How has the Pandemic affected you as a cancer patient/survivor

Exbrnxgrl, I teach in 3 very different settings; a local coop preschool, a large community arts center and a a public school afterschool program. Only mask issues are the power dads who are now WFH and bring their kids to ballet. They put the mask on to pass the front desk, then off it comes. Every. Single. Week. I have to say "masks are required in this building." To them. Every.single. week.

Little kids sometimes have a problem keeping them on if parent didn't adjust it properly. So, yeah, my job now involves adjusting snotty kid masks as well as shoes. But they try and for the most part are pretty successful. Adults often really don't give little kids enough credit.

You know, the leaders all over are doing that thing i HATED when I was a kid, where while you are playing a game someone randomly yells "new rule!" And you never knew if everyone would follow it and would it be better to try to, or to ignore it. The rule may or may not stick depending on how much social collateral the inventor could throw at it.

After reading this thread I now know for sure that I have to get an N95 mask. I logged into Amazon and was completely befuddled with all the choices for an N95. Could one of you recommend a manufacturer and/or where you found your mask? Thanks in advance.

Cowgirl, try

https://shop.projectn95.org/masks/

Some of these masks need large order like couple hundreds. I got the white powecom from bona fide mask. It ships within a day.

I ordered a bunch of different styles and picked the one I was most comfortable wearing. Remember that if you can smell while wearing it, it's not fitted properly. Some that people I know are happy with:

https://shopvida.com

https://www.pure-msk.com/?gbraid=0AAAAABMxKRSowTHWLUPgRFpHa-vJmL6wV&gclid=Cj0KCQjwkIGKBhCxARIsAINMioJqrTCjYlcNlw3DWohacTih7rHu7h5xBbrEpbfcHufCMOK0pnTHUpAaAgxnEALw_wcB

https://wellbefore.com/products/kn95-disposable-fd...

cowgirl13 - I got these - they fit great, really firmly on my face, and feel substantial. I have a small face and am hard to fit - the surgical style ones are useless on me. Here is a link directly to AccuMed where you can purchase the masks, and they specify that they are made in the USA in case you have any concerns about quality control or counterfeit. I bought the 8th one down, the black 30-pack for $29.99. They come in packages within the larger bag so it is easy to keep them handy in several spots.

https://accumed.com/n95-mask-respirators-kn95-face-masks-ffp2-safety-masks.html

So the Bay area counties already have indoor mask mandate, but offices and gyms are exempted with < vaccinated 100 people indoor. now the counties have decided offices and gyms are no longer exempted. people on reddit freaked out. Mods had to lock the thread. I know some of them are probably trolls, but what's wrong with these cry babies!

I just had my pre-op covid test. "Results should be within 24 hours, although I'm hearing all the labs are pretty overwhelmed right now, so maybe longer. But it should be ok." Said the testing nurse.

She also asked how im feeling, do I have any symptoms? I said I've been feeling like crap since treatment started! I've been off ibrance 3 weeks and I no longer feel shaky and like I'm fighting off a bug, however I do have a slight cough...triple vaxxed, had covid pre vax, and either double or n95 whenever I leave my apt or even answer the door. Ive been quarentined with my kids since 12/24, but DH works. We will see.

Cancer center is requiring n95 or double now. Security was walking around handing out masks. Testing nurse kept trying to explain to older woman that she couldn't just hold them in front of her face, she has to wear the masks. Woman kept saying "but I can't breathe" All I could think was,. So hag, you mean to tell me you haven't practiced wearing a mask at all the past 2 years? Thanks for contributing to the spread.

Only tourists wandering around aren't fully masked properly. Most on city busses (4 buses for round trip to cancer center today) have n95 or double.. But with 335/100k positive yesterday in Manhattan, im sure ill be able to let you know soon Lalis.

It's hard to really know what variant you have though, Lalis21. I'm on the tail end of a Covid infection, but I don't think there's a way to know if it was Delta or Omicron.

