Sorry, I don't really remember "Roy" or how he came about.
I'm classified by the NHS as being at "severe risk" and am supposed to have been shielding these last 11 weeks, but haven't been, and notwithstanding have not yet succumbed to the virus.
The Severe Risk designation is due to my contracting (following a first session of chemotherapy for metastatic prostate cancer last August) near-fatal Enterocolitis and spending 12 weeks in hospital.
Although at one point one of my lungs had collapsed and both were fluid-filled, and I was kept alive on oxygen, I myself don't think that they're permanently damaged, and hence have been ignoring the advice to shield myself for these last 11 weeks, a risk I rightly (it appears) thought worth taking.
The government is under attack both for imposing the lockdown at all and for imposing it too late and then easing it too soon. They can't win.
My decision was a personal one based on the fact that I'm going to die anyway, and I wasn't prepared to waste what limited time I have left, and the fine Spring weather, by being stuck indoors for 12 or more weeks. And (as I intuited) the risks were exaggerated - the NHS was not overwhelmed (the Nightingale emergency hospitals weren't even needed) and deaths weren't in the millions.
And it was obvious to me that the NHS criteria of who was at "severe risk" were very broad-brush, one-size-fits-all ones, and based mainly on guesswork.
Yes and no. My follow-up care at present consists of 3-monthly injections, done locally, which have not been impeded, and periodic blood tests and consultations at the Charing Cross Hospital which have. But for as long as the injections continue to work (which they may do for months or even years) they will be sufficient. Follow-up care for the effects of the Enterocolitis was non-existent anyway.
9 comments
Howard Somerville said:
Isisbridge replied to Howard Somerville:
I hope Roy is well and not succumbed to the virus.
Howard Somerville replied to Isisbridge:
I'm classified by the NHS as being at "severe risk" and am supposed to have been shielding these last 11 weeks, but haven't been, and notwithstanding have not yet succumbed to the virus.
Isisbridge replied to Howard Somerville:
The virus has clearly affected your memory, though, if you've forgotten Roy the cropper.
Howard Somerville replied to Isisbridge:
The Severe Risk designation is due to my contracting (following a first session of chemotherapy for metastatic prostate cancer last August) near-fatal Enterocolitis and spending 12 weeks in hospital.
Although at one point one of my lungs had collapsed and both were fluid-filled, and I was kept alive on oxygen, I myself don't think that they're permanently damaged, and hence have been ignoring the advice to shield myself for these last 11 weeks, a risk I rightly (it appears) thought worth taking.
Isisbridge replied to Howard Somerville:
Howard Somerville replied to Isisbridge:
My decision was a personal one based on the fact that I'm going to die anyway, and I wasn't prepared to waste what limited time I have left, and the fine Spring weather, by being stuck indoors for 12 or more weeks. And (as I intuited) the risks were exaggerated - the NHS was not overwhelmed (the Nightingale emergency hospitals weren't even needed) and deaths weren't in the millions.
And it was obvious to me that the NHS criteria of who was at "severe risk" were very broad-brush, one-size-fits-all ones, and based mainly on guesswork.
Isisbridge replied to Howard Somerville:
Howard Somerville replied to Isisbridge: