COVID19 - How it's affecting you

My husband and I have been lucky enough to work in jobs that went remote back in March. My company has now stated we won't be returning to any office until at least the new year, and they are arranging permanent remote work contracts for a lot of us long-term.

When I left the States I was already 2 years into a course of cancer medication that would need to continue for another 3 years. In the time since I started taking it, it destroyed my teeth - so many cavities, crowns, issues I had never had before. Stupid me, I wasn't having issues when we arrived so I never registered with a dentist.

Fast forward to 2020 COVID, and the moment we got locked down my wisdom tooth started being a problem and getting infected. Since I had never registered with the dentist, I was relegated to calling 111 to try to get some kind of emergency appointment. Since I was not in constant pain and/or bleeding out, I was told 'here's some antibiotics, take paracetamol until ETA?'  I'm now on my second course of antibiotics, while I wait for God knows how long to get a hospital appointment to have it removed. Now I have daily pain and am taking paracetamol daily, so I was finally able to get in to see an emergency dentist last week, but he can't say when the hospital will be able to fit me in. Could be a few weeks, could be months, and I should just come back for more antibiotics as needed.

In the meantime, I am struggling with phone appointments to a breast surgeon due to issues with my reconstruction that was done back in 2015. Had multiple ultrasounds, MRI, scans, blood work, and no answers. So that continues... he sounded very annoyed when I had my last call in May and told him I wanted another follow-up. That call is next week, so will see how that goes!

Now with a possible second lockdown looming, we are not required to shield but have not left the house in months except for necessities. I don't know when I will get to visit my mother back in the States again, and with the backlog of visas I wouldn't risk traveling without deeming my application withdrawn. So, we wait. Hope you're all staying safe xx

My husband and I have been lucky enough to work in jobs that went remote back in March. My company has now stated we won't be returning to any office until at least the new year, and they are arranging permanent remote work contracts for a lot of us long-term.

When I left the States I was already 2 years into a course of cancer medication that would need to continue for another 3 years. In the time since I started taking it, it destroyed my teeth - so many cavities, crowns, issues I had never had before. Stupid me, I wasn't having issues when we arrived so I never registered with a dentist.

Fast forward to 2020 COVID, and the moment we got locked down my wisdom tooth started being a problem and getting infected. Since I had never registered with the dentist, I was relegated to calling 111 to try to get some kind of emergency appointment. Since I was not in constant pain and/or bleeding out, I was told 'here's some antibiotics, take paracetamol until ETA?'  I'm now on my second course of antibiotics, while I wait for God knows how long to get a hospital appointment to have it removed. Now I have daily pain and am taking paracetamol daily, so I was finally able to get in to see an emergency dentist last week, but he can't say when the hospital will be able to fit me in. Could be a few weeks, could be months, and I should just come back for more antibiotics as needed.

In the meantime, I am struggling with phone appointments to a breast surgeon due to issues with my reconstruction that was done back in 2015. Had multiple ultrasounds, MRI, scans, blood work, and no answers. So that continues... he sounded very annoyed when I had my last call in May and told him I wanted another follow-up. That call is next week, so will see how that goes!

Now with a possible second lockdown looming, we are not required to shield but have not left the house in months except for necessities. I don't know when I will get to visit my mother back in the States again, and with the backlog of visas I wouldn't risk traveling without deeming my application withdrawn. So, we wait. Hope you're all staying safe xx

I am so sorry. Sending you hugs.

Still going in to the office every day.
Asked again yesterday about working from home, and told them that I would even buy all my own equipment ... laptop, monitors, etc, and was still told no, and that there would be no additional people working from home this year apart from the ones already doing so.

HATE MY COMPANY. 

Still going in to the office every day.
Asked again yesterday about working from home, and told them that I would even buy all my own equipment ... laptop, monitors, etc, and was still told no, and that there would be no additional people working from home this year apart from the ones already doing so.

HATE MY COMPANY. 

Is there someone else you can ask, go a bit higher up? Are you a member of a union?

.Organisations should make every reasonable effort to make working from home the default position. Where a worker can perform their work from home, they should continue to do so.

https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-for-homeworking/

I am so sorry. Sending you hugs.

Thanks larrabee ❤️ We slog on 😊

Still going in to the office every day.
Asked again yesterday about working from home, and told them that I would even buy all my own equipment ... laptop, monitors, etc, and was still told no, and that there would be no additional people working from home this year apart from the ones already doing so.

HATE MY COMPANY. 

Oh that's horrible!!

