The Prepping Thread - A Newer Beginning ;)

ivyleaf

3secondmemory I have ME and would like to read the article you mention but I haven't been able to find it on the online website. If that was where you saw it, please could you post a link to it if possible? I've looked under "Health" and Coronavirus". TIA 

elaine241

I must confess when I was young parents often tried to get their kids to catch chicken pox as it is milder when we are young. The first few days I can remember were pretty grotty but then I felt totally fine and was out and about, but not in school, YAY! I was not mixing with anyone but out everyday on my pony or in the fields with my dog. I think my antisocial streak started about then, maybe before! I can remember being covered in dried pink calamine which helped take the itching away.
Here in Wales its pretty dire and we are supposed to be on lockdown but the main road seems very very busy! A friend fell over and went to a& e, ambulances queuing outside emergency and then she was told to go to another hospital as it was a minor injury. She has broken her ankle in the past ( twice) and is pretty positive it is broken but has been told it is probably ruptured ligaments. She did not  even get to see a doctor or have an x-ray. Just given painkillers and told to see what happens!!! She will try again in a few days to see a doctor as she was sick when trying to walk on it!!  Sounds like our poor hospital, despite only just opening before Christmas, is totally overwhelmed   

[Deleted User]

Another vaccine approved for use in the UK this morning at the darkest hour yet in terms of numbers of confirmed covid cases. It seems they will give one dose to more people and then follow it up with another dose after 12 weeks to give the maximum amount of people at least some protection and hopefully make a difference to the soaring increase in cases happening over these last few days. Review in tiers this afternoon and a bit of an unknown but much speculation in the media about another full lockdown, we'll have to wait and see as there's no inkling of what will be done.  Now is the time to persevere with keeping yourselves safe and not giving in to those feelings of needing to go out and mix, particularly over the New Year period.  It's not worth the risk with this new variant being so much more easily transmitted to other people.  Keep yourselves in, stay away from crowded areas, don't mix unless it's a real emergency necessity to do so.  Don't get caught by the virus this close to some hope of being able to live a reasonbably normal life in the not too distant future.

euronorris

I'm just back from the garden centre, in anticipation of another, more severe, lockdown. Pretty quiet, thankfully, well spaced out, masks, hand gel etc etc. Got my seed compost etc. Didn't want to be stuck like last time.

Some hospitals in Essex, Leicester, East Sussex and Kent overwhelmed. That i know of. Ambulances queuing outside. It's really very bad at the moment. Not as bad here, but numbers climbing like everywhere else.

Stay safe all.

Thriftygifty

jamanda said:

There doesn't seem to be much chance of not catching the virus when yours has managed to get nits and chicken pox, or is your child one of the "magnet" variety where everything finds him?
Hope they all get over it quickly.  This just isn't what you need.

I know, I really want to pull DS out of school but I realistically can't.  I'm really annoyed that he seems to continually be catching one thing or another especially as they are doing extra cleaning and the children are more spread out where possible, I think it may be my fault as we didn't mix with many children/people and he was hardly ever ill as a baby and it has now come back to bite me.  Middle DS was due to be starting nursery middle of January, that won't be happening now despite him needing to socialise before school next sept it is not worth the risk with the new strain of the virus, at the moment DS1 and husband are the weak link with the virus entering the house.  My mum has been mixing with the children over the Christmas period as we thought we were semi safe after 5 days of no school and no sign of illness, how wrong was I!!! I hope my parents don't develop shingles, my Nan had those and it was very bad.  As for DS1 who has spots he seems fine other than pickled he is playing as normal, he was sleepy and pale yesterday then the spots happened, we gave him Calpol, I need to up my stocks of it, I think we may need 3 bottles per child in reserve, the baby is teething. DS1 hasn't been itching the spots which is good, they are pus filled small blisters (blugh) he will be having an oat bath later.  I have now finished maternity leave, that was a fun 9 months, I will be working remotely in the evenings as well as a pox and nit infested house, fun time here!!!!  I have been having a constant battle with my mum about not coming near us, I think the only way to stop contact now is to lock the door it seems extreme but I feel as though I am the bad guy in wanting to protect my parents and they are not to far down the list for the vaccine!  
We are reasonably stocked with food, I need to tweak it slightly and stock up on more easy food rather than food I have to defrost before cooking. 
I am frantically trying to get any home admin done and the house cleared before DH goes back to work next week.  I have cleared out the nursery and we are moving DS3 cot into our room, the nursery will become my office and a room to clear out everything on ebay etc.
Stay safe everyone and kept your heads down and hang on this is such a trying time. 

mothernerd

Don't go out unless you have to. We had snow which was starting to melt but fresh snow has fallen with ice underneath (probably). As someone who has fallen badly a few times (twice in the same spot in successive years) I only went out to the bins and to retrieve the bin (lovely young bin man brings it up the sloping path to the gate) and I waited for most of the day, checking on the state of the path to the side of the house (melting nicely). I told mum she must not go out for any reason (the furthest she has been since March is to the post box in the next street). Yesterday evening she was on the phone to her friend (who has a birthday today) saying she would take cupcakes and a card in a taxi. 

The taxi ride would be fine - I've already said that she will have to wear a mask and plastic gloves and not look at or breathe on the driver - as this was what she planned last week for delivering my brother's present (luckily my niece offered to come and collect them). But I don't know how she plans to get down the path and across the pavement here (she fell on the path for no reason whatsoever a few years ago and it terrifies her) and what happens at the other end - was she planning to go across the pavement, open the gate and go up her friend's drive or was she expecting her friend (who's probably a bit fitter but 18 months older - 87 today). Her friend told her not to go, yesterday but she concluded by saying she would see her today. 

So I've been rehearsing my argument and racking my brains for someone who could go instead of us (I'd reluctantly decided that I had a better chance of getting up the to her friend's door unscathed than either of them).  I was reluctant to phone one of the twins as mummy of twins works today and her sister has care of all 5 children (mummy of twins 4 girls and her own son). She's a secondary school teacher but the first lockdown showed  how difficult she finds younger children. However the brave girl is going to come across the fields (just a short way down the canal bank) with 5 children and a sled (hopefully not mad dog or dogs) and take the card (not sure mum's plan for the cupcakes will work for her). She lives in the same street as mum's friend but round the corner.

So stay in, stay safe. Safe from COVID, safe from falling, safe from shoppers who 'must' go to the sales and very soon safe from friendly but unstable drunks.

euronorris

Thrifty, you can't catch shingles from chickenpox. Only the other way around. Shingles is a reawakening of the dormant virus in our systems, and is usually triggered by periods of high stress or lowered immune system for some reason. It isn't very pleasant, but if anyone ever suspects they have shingles, talk to your GP ASAP. If diagnosed quickly enough, they can prescribe an antiviral to lessen the severity. Though, it has it's own side effects, and I only managed to handle it for a few days.

Not frosty or icy here, let alone snow. We've had all the warnings, but not got below 3 yet. Still plenty of rain mind.

MingVase

Re the vaccine,  England has over 50 million people. So they'd have to vaccinate one million people a week for a whole year.. Given their track record so far I wouldn't hold your breath.

Thriftygifty

euronorris said:

Thrifty, you can't catch shingles from chickenpox. Only the other way around. Shingles is a reawakening of the dormant virus in our systems, and is usually triggered by periods of high stress or lowered immune system for some reason. It isn't very pleasant, but if anyone ever suspects they have shingles, talk to your GP ASAP. If diagnosed quickly enough, they can prescribe an antiviral to lessen the severity. Though, it has it's own side effects, and I only managed to handle it for a few days.

Not frosty or icy here, let alone snow. We've had all the warnings, but not got below 3 yet. Still plenty of rain mind.

Oh really?  That's a massive relief, thanks.   My Nan had them and she had constant pain in the head and over one of her eyes that never went.  I am sat here really itchy, I am hoping it is subconscious, my parents don't remember me having ever had Chicken Pox however I had a test done when middle son was born as he came into contact with someone who had it when he was only a few days old and I was freaking out as I hadn't had it and he was so small, it came back that I must of had it at some point?!  Ah joys of children.   I hope your daughter is better now. 

jamanda

I have to take poorly dog out at stupid o'clock in the night (was 4.30 a.m. this morning)  He absolutely won't go on the garden to the point where he makes himself so ill he squirts blood. (TMI, I know).
I was up the field in the pitch black with said dog and headlamp and it was like a skating rink.  I had to waddle so I didn't slip and thought to myself at the time that if I fell and broke something, I'd have died of hypothermia before an ambulance turned up.
PS Yes, I know you will all think I'm bonkers