Xmas lunch with family

[Cazma]

Hi all . I am concerned about having fully vaccinated family members for Xmas lunch. Is the risk worth taking? Otherwise it will be a second Xmas without celebrations. Please let me know your thoughts and plans for your Xmas day . Kind regards to all

[Newdawn Administrator]

I’ll certainly be seeing family Christmas Day. They do a lateral flow before visiting and are all vaccinated. I view my mental health to be important too. We’ve lost a cousin, husband’s brother and his mum in the space of 8 weeks (none COVID related). Frankly life and family won’t be here forever whilst I sit behind closed doors. Hope it goes well whatever you decide 😊

Newdawn

[Cazma in reply to Newdawn]

Thanks for your reply . Last year we were supposed to go home to England and we were very excited until all was cancelled at the last minute so Im minded to go ahead with the Xmas day meal. Like you , I think mental health is just as important and not just for me but also my partner. Wishing you a happy and healthy xmas

[1ofakind in reply to Newdawn]

I agree with you!….it’s so important to enjoy the good times while taking precautions to protect ourselves as well….So sorry about your recent losses .. From your posts I know that family and relationships are important to you -and that you give so much to others ..Hope that memories of those good times helps with these losses-

[devonrr]

Life has to go on, you can’t lock yourself away from events for ever BUT you do need to assess every situation and plan to make it as least threatening as possible with help from your visitors. Perhaps not the hugs and kisses but you can make it a good family day. Enjoy Christmas.

[AnneHill in reply to devonrr]

I think what you have said about assessing situations is what I try to do. I find it hard to say NO when invited out and its hard on my Husband and family. We do have lateral flow tests and that makes it safer to be with people we trust. Large venues full of strangers are something I wont do. Anne uk

[HopeME]

Cazma:

You have asked a difficult questions that we all struggle with day in and day out. No one can answer this question but yourself. However, if you provide some more detail about your situation in your profile I believe you will get more useful responses. For instance, have you been previously treated? Do you know the status of your immunoglobulins? Further, providing more details with your question will help tailor responses. What are the Covid trends in your local? How many family members do you plan to meet with? Have they received booster shots? You seem to indicate you will be hosting the lunch which would be a benefit since you can control the situation by opening windows and setting the ground rules ( mask or no mask, etc.).

I hope this helps. Enjoy the season because as Newdawn notes today won’t last forever and no one knows what tomorrow will bring.

Best

Mark

[Bilia]

We celebrate Christmas at our daughter's house.

There is a large terrace with radiant heaters.

We don't dare meet indoors for a longer period of time.

[lankisterguy Volunteer]

Hi Cazma,

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We had a detailed discussion 4 days ago about suggested steps to reduce the risk of getting infected at an event like you are describing.

See: healthunlocked.com/cllsuppo...

And: healthunlocked.com/cllsuppo...

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I view attending events like this similar to the other risks we take- driving a car to the airport is more risky than flying, so we wear a seat belt, practice defensive driving, etc. Skiing, scuba diving, sky diving are all more risky than sitting in your house watching TV, but we do them anyway.

-

Len

[PaulaS Volunteer]

Hi Cazma,

This is a dilemma so many are facing...

Will there be children in your family gathering? They will not be vaccinated, but may still spread disease even without any symptoms...

As Newdawn has said, lateral flow tests beforehand are important, especially for unvaccinated children.

We're planning to meet family with young children over Christmas, but they'll do lateral flow tests beforehand, and we'll try to be outside as much as possible.

Paula

[Cazma in reply to PaulaS]

Thanks for your reply Paula. There will be a vaccinated 14 year old who will not have been at school for 10 days. We will be indoors but with windows open as it's likely to be minus temperature outside.

[PaulaS Volunteer in reply to Cazma]

Great that the 14 year old has been vaccinated.

We're not sure how our plans to be outside will work out in wintry weather, but we've bought a pop-up gazebo for the garden which helps.

Paula

[stevesmith1964]

Hi,Go for it. Just get them all to do a lateral flow on the day. Everyone will catch covid at some point , so enjoy life. I have been in remission since July,... had Covid twice....

[RefuahShlayma]

Nothing really major to add but for what it's worth I thought I would share that at my last Obinutuzamab infusion (the last one) on asking a similar question I was told that everyone has to decide what exceptions to make. I liked that answer as it sort of gave me permission make a calculated exception. I agree with everyone about keeping sane and mental health, it is getting more and more difficult.

Season's greetings to all!!

[MovingForward4423]

Cazma, at some point we call need to live our lives. My tip is to manage your own risk, ask family members to have LFT before they visit. It’s so important for mental health to get back to some sort of normality.

