I just watched this show on the BBC they talked about many different things but what caught my attention was someone said how do they collect food or meds etc. when they have to self isolate
Well I am a 72 yo with Moderate/Severe Heart Failure who is more than willing to collect goods from Supermarkets or Chemists. Quite Honestly I don't feel in the Vulnerable Category " vulnerable really is it a state of mind " I don't know how to help I suppose like 1000s of my countrymen and women we all want to help but how.
Last night I gave a guy who sits outside Tesco £4 to get a cup of tea and some food maybe he spent it on drink I don't know but hope he slept well.
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Prada47
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It broke my heart to see a critical care nurse going to the supermarket at the end of her shift. Nothing in there! She broke down and asked how she could look after herself and her family.
Yes, me too. The food situation is out of control with people being selfish. At one supermarket locally some people are loading their trollies but when they realise they will have to queue for 2 hours to pay they abandon the trolley. The supermarket staff are too pressed to put the stuff back on the shelves. And anything frozen or chilled has to be binned because they don't know whether it's safe. That is really shocking. There will have to be really strong security to get it under control.
Saw that too; heartbreaking. My 75 yr old diabetic husband had to go to Tesco today for bread. He was allowed one really tiny loaf. Said NO ONE was distancing. GOvernment needs to step in over this food panic. If everyone got what they normally do there'd be no problem. Shelves are empty by 9.30
Maybe a message to learn to keep a store cupboard of basic items. Yes I was sorry for her but she's not the only one who's suffering, everyone needs to use some sense. And shouldn't a health worker have been more prepared?
Frank, "vulnerable" is a difficult description to embrace but you and I both are definitely in the category that needs to take extra care, whether we FEEL vulnerable or not. And as Milkfairy said, even those who are not "vulnerable" need to practise social distancing for the good of all. Please take care of yourself. Luckily the best way to take care of yourself is also the best way to take care of everyone else too.
I am taking care and I understand I am in the Vulnerable category even though sometimes I don't feel it !! I am sure I am not in the over 70s well mentally I am not,
I do understand we have a duty to our fellow citizens to stay well and not overload the NHS, my neighbour is over 70 and has just completed a course of Chemotherapy so she is Vulnerable and we will help her all we can. That's what I was meaning when I said more than willing to help.
Everyone now says that 70 is the new 50. But, however us over 70's çan be as fit as a pork butchers dog! It still remains that our auto-immune system is over 70 years old and not quite as capable of fighting viruses as it was when we were younger. Stay safe
Maybe BECAUSE we're over 70 means our immune systems are better prepared??? I'm over 80 and get a bit wearied with all the "precautions" advised. let your body look after itself. Fear and imagination perhaps do the most damage!!
I am finding it hard to suddenly be at risk. Long retired nurse and busy volunteer usually, now reduced to offering telephone support. One of my voluntary "jobs" are not allowing over 70 to "work"
I think that sums up how I feel to. I'm finding it hard to be at Risk. I have been at Risk for quite a long time now ever since bypass op and stents and Heart Failure so it doesn't seem to be a new thing for a lot of us.
You've just perfectly described how I'm feeling at the moment - '...hard to suddenly be at risk.'
Not a retired nurse but a former American Red Cross Disaster Relief and Blood Services volunteer lucky enough to have been employed (statistician) by a company happy to give me time off to go where ever the ARC needed me to go. And living in Hurricane Central USA, I was needed often those years living along the Gulf of Mexico.
I'm sitting here retired home to the UK today finally feeling 99% recovered my heart wobble from last year - and all I can do is help my husband disinfect when he comes home from doing a click and collect shopping run for neighbours without cars.
I feel useless, utterly useless and I do not like that feeling at all!
Totally agree with everything that’s been said, I care for my husband he had quite a big stroke, so it’s 24/7 so we are both in the vulnerable category, it’s the thinking for both of us that gets to me! Trying not to worry him is really hard work. But hay ho we will get through this.
Having a food delivery later today just wondering how much I will get!
Sounds to me like you’ve done more than your bit already Sunnie2day, and your still contributing by doing the disinfecting. One of the most important things we can all do, is to make sure that we don’t pass on the infection to others, especially the old and the vulnerable. If we could all do that it would be a huge contribution to defeating this bastard (scuse my french) virus. Keep safe and sunny - everyday.
My entire contribution to helping him disinfect as he comes home is refilling the large 70% isopropyl alcohol sprayer we keep in the entry hall. Big. Woo.
But thank-you and you're so right - we can all be part of the fight by doing all we can to not contract and pass this on, or need to burden the already over-burdened NHS care system.
I know what you mean, kids taking care of their parents is lovely but it does make you feel feeble and vulnerable when you are the one who looked after them for so many years. The thing is if they are looking out for you now, then you brought them up to be caring people, well done.
Hi Prada47, l know how you feel, l am in a similar situation. I’m a few years younger than you at 65, and although l have a history of heart disease (CABG in 1996) l feel well and, touch wood, have not suffered from any Angina since. I care for my wife however, who has MS and is clearly vulnerable, and l know from previous bouts of colds or flu, that any sort of infection will knock her back. I feel frustrated in so far as l would love to help others, more vulnerable than l, but am constrained, not so much by my condition, but by the necessity to protect my wife from infection.
So l share your frustration, and l do what l can to help, but employ what l consider sensible precautions to avoid infection. So you are not alone.
Well, I'm staying with my parents and this is the first time since leaving home that my mum has let me make my own breakfast/cups of tea! 😂 But I definitely know what you mean Jo. I'm pretty miserable to be putting everyone out because of my own health needs. But my daughter is working me HARD 24/7 so not exactly feeling waited on. Having to suspend studies though, as I just can't manage everything
Good on ya Prada, With underlying health issues myself, I don't feel in the vulnerable category but the reality is we are. my son-in-law is a Microbiologist and said us aged people should be self isolating for at least 4 weeks, as this virus is very dangerous. Better we live to help another day, rather than help now end not see that day.
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and you're so right - we can all be part of the fight by doing all we can to not contract and pass this on, or need to burden the already over-burdened NHS care system. 
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