I had a letter from NHS telling me I have to stay indoors If I I get the Virus I would be seriously ill. Has anyone else had this letter, I have to stay in for 12 weeks.. I do have Coeliac . Maybe they think I'm more likely to get it with having AF and on Warfarin.I don't have any breathing problems ,Has anyone else had this letter?
Virus and AF.: I had a letter from NHS... - Atrial Fibrillati...
Virus and AF.
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benmaise
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As the disease evolves and more patients contract it, the more information is coming out. Anyone with an underlying condition MUST shelter in place for as long as the government orders it.
Yes I had one from the NHS and another from my GP, I have several medical problems but wasn't expecting the letter.
I wasn't expecting the letter either. I have friends with heart problems and Diabetes , they haven't had a letter. Unless they have not received it yet. Mine just came this week.
I got both letters last week, my brother in law who has recently been diagnosed with atrial flutter had a text which was a surprise to him !
I won't be locking myself away for 12 weeks as dogs have to be walked and shopping done, absolutely no chance of getting an online slot !!
I wonder if I had walks where it is very quiet. If I keep my distance would it be safe ?
I personally can't see any harm in going out as long as nobody else is near but the risk has to be your decision.
I’m in Ohio, USA, and my grown children have had me on house arrest for a month, but I am allowed to go out in the back yard, and we even went for a walk in our neighborhood park. There were a lot of people out (it was a sunny day), so we kept our distance. I am making face masks and try not to watch the news too much. Praying for a vaccine to be found for this dreadful virus, and for all the caregivers out there risking their own lives every day. Hang in there ❤️.
Of course you will as long as you don't have close contact and wear plastic gloves to avoid your hands touching surfaces. Wash hands with gloves on before removing them to wash bare hands.
If you are on the vulnerable list I believe you get priority delivery when ordering from a supermarket. I tried to order online recently and a message came up saying, Sorry we can't deliver your order as you are not listed as vulnerable.
In theory yes but it doesn't work as there aren't enough slots, one of my neighbours with cancer managed to get a slot 4 weeks away !
I was lucky this week. There was a slot for today from Tesco . I wonder if someone has cancelled or changed theirs.
If you register on the government's website for vulnerable people, supermarkets like Tesco and Sainsbury's can recognise you as vulnerbale. You can then call their customer service numbers and apply for slots, which they set aside for people in your position.
I registered a couple of days ago, then got an email from them saying I have to get my GP to contact them to confirm I am vulnerable. Don't know if GP will do that. I get severe asthma during the hay fever season, May to July, but am asymptomatic the rest of the year, so may not count. Its very unfortunate that I will be asthmatic at the height of the pandemic.
Nothing available here, we are in a rural area so not much choice of supermarkets. A friend had a Morrisons delivery but she waited weeks for it and now there's nothing. She was told to call head office but can't get through !
Yes I did this. We have recently moved and the local practice doesn’t know me . The doc phoned me though to tell me to stay in as she could see from my records that I have several conditions. I filled in the government form and Tesco has recently contacted me with a slot. So relieved
You should get an online slot if you have received a government letter......Sainsbury's for instance, are very hot on this....
BobDVolunteer
A recent post here about this subject revealed that only people with additional health issues than AF seem to have received these letters. I haven't but with four of us living here. two of whom are working. total isolation is difficult even if I have not been off the property for nearly a month now.
One of my daughters is a police officer so still working and she lives here on her rest days so I can't totally isolate, luckily we live in the middle of nowhere so at least dog walking is safe, although the hamlet bongo drums are reporting a local has it !!
Its a worry . Its silly of me thinking about going out really.
I'm told that half of the police in our area of East Sussex are off work and self isolating.
No idea of police numbers here but my daughter is still working her socks off.
A neighbour was due to enter the force as a WPC but recently but her entry has been put off until October.
I have coeliac as diagnosed at the local hospital by tests 10 years ago. No other serious underlying health problems other than thyroid and Afib....No letter as yet.Husband got one as he has an underlying lung problem plus diabetes.
I haven't had a letter. Neither has my son who is in a wheelchair. In any case, if I had, I'm not sure life would have been that different. We don't meet anyone else. I go on a long walk every day with the dog. There's a park nearby which I can walk to with a long avenue. 3 weeks ago just before lockdown it was full of people, probably 200 along it's full stretch. Yesterday when it was warm and sunny I was the only person for virtually the whole length. I would have expected a lot more locals, I don't know where they've gone or what they do for exercise.
I think it's really important to maintain exercise and lung function so I'm pushing myself up slopes, etc in the hope that would improve my chances should I get it. I do miss cycling, the gym, swimming and sailing, though. The weekend would have been fantastic down in Chichester Harbour.
Benmaise - about a week ago, I received the UK Gov letter plus a copy from my GP plus mobile texts every day. If you look carefully at the long list of medications and, crucially, the list of "OR"s, you will probably spot why you are considered to be "extremely vulnerable".
A history of heart disease is listed, of course; but perhaps someone more in the groove than I can confirm whether or not AF is considered these days to be Heart disease.
Hope that helps.
The only mention of heart disease says pregnant women with severe heart disease. I don't have anything else on the list. It would be a miracle if I was pregnant as I am 75.
Benmaise - one of the "OR"s in the letter specifically lists "any history of heart disease". "70 years of age" is another. With a minimum of any 2 "conditions", you are qualified (as am I) as "extremely vulnerable".
