The Nice People No. 17

PasturesNew

Are you blood type A, or O?
This'd be an "interesting" snippet of "Coronas Trivia" or statistics .... if only one knew which group one is.  Pub Quiz answer stuff.... 

While many do know theirs, I've never known mine, never needed to know.  Never been in Hospital, wasn't even born in one. 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-8122493/People-Type-blood-likely-catch-coronavirus.html 

SingleSue

That article is one I should def not have read, I am the blood group mentioned.....

I'm having a teetering over the edge night tonight with my mental health. I'm stressed, not got a clue what to do and to top it all off, my telly has given up the ghost (we are not a multi telly family). I still don't know what to do about this self isolating, I made the decision not to claim universal credit or ESA to save my mental health and to instead try to do what I could working within my limitations, even if that meant low wages. For the most part, I have gone along ok, yes things were tight (very tight) but doable...ish.

I have been told tonight that work hours will be cut, how much by I don't know, we will be told next week but if I know them, it will be my shifts (I do start and end of day shifts and it sounds like they are shortening the opening hours drastically). On top of this, I am supposed to be in the 3 month at risk self isolation group and probably not working anyway....I've worked bloody hard these last 2 and a half years to get a perfect attendance record so that I can move somewhere else where I would get paid for holidays, sick pay, proper hourly rate etc and if I go with the government advice, will have a stonking great minimum 12 week sick record. Who the hell will take someone on with that kind of record and with multiple disabilities, I would quite rightly be seen as an absolute liability for any employer.

The thought of having to claim universal credit has been enough to send me teetering, almost crashing over the cliff face mentally, the same with ESA...and how would I claim ESA anyway? Are they offering sick notes for those who have to isolate due to being in the vulnerable group? I'm not ill, I'm not isolating as a precaution because I have been exposed...I've just got underlying disorders.

Pushing myself, working through pneumonia (x3), increasing the nerve damage deterioration and disc degeneration, collapses etc have all been done to avoid UC and ESA.

I am so not in a happy mood tonight.

silvercar

I’m also blood group A, though that article looks like fake news.

I can tell my mothers mental health is suffering, she’s been bad since being widowed but is acting strangely now. Accusing me of using the Coronavirus as an excuse not to visit her, ignoring medical advice that she should be isolating and forgetting that we spent time away together last week, so I wouldn’t be due a visit under normal circumstances.

Doozergirl

My mother in law was crying over Facetime when DD called her.  DH dropped them some shopping earlier and it's really upset her because the transaction wasn't the usual one.  

What do you do?  I've suggested to DH that we could meet in the open air for a walk.  I'm not sure they'd go.  They read a lot of the Daily Mail and she was panicking very early on.  It's worth asking.  

ukmaggie45

Joining the wide awake club tonight!  OH has gone home to have eyes tested so I'm here alone. 2 other caravans in the field inhabited. Woke up about 3.30 and had to go to the bathroom, then was thoroughly awake! So now I'm sitting up with a cuppa tea with Hard Talk on the tele. Worried will fall asleep and not manage to get to door when OH's new computer delivered tomorrow. Rolls eyes.

Pyxis

Doozergirl said:

My mother in law was crying over Facetime when DD called her.  DH dropped them some shopping earlier and it's really upset her because the transaction wasn't the usual one.  

What do you do?  I've suggested to DH that we could meet in the open air for a walk.  I'm not sure they'd go.  They read a lot of the Daily Mail and she was panicking very early on.  It's worth asking.  

If it’s any help, the first week I went into complete social exclusion was the worst. Even though I’d done severe social distancing for three weeks, it still felt weird.The second week was better, and now that it’s ‘the norm’ it’s a lot more ok, psychologically.
Say this to your MIL, as it might help.

Also, the fewer people you meet, the less scrubbing you have to do, which is an absolute pain, but necessary. It’s bad enough have to wash deliveries, without worrying about clothes, handbag, contents of handbag, keys, credit cards, steering wheel, handbrake, gearstick, etc., if you have been too close to people.

It’s like everything; you get used to it, you adapt. You find ways round things.

The groups I was going to rejoin, singing and zumba and language classes, have been disbanded anyway. (I have suggested to my zumba leader that she start up a regular videolink session that we could all join in with at home!

