Self-isolation may be a pipe dream

Summary

As a carer of my wife who has several chronic underlying health conditions, and a couple myself, we have been in self-isolation for a week already. However, circumstances may mean that this has to end soon.

Content

We knew what would be coming at us several weeks ago. Our daughter is a bit of a doomsday prepper and she had been warning us for a while. We had slowly stocked up on a few essentials, nothing ridiculous. We'd also made sure that we had supplies of our medications, and switched away from Boots to a small local pharmacy who promised to do deliveries. We had corded phones, candles, lanterns and lots of batteries in case of power outages. We had some bottled water. We had stocked up the freezer.

We hadn't thought the panic buying would start so quickly, or last so long. Toilet paper was a surprise. We hadn't bought any extra of that, so that was an issue, but our daughter managed to find some for us.

We are used to working from home. We have done it off and on for over a decade, so this situation is not new for us. We are tech savvy and able to use digital tools to meet our work needs. However, as freelancers, we have been hit hard by work just being cancelled and having much less to do than normal. Less money coming in too, soon.

The hardest thing of all has been that while we want to heed the Government's call to stay at home as reasonably high-risk individuals, we cannot book any food deliveries. Tesco, Ocado and Morrisons have no slots available at all. Thankfully we had two already booked with Tesco before the end of this month. After that, the food will start to run out here. With rationing etc already in place, our family who do visit the shops cannot buy extra for us.

At some point, regardless of the risk, we may have to leave the house. Wish us luck!!

About the Author

I am the husband and carer of someone with multiple chronic conditions. I have three myself; we are trying to self isolate. It's hard!!