The gov have determined 3 levels of vulnerability - those who need shielding are the highest level of vulnerability, those are people mostly with suppressed immune responses or serious lung conditions most of whom have received their letters & need to self isolate indoors for at least 3 months. There is a list of conditions on the gov Coronovirus website.
The next level are those over 70’s & anyone of any age with underlying chronic conditions such as asthma, who are advised to self isolate except for essentials and then the rest who need to keep self distancing rules.
I really don’t relish having to self isolate for 3 months - or longer.
It is only for those with heart failure from AF wh made the list. What I can’t work out is why if there are 1.5m people considered - only 200,000 letters have been sent out.
My letter was from NHS England - GPs don’t seem to know what to do.
I take immune suppressants so am on lockdown for 3 months. I received Gov food parcels within 3 days - took a while for supermarkets to get the list from the gov & cross check against their customer lists so if you aren’t on the NHS list + registered + regular shopper with a supermarket who delivers there seems very much a matter of chance to get a slot.
We are using mostly local shops who deliver & have had 2 supermarket deliveries so the problems seem to come with who the NHS identify as in the highest vulnerability group.
CD - I always thought AF was included in the wide list of heart conditions listed as "heart failure". No?
No - AF may cause heart failure but heart failure has many causes. Heart failure just means that the heart isn’t pumping blood around the body efficiently causing symptoms.
Last year my husband was in heart failure but has since recovered.
A diagnostic element is a measurement calculated from an echocardiogram called an ejection fraction - expressed as a percentage. Normal would be 55% - an EF if less than 35% may indicate heart failure but it isn’t definitive.
Many people think heart failure is immediately life threatening but it isn’t & is a lot less scary than it sounds.
This is information I gleaned from Patient Day & my husband’s experiences, I’m not medically trained.
Stay well.
CD - Thanks. And stay safe yourself.
I have had heart attack, heart bypass, pacemaker, af and take warfarin and have been told copd borderlne but have not had a letter. I have been isolating since middle of March as my common sense tells me it would nit be good for me with my conditions to catch the virus. I do go out for walks where quiet and work in the garden but do not venture into the supermarkets etc family deliver shopping to front door. Stay safe all of you regardless of whether you have a letter or not. X
My brother-in-law, who has lupus nephritis, eventually got a letter from his GP a couple of days ago. Some practices have been much quicker than others in getting these out.
I got the letter. I am asthmatic.
Yes i have i have asthma which has been treated with steroids in the last 12 months . Im not going anywhere
I don't think it is about being more likely to get it. The problem, surely, is that if we get it we are more likely to be hospitalized. By keeping those of us with serious conditions, or older age + serious conditions safely at home, not only are our lives saved, but it frees up hospital places for younger people with complications.
No-one likes to say it, but if they are so inundated with sick people that they have to select who will get the best hospital care and who will have to be left to die, us sick oldies are likely to be at the back of the queue for the bed. So I, for one, am keeping safely at home as much as possible. My contribution? to leave that bed free for some younger person, perhaps with a young family, to be saved. My reward? I'll still be here and living at the end of it all, and hopefully that younger person will be too!
I agree, difficult decisions all round. My daughters were so worried about me and my husband that they were doing shopping on our behalf and leaving it at the end of the path. My husband and I decided the last thing we want is for either of them to get ill, especially on our behalf, when each family has two very young children. Since then and after a period of self-isolating, my elder daughter's mother-in-law has moved in with them and she qualifies for home deliveries, and we all benefit. Other than that, my husband goes out late at night to the local Sainsburys which is open late and usually deserted and picks up things we need.
Not had the letter, I've got AF but no other ailments (that I know of!). But we are keeping ourselves to ourselves as much as possible anyway, it's sensible at our age/state of health, venturing into town for prescription meds only. Hubby's always been keen on shopping online so everything else seems to be coming by post!
We don't have an Asda near here. Ive given up trying to get a slot so will just have to continue going to the shop, even gave up doing that when the queues were ridiculous!
I've got, treated, high blood pressure and AF for which I take Warfarin, but have been doing a weekly shop and walking the dog every day these last few weeks because I've not had a letter or text and wasn't really expecting one. At 64 and overweight, I certainly know I'm at risk, but didn't believe what I had constituted a need to self isolate completely for 12 weeks and, as friends of mine received letters telling them they had to stay in for 12 weeks almost a month ago now, believed that I had been deemed to not be in the most vulnerable group - has anyone who has AF and no other underlying conditions received a letter?
One last thing, I live in Wales, so I suppose it may be that the system for notifying people is different from England in some way.
Some people are just not taking it seriously and some still think it's "just flu" 🙄
The text message I received gave a website gov.uk/coronavirus-extremel... This has a checklist of the illnesses and conditions likely to make people extremely vulnerable, To access this you have to take the option to register and answer a few questions,- If like me you are not on that list presumably you are not considered by the Government to be extremely vulnerable. You can always double check with your GP.
I’m only 41 and have Lone AF and no other underline health issues and my company said I had to stop work and stay off for 12 weeks.....due to government guidelines.
One thing I will say, I had regular flu two years ago and it floored me and brought on more af episodes and they were faster, normally my af is 80 to 110bpm but with flu it was up above 150 bpm.....so in my opinion having this virus could make episodes more frequent and put your heart under more strain which isn’t great, but just my opinion
My friend's grandson in Canada has coeliac disease (he is thirteen) and his family have been told to self-isolate as he is at risk.
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