Caught by the omicrones!

I am quanked.

                                              

It all started, maybe, not really sure,  Monday the  6th of December. the receptionist at work looked a bit unwell.  But said she felt fine.

On Tuesday, the  other receptionist told us that her son took the scouts at the local school hall. That hall  had just been closed because of a covid outbreak. For some reason, that prompted me to phone a couple of patients in the 90's and say - "maybe not come in at the moment".

People were talking about the new wave but it was all happening elsewhere.

                                                      

On the Wednesday night, the Monday girl, phoned to say that her husband had tested positive  but he was away abroad, and they had not been in contact within the infectious time scale.

I advised her to go for a test anyway.

She was positive. 

I was doing a lat flow every day. They were always negative. And of course, we wear full PPE at work.

                                                                  

At 3 am Friday, I woke up with mild breathing difficulties... tested on lat flow? Two positives, and then booked a PCR for 11 am that day.

The 3 am timing is the important point because  the guidance changed at midnight. Now anybody in the house with somebody who has a positive lat flow must stay indoors until they get a negative pcr.  If the pcr is positive,  then everybody is in self isolation for ten days.

Then we filled out a contact form, and the whole system went into overdrive, calls from test and protect,  wanting phone numbers of everywhere I'd been for the last 48 hours. My accountant was well chuffed, I only see him once a year and he was hauled off for a PCR!! 

I got a call asking about my mental health, everybody was very nice.

                                                 

We got rid of the builders, we ordered in food, we sat ... three metres apart and waited.

The bad thing about this was that Alan was banned from seeing his mother in hospital, as its one named visitor only. He couldn't go in, but neither could anybody else.

My test came back positive. Alan's was negative. But he still had to self isolate for ten days. On day 6 he tested positive by lat flow,  then positive by PCR, then he was self isolating for ten days too.

So what was I supposed to do.... do I reset so the house is covid free after ten days. Or do I stay to my original release date of midnight on the 19th?  What if one of us re-infects the other? Are we caught in some circle of hell where we never get out the house?

That was a hard question to find an answer to but in the end, the answer is I can be released to the community as long as I am free of symptoms.

                                              

 I have not to have any kind of test again for three months as it could easily give a false positive.

That means that I can leave Scotland, but I can't get back in. The poor receptionist was going to Spain to visit her grandchildren for Christmas, is now grounded.

Nicola has now put in more restrictions, only 3 households can get together. Unnecessary gatherings  have all to be cancelled.

                                                   

Bleak times yet again.

The funniest part was being asked to do the genome test. So  the package  appears through the letter box.

Instructions were to stand up and immerse hand in a bowl of hot water. Remove hand, then stab yourself in the fingertip. Let's just say that the blood was a wee bit more and a bit faster than was anticipated. The collection vial fell over, the dog got involved somehow and after five minutes the front room looked like a crime scene. 

                                                              

That is now away getting tested to see if I  have the omicron variant. Symptom wise, it would seem so. Just very tired and a brain fog that makes doing everything very  complicated.

At the point of writing this, nobody I saw has tested positive from the encounter with me and my silent little friend.

I'm not sure how Santa is going to manage this year,

Caro