered for vaccination.

Of course. We're a self-employed oven cleaning company so these tests are another string to our "we're doing our best" bow. Reassuring for customers at a time when we should all be restricting footfall at home and out and about.

I did a test a few weeks ago, when the whole area had them put through the letterbox. Posted it back same day and got a text next day to say it was negative. Have not seen a test since then.
Are we supposed to be doing them?
Where would we get one?

Yes. DS'a college are asking students to do them, and the NHS recommendation is that the whole household test.

The pharmacy we use has just started distrubuting test packs which makes it easier to get enough

I have been doing the LFTs (on Tuesdays and Fridays...). All negative so far (as I knew they would be...)
I feel that they are better than nothing.
If I get a positive result I will be able to isolate until it is confirmed - or not - by the PCR test. I need to be able to keep people I work with as safe as I possibly can. Testing frequently alongside wearing a mask, keeping socially distanced and hand hygiene seems to be the way to go and I will be doing this for quite a long time to come, I think.

I went to our local Vaccination Centre to find out how to do them properly - the nurse who was with me said that if she heard people gagging, she knew they were in the right place in their throat.
I really don't like taking the nasal swab, though...

No, never done one

rowanflower0

I did a test a few weeks ago, when the whole area had them put through the letterbox. Posted it back same day and got a text next day to say it was negative. Have not seen a test since then.
Are we supposed to be doing them?
Where would we get one?

If you go on the government website there are details of hownto get them. Mainly -

Posted to you on line (one pack per household per day)

Various test sites run by the NHS

Some pharmacies

Our city council also has some sites where they do "symptom free" testing and also give out home test packs.

You can also apply on the NHS website and they arrive the following day in a pack of seven. I feel the necessity for every adult to conduct these tests has not been publicised widely enough since it was first mentioned.

Sorry its a government site:-

www.gov.uk/order-coronavirus-rapid-lateral-flow-tests

Galaxy

We just plough through the gagging . It sounds horrendous in this house twice a week!

DS and I do both nostrils instead - as mentioned in the instruction book. DS because he has disabilities and we would never get him to do it, and me because I'm a wimp!!