This day for us equates to twelve weeks of initial shielding (84 days), plus the six days prior to official lockdown on the 23rd March where we self-isolated voluntarily and the four days we are now past the initial shielding deadling on the 15th June. Today is day 94 of quarantine for us.
As a family we are doing okay. We are shielding because of my health, but simply due to our home dynamic; my son being my dependent and my daughter being my carer, we have all had to shield and isolate together. We’ve been able to support each other and we have had and still have a lot of support from friends and from the community; help we are deeply thankful for (and that I’ll write about when it is all over).
We are currently dependent on people for everything from shopping, both monthly and weekly, to medications and cleaning products to keep us safe. Anything entering the house from letters and parcels, to shopping and medicine is individually disinfected by my daughter before I can go near it. I then only handle it after using sanitiser to kill anything left that I may contract.
The only person entering our home is one of the district nurses, and of course to do that she uses what PPE she has, including a medical mask. I also wear a face covering. Any deliveries from supermarkets are transferred to us in an elaborate dance of putting things down and walking away before my daughter collects them. It’s just about all the precaution we could take without me sealing myself in my room and being fed and medicated through a gap in the wall.
My daughter spent her 20th birthday in quarantine, which resulted in us doing much less than we might have otherwise, however it’s not a massive issue. My son looks certain to spend his 16th in a similar way. I’m sure we can make up for it later down the line.
Seeing lockdown in England being eased so erratically has been a huge cause for concern, especially as many people were travelling down to Wales. Thankfully our own Welsh Labour Government has been much more cautious and while those folk shielding seem to be an afterthought across the border, I have had my second shielding letter here to say that apart from exercise, I should remain shielded (at home, no shopping, no enclosed spaces etc), until at least the 16th of August. I’m really quite relieved.
Keeping ourselves busy has been easy. We always seem to have too many hobbies and interests to realistically keep up with, so we have tried to make progess with a lot of these.
We recently decided that as Jake’s birthday was fast approaching and he asked for Lego, that we would try and rebuild all of his previous models to go with his new ones. That took a whole day so far and we’re still not done. We’ve flown our RC glider in a field right next to our home (inherited from Grandad), and enjoyed some of the sun we have had since I last wrote here. We have photographed bees, flies and spiders, flowers, horses and more of the immediate wildlife available to us and we’ve eaten and drunk a metric tonne of biscuits and tea respectively.
Personally I have spent the last few weeks learning how to do music differently. I’ll write about that shortly.
Emma