Pyxis

Re. the blood group......I am A+
We were discussing this on another thread....I forget which one.

The trouble is that a large percentage of people are A, so may be a coincidence, and yes, I’m not sure where the origin of that ‘fact’ came from.

I know mine because when I was pregnant, I was given an antenatal card and it was on that. They tested routinely to check for Rhesus negative complications.

PasturesNew

I'm in the wide awake club too.  Got up about half an hour ago, caught up with my little bits of washing up, had a cig, put the kettle on.  Just had a breakfast of a dry flatbread and black coffee. 

I've switched into pragmatic auto-robot mode, It is what it is, I'm doing very well, I just need to concentrate on one thing in the main: Not catching it.  Secondary is: a bit of a variety of food, hence actually buying some fruit - which, possibly, might help fend things off.  Thirdly it's trying to think ahead on a few potentially key items... e.g. getting the car MoT'd, getting in enough loo roll, coffee and tobacco and items that can be eaten (e.g. instant mash, pot noodles, gravy granules, crisps, cereal) although I've not got enough for the long haul, but I don't have space to buy things that might not potentially be eaten for 1-2 years and I'd have to lug around. 

Isolation ... for me is no different whatsoever.  This is how I've been living my life, so there's no change there.

The only downside/impact for me has been being in the proximity of The Wanderer... and I had planned an escape, but will now look to escape sooner I think.  I don't want to leap from the frying pan into the fire though, it's a difficult balance.  

Mentally I'm absolutely 100% no different to normal, because a lot of this is, for me, simply normal.  In fact, it's probably making things easier as there's no "guilt" at not going out, no feeling I'd have to explain myself.  There's no constant barage of things one could/should be doing, "fun" as they call it.  That barrage of activities and events adverts really sucks the life out of you if you're not going.... it guilt trips you in a way. Also, there are fewer people out there + those people are more mindful of personal space.  Fewer people out there means it's not so daunting to go out, too.  You can stroll and stare without feeling you're in the way - you can see distances as there's a lack of people or vehicles moving in one huge mass. 

I just have the awkwardness of having no kitchen facilities (especially if more strangers are being in there) and trying to not catch anything.  I was already in kitchen minimising since week 1 as I found it overwhelmingly cluttered and debris-ridden in there, with trails of opened things and bits of food chopped/on the floor etc, so having decided I refused to use the facilities anyway it's not been much different to not use it at all ever.  The biggest food difference is access/confidence in food outside of the home, e.g. T0by all you can eat is out of the question, but I was only having one about once every 3-4 weeks.  

I only have myself to think about, which probably helps.  I am happy knowing I'd have to eat instant mash, stuffing mix and gravy for a week ...... doesn't bother me.  For others, trying to "feed" other people, especialy 4rsey old folks who get a monk on ... it must be terrible. 

Pyxis

Sue, the situation is now different since the Government introduced the ‘package’ to help individuals and businesses.

It looks like UC will be a lot easier to claim, as there will be a lot of people in the same boat as you. There may never be a better time to claim it (Ironic smiley).

Comparing your 2.5 year unblemished attendance record  with an ‘enforced’ 12 week social isolation, I doubt any good employer will hold it against you. Keeping yourself safe is your number one now. Just keep holding on to the fact that you are not alone in this predicament now, not by a long chalk........ when you have been self-sufficient and used to coping alone for so long, it might be easy to forget that.

PasturesNew

Pyxis said:

 They tested routinely to check for Rhesus negative complications.

Funny you should mention those.  I was born suddenly, unexpectedly, at home. Dad delivered me. Mum thought she wanted to go to the loo - and along I came.  I have been told there was the potential for me to be a rhesus baby. I guess if I had been I might've just died... I've no idea about any of it really, what it is/what it means and whether I'd have pulled through.  Dad would've had to leave mum, to go down the road to a phone box, to phone a midwife, who'd have had to get her coat on and get on her bicycle. 

Something else I don't really know/understand is that mum was supposed to always carry a card with her, with her blood group on it, she never did.  It was, apparently, rare and she said the vernacular name was "blue blood", "I've got blue blood" she used to say. Just tried to Google that, but no joy.... the Royal meaning overwhelms results and I CBA to filter those out.