Patient Perspective – an update from lockdown

Vickie is our resident patient blogger. Here, she chats about the current lockdown in England, and how she’s getting ready for the festive season.

Christmas is nearly here, and we are all worrying about what’s going on in the world today.

With COVID-19 still on the rise, and now we are in another lockdown, where do we go from here? How do we feel about all this? Well I’ll share with you how I feel about all this and what I am doing.

I’m still having my telephone consultations with my haematologist and everything is good; especially after me coming off my tablets just over a year ago now, which I had to go back on due to my bloods rising again. So I will have to take my tablets for the rest of my life, which is sometimes hard for it to sink in, but if the medication is doing its job then I am happy about it. When I was off my medication, however, life was great. No side effects, not having to take them every single night before bed. I take them before bed so I can sleep on the side effects. If I were to take them in the morning, there is no way I would be able to cope throughout the day.

I suppose we can’t have it all though. The medication is working.

The cold dark nights are setting in, meaning warmer clothes. Gloves, scarves hats, etc. I don’t know about anyone else but the cold sharp wind always hurts the inside of me ears, so I either put my hood up or wear ear muffs. I don’t like the cold—it makes me unwell. I suffer with cramps and joint pains and the cold always gets to me. I just want to be in the warmth, wrapped up.

We have to take extra care, as this is the time of year for bugs and colds. We have to be careful not to mingle in large crowds, and with Christmas coming up, there will be lots of people shopping, buying gifts etc. At the moment with the lockdown we are unable to go out, unless we have to. If lockdown ends at the beginning of December, I can imagine the shops and town centres being packed with people. It’s a nice Christmas atmosphere—I love Christmas—but we do have to be careful and make sure we are not too close to people. Wearing masks will help us with other bugs like the common cold etc.

Luckily, I haven’t had COVID-19 and really don’t want it as I don’t know how this would affect us—it’s really scary, isn’t it? I know I am scared to get it. We already have a disease to battle, do we really need to fight another battle? Let’s stay strong and beat this by being over-protective of looking after ourselves. If you have no one to talk with or who can get your shopping, contact Leukaemia Care who can help guide you in the right direction.

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