Still going in to the office every day.
Asked again yesterday about working from home, and told them that I would even buy all my own equipment ... laptop, monitors, etc, and was still told no, and that there would be no additional people working from home this year apart from the ones already doing so.

HATE MY COMPANY. 

That is bang out of order. I would look at forcing the issue, get a few people gathered and make them perform a u-turn.

Hi,

Haven’t been able to find anything useful on the government website.

Has anybody had any experience of having their US-based family visiting the UK?

I know that it is not on the travel exemption list so my visitors would be house-bound. However, can I legally have my American family stay with me in tier 3?

It's an old topic, but why start a new one....

So researchers are honing in on the brain fog aspect of Long Covid. Brain damage appears at work in some cases. With some tentative treatments. All very "baby steps" but encouraging.

Full link to article: https://www.medicaldaily.com/infected-immune-cells-brain-could-causing-long-covid-symptoms-469255
Link to the study publication: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0014488623000638

"To understand why this is happening, the research team led by neurology professor Hideyuki Okano used induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells to come up with neurons and microglia. They then infected these cells with "pseudoviruses" that imitate the original SARS-CoV-2 and the newer strains.During the experiment, the team learned that the virus only infected the microglia, which are responsible for cleaning unwanted substances out of the brain. Since the microglia got infected heavily, they behaved normally and died. Without the microglia, the inflammatory substances in the brain started to build up. This subsequently led to neural tissue damage, which causes neurological symptoms associated with long COVID. According to NHS inform, the most common long-term effects of COVID-19 on the brain include poor concentration, confusion, slowed thinking, fuzzy thoughts, forgetfulness, lost words and mental fatigue. All of these are now categorized under the medical term "brain fog," which has been linked to COVID-19. The researchers concluded that the results of their study suggest long COVID patients develop neurological symptoms due to a significant decline in microglia and the lack of immune functionality within the brain."

Well, FINALLY. 

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/ventilation.html 

Brings the meaning of "closing the barn door after the horses are out" to a whole 'nuther level.

No one will learn for next time either. Next pandemic wave could happen reasonably soon and governments will still not be prepared. 

Well, FINALLY. 

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/ventilation.html 

Brings the meaning of "closing the barn door after the horses are out" to a whole 'nuther level.

I hate to think how many people would still be alive/not disabled if this had been done as soon as they confirmed aerosol transmission. Yet here, some doctors are busy discussing how antisocial masks are and how they contribute to continued health anxiety, with no ventilation or filtration in the office or waiting room. *Sigh*

Why do we live in a culture where it's totally cool to make other people sick? I don't want your colds or the flu either.

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Same.  They've known about the aerosol transmission since pretty early on.  I can understand them telling people to not use the masks at first - as despicable as that was - because they didn't have enough to go around and were trying to protect the medical professional community who had to be protected to be able to care for the sick. I have always found prioritizing some people's lives over others offensive, but I understand that one.  However, once there was enough PPE to go around, to not get the word out - or to put out contrary information - is just inexcusable. There is blood on their hands - but then, at least here in the USA, their hands were tied by politicians who intervened.

People here are acting is if it's "gone."  It's not gone - it's circulating widely (although how widely can only be guessed, as they are not releasing tracking data - it's being tracked in some areas but the data is not really public now). It is still causing chaos in people's lives. The scientists I follow are saying it's basically now a mass-disabling event that will be leaving tens of thousands of people with long-term consequences, and will have caused the premature deaths (due to the damage it's done, after having "recovered" from a Covid infection) of masses more.

And all it has to do is mutate - and it's doing that constantly - to a nastier version and we're back at square one.  I'm off to get my bivalent booster next week, but if the virus mutates and takes off again in the next year the booster probably isn't going to help much. But any is better than none.

The one good thing about the Daughter taking the contract job back in California - the institution she's going to monitors their own waste water for the virus and has protocols in place for those times when it is detected. They even have testing kits in free vending machines available to all. So she'll be relatively safer there, where she'll be taking her chances every time she goes into a grocery store (etc.), even masked, than she would be working here.

In case you are interested, there's a symposium being presented by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine on  Long Covid  on the 22nd/23rd. The webcast will be at:

https://www.nationalacademies.org/event/06-22-2023/examining-the-working-definition-for-long-covid-workshop?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

The agenda is on the right side of the page.

Ah. The science wonks are now recommending a new vaccine targeted at the new variant. Apparently the original vaccines are useless against it, and the most recent bi-valents aren't all that helpful.

I guess they'll be playing "whack-a-mole" for years with this.