More lockdown announced for QC. No restaurant indoor dining. Schools (elementary thru university) closed til Jan 17. Curfew begins tomorrow (10 pm to 5 am). No private gatherings except caregivers or single people visiting. Guess no NYE parties allowed.

COVID+ HCWs will wear N95s. Don’t know if N95s will be used elsewhere.

Chowdog, those rates are crazy, I had no idea. In Houston, our positivity rate has increased from 4% to 18% in the last couple of weeks, which is disappointing. Fortunately ICU beds are still under 10% (gen beds under 5%). I really hope it doesn’t blow up here since I’m pretty confident that no lockdowns would be considered. So far, it looks like people are being cautious on their own.

Finally convinced DH to give up the beard friendly cloth mask in favor of my KN95’s, so that’s a win.

Canada is as bad but in a smaller way.

It shouldn't take much for people to figure out what is required to not catch or spread an infection transferred by air. It shouldn't require governments forcing us to behave or to use our brains. It is very simple and here we are.

I am in BC and really fed up on behalf of many friends and family suffering in many ways. My family in Ontario is fed up.

I don't blame our government. How does a government keep up with a bunch of insane selfish idiots who won't follow simple logic.

Trishyla,

I think it's part of "messaging" problem. I remember at one point, I naively thought once I was vaccinated, I could have resumed some normal activities, like travel. Delta and the unmasking in may quickly brought me back to reality.

I don't expect government to be perfect, but the administration should be held accountable. They have made one mistake after another since the unmasking in may. At least put in some effort of "trying", but they are not even doing that. They are just pulling shit out of their asses and calling it science now.So we let omicron rip it through and hope it's the last wave. What if it's not? What then? I guess they are too dumb to see it will hurt their political career, just like the previous administration.

Oh I agree that messaging has been uniformly bad by a lot of governments throughout this. UK had "Freedom Day" in June (I was honestly looking for BoJo to rock up on the new aircraft carrier in a flight suit sort of pomposity) and out went the masks and any consideration that Covid would ever be a thing again but... here we are. Its the same complaining (!I got vaxxed like you said and now you say I can't do what I want! Waaa!" and the same issues over here and while the government hasn't helped matters, the media dramatising everything doesn't really help either. Everything is a catastrophe because it sells and it gets very hard to stay on the mental level with so much daily angst and division.

There is some indication that London may have peaked and yet numbers on vents haven't increased much. However, its impossible to get PCR testing right now and even LFTs are tough to get. Lots of people aren't doing PCRs to confirm a positive LFT + symptoms because why would you? The responsible are sitting it out at home until they get a negative LFT, while Ive seen anecdotal stories of others going into work despite being positive because they cannot afford to take off due to poor sick pay rates here. The cost/benefit of a full lockdown here doesn't make sense with something this infectious and mostly mild and lockdown never seemed to work at all in the US anyway.

At this point its every man for himself - upgrade your masks, social distance, wash hands, isolate if you need to, go out at less busy times and ride out this wave best you can. Is any of this fair? No, but what can you do? The genie was out of the bottle by Feb 2020 and its never going back in.

BTW - I think Alice is right in her estimation of the US govt - Biden needs to conserve political capital for other issues, not to mention midterms are next year and you bet the pandemic handling is going to be a spark point.

Sondra, “Freedom day”? Geez, I’ll admit, I’d be pissed if I was vaxed and thought I could live normally after my second dose, then to watch things unfold as they have. I do realize though that different variants and waning effectiveness are to be expected.

Sondra, I agree about media and catastrophes, murder hornets, anyone? Lol

Honestly, I don’t blame either administration for Covid problems. The virus and vaccines were on a scale not many could imagine, I see where both did things they thought were best given information they had at the time. Ultimately, people need to take better precautions and stop being pricks about it.

Alice,

Two thumbs up for your post!