[Cheshire2016]

If people are doing lateral flow tests, then it’s best to do them every few days, before and after the visit, not just on the day. This would be particularly useful for detecting the asymptomatic cases that were past their peak viral load on the day, but still infectious, despite giving a negative LF result.

On a positive note though, it does seem that most double vaccinated people will only have a mild case anyway.

[Sojomama13]

Hi, Even though we are all vaccinated, boosters included, we will ALL be taking a rapid test before having Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. This worked really well at Thanksgiving, so we are continuing it for Christmas. Christmas Eve is a family movie and PJ night and Xmas day is an early dinner followed by board games and cards. There is a group of 26 of us. It is an expense, but completely worth it for being together.

Sandy

[bennevisplace]

One of my grownup children is bringing her family (3 young GC) to ours for Christmas Day. Last year we assembled in the car port and ate on the terrace, which worked courtesy of mild weather.

This year the adults are all vaccinated, the kids will have been off school for a week, and everyone will have been careful in that time (office parties etc long gone). Everyone will take a lateral flow test on the day and on the two days before. Positive result means cancellation.

Weather permitting we will have some open windows for air flow and at the table I will be next to one. Nobody will be masked but mostly we will keep some distance between us.

Our guests can drive here in 45 mins. If your guests are going to be using public transport or crossing international borders that's a different ballgame of course.

One can't really reduce risk to zero, it's a matter of working out where the risks come from, taking sensible precautions, and making sure everyone does the same.

[aloneifly]

I've just come from a family wedding and had to travel to Glasgow by train.I've also got SCC as well as CLL.

But I wouldn't have missed such a rare opportunity to see all the family again.

We will host more immediate family Christmas day also.

For me they are risks worth taking.

We will now test ourselves every few days this week. We are still travelling back.

[GMa27]

I started seeing my unvaccinated family last year. Of course I am upset some of my closest family is not vaccinated but people who are vaccinated can still spread the virus. It's more important to me to be vaccinated just in case I am exposed to virus. A few of my vaccinated friends/family got the virus and so far people around me who are unvaccinated have avoided it.

Maybe a compromise for you would be to be with family, keep mask on but don't have a lunch. Not sure if u can sit outside with heaters in Germany or how far away ur family has to travel. If they are local, then dont plan a meal...just enjoy their company for a few hours & keep ur mask on. 💕

[HopeME in reply to GMa27]

You are a better person than me. I refuse to interact with unvaccinated family members. Fortunately, it is only one sister in law and her young children in my case.

[GMa27 in reply to HopeME]

Not sure better is the right description. 😉 You can have them do a rapid test nite before and then you would know they dont have the virus & can enjoy time together. 🙏

[HopeME in reply to GMa27]

I refuse to accommodate bad behavior that jeopardizes my life.

[GMa27 in reply to HopeME]

i get it.... it was a hard decision for me and my hubby. But they are mykids, grandkids, cousins.... too many not to see for years. This isn't going

away any time soon. I am in remission. If I were having my chemo now, I

definietly would have to wait a long time after. I take the antibody test every

4 months. I have greater than 2500.

I hope for the best.

[Blackbelt6]

Unless everyone took a Covid test I would say no lunch. Gary

[jabee]

We are planning to have family here for Christmas. They are all vaccinated and some (including a 7 year old) have recently had Covid, which probably makes it even less likely they will pass anything to my husband. They will all take lateral flow tests for several days before arriving. We are mindful of the risks but given the uncertainty ahead of us (due to my husband’s secondary cancer) we feel they are risks worth taking.

[1ofakind in reply to jabee]

Maybe minimize or don’t kiss and hug the little ones…wearing a mask except when eating but putting it on for intermittent conversation….Being careful around those coughing and sneezing - it might not be Covid , but a bad cold or flu is also something to try and avoid …. Opening a window to increase circulation weather permitting - trying to distance a bit so you are not situated in the middle of the group are ways of trying to avoid infection and also have a good time!

Enjoy the company and stay Healthy!!

[CLLerinOz Administrator Volunteer]

thebmj has a new interactive, visualisation tool that can be used to help understand the risk of covid-19 transmission in various contexts. I've just written a post about it which you can find here:

healthunlocked.com/cllsuppo...

Hope you find it helpful.

[KevinCLLITP]

We are having our sons, their wives and our grandchildren only. Our siblings are doing the same with their children, and we will facetime during the day. We have all received our boosters at this point, so other than Omicron concerns we are good. Luckily, everyone pretty much works at home, so we don’t have much exposure.