Hoping everyone is ok.

UK has been back in lockdown for a week now (actual official lockdown now). My aunt has had one of the vaccines today as she's in a care home. Not sure I'll exactly get to hear how she does after it or anything as I don't have any direct contact. There are a few people in my Cushing's support group who've had it though as they're older so they're keeping us all updated. It seems so far the 3 who've had it have just suffered a sore arm for 2-3 days. In theory I should get it by the end of April but that's going on the government's timeline and promises so I won't get my hopes up. We've had shocking figures since Christmas. We're getting around 50k-60k new cases each day and hit a new high of 1300ish deaths one day last week. Compared to France which has pretty much the same population as us but has been in lockdown for ages (no tier rubbish) they're reporting 10k-20k new cases a day (not sure on deaths).

Update on the father-in-law: after a couple of weeks in a seperate revalidation centre, he's back home!

Almost 3 months since being hospitalised, he's doing relatively well. Physically he still has a long revalidation ahead of him, but the worst is behind us.

Still ok here.

That's fantastic news J And good to hear from you Peltz. It's getting a bit quiet around these forums.

Replaying Red Dead Redemption 1 and just found a bit about TB, Cholera and Polio in one of the newspapers. It recommends washing hands weekly and not sharing bathwater with anyone other than close neighbours. Hope you're all following those guidelines.

Well we had an announcement today that there are 11 cases of the South Africa variant in the UK that have no obvious ties to South Africa. They're locking down the areas and "strongly urging" testing for all residents. The areas are a few places in London and one case in the West Midlands. One specific postcode. My bloody postcode. Luckily Niall went out and did a big shop this afternoon before the announcement so we should be good to hide away for 2 weeks.

Shiny and I are still ok. I've been pretty much staying at home (yay new job) while Shiny's been doing her usual one day a week in the office thing. Her father and step-mom were recently vaccinated, so since they were a pretty big problem (going out and otherwise being irresponsible) that's a very good thing. Neither of us has been vaccinated yet as we're not in enough of an at-risk group. Here's hoping things are overall getting better. What a time to live in, eh? And more importantly, a time to survive.

J, I'm glad to hear your father-in-law is doing better. Hopefully his recovery is speedy. Give a shout if you need us to ship you some Bug Light or something.

Just popping in to see if you're all ok still.

Dad had his jab last Weds in France and is due his second dose on 24th March. Mum isn't eligible yet as she's 'only' 74 so not in the group being done yet (Dad is 76). And I'm getting mine on Tuesday! Suck it bitches! haha. I'll let you know if I start getting advertising spam directly to my brain after I have it or grow an extra leg or something.

No you wont. You'll be telling us it's the best thing ever and we need to get it now, like immediately. Basically like a crack addict .

All is well here, Pevil. Father-in-law slowly recovering, doesn't seem to have heart damage, that's a plus. Long capacity at 60% now.

My dad will get his first vaccination shot somewhere in 2 weeks or so, because he works in a company that has homes for the elderly. He's an accountant and doesn't come in contact with anyone there, still gets a vaccine. Weird, but better for him i guess.

Ok good point. If I start saying it's the best thing ever you'll know I've been compromised!

Glad to hear that J. It really hits home just how long it takes to recover to hear about it first hand. Thank god his heart is ok. Good to hear your dad is getting his vaccine too. It is weird how they're working it all out. Here in the UK the first 6 groups have been mostly based around age, underlying conditions and if you work for the NHS/in a carer role. The other groups which we should be moving on to in mid-April are basically all the under 50s without an underlying condition but still split into age groups. They've recently reviewed it and said they'll remain doing it by age as that's what has worked so far. There's been a bit of moaning about that (rightly so in my opinon) as they keep drilling it into us that under 50s are relatively not at risk so people are asking that those who work in supermarkets, public transport etc, be prioritised. But they've said no. So a 20 year old who works in Tesco won't get the vaccine until after a 45 year old who is working from home at the moment. Vaccinations are due to go on until the end of July so that's a difference of 3.5 months they could be waiting, all that time potentially exposed to it. Still it's nice to see an end in sight. We also have a 'roadmap' to come out of lockdown with 5 weeks between each phase to give them a week to analyse the data and spot any spikes in hospital admissions so they can delay the next phase if necessary. It actually sounds fairly well thought out but I shall remain skeptical until it happens and happens well.

Just vaccinate the beer..

Imagine the horror. "The vaccine has trackers in it! But I really want a beer..."

Had my vaccine this morning (AstraZeneca). Shows the difference in approach between countries.

Dad in France - queue to get in (socially distanced), have temperature and blood pressure taken, sit at a table with hand gel to wait. Chair cleaned when you get up and go in for jab in another room (with more hand gel). Chair cleaned again and through to another room to sit for 5 mins to make sure you're ok, temperature taken and blood pressure again, make sure no allergic reaction and on your way.

Me - queue to get in (socially distanced), temperature taken and hand gel given, queue in corridor to get in room, more hand gel given so I can sign to say I consent, stab me, throw me out down a corridor and out the back of the surgery, no further checks. It was all quick and smooth though so I was quite happy with it.

Didn't hurt me at all, not even the usual sting as it's injected and it's now 8 hours later and still no side effects yet. By this point my colleague who took it quite badly was feeling feverish and she then called in sick the next day but was fine after that. So we'll see if it's yet to do anything or if I'm going to be lucky and have nothing. I don't have the date for my second dose yet.

*eyes glaze over* Bill Gates is the finest man in the world. You should send him all your details and do anything he recommends.

From what I understand is that the reaction to the vax depends on ones immune system. If it is at slightly below 'chuck norris' level, the reaction is going to hit like a freight train. If it's at 'I sneeze I die' level the reaction is going to be non-existent.

Well I had to be totally weird with mine.

I was fine until 8pm. Then my arm started aching like it does with my flu jab. No biggy.
10.30pm I start shivering uncontrollably. This could be the jab or it could be my cortisol going low as I usually get that but normally with some abdominal pain as well, which I didn't get. So I took extra replacements (3 actually over an hour and a half!). I spent 3 hours snuggled up with the heating on, my thick nightdress, my dressing gown, fluffy socks, under my duvet and snuggled into Niall to steal his body heat.
1.00am finally stopped shivering and fell asleep. Throughout the night I woke and removed various items of clothing as I warmed up.
5.00am mild headache
2.00pm woke up with a mild headache, still achy arm but otherwise feeling fine.

I feel quite spaced out and almost hungover but that just makes me think it was the low cortisol as I usually feel like that once it's tanked so overall the jab itself hasn't had a big effect on me. It's just my underlying condition being a knob. A couple of paracetemol has sorted the headache out and I probably could've easily coped without them as it was only a very mild one. My arm only aches if I lift it above shoulder height.

I've seen all sorts of theories on the reactions. My colleague thinks it's if you've had covid you get a big reaction, I guess because your immune system already knows what it is and goes right after it. She's had covid and she felt really shit after hers. I think it makes more sense if you have a good immune system in general you'll get a reaction (for the same reason) but who knows. Dad had no reaction whatsoever so I'm sure he'll rub that in my face now haha.