Tuesday 28 April

And then I ended up off sick. On the Saturday or Sunday after my last shift, I can't remember when exactly, I started to feel achy, headache, sore throat, tired. Nothing major really, just under the weather. A few days in I developed a low grade temperature. Which was still there by the time I was supposed to be back at work (last Thursday), and I didn't dare take the risk. It didn't sound like Covid19, but then not everyone presents with classic symptoms.
By this point, all self-isolating keyworkers were eligible for a swab, so my manager referred me and I had one done on Friday. Not particularly pleasant to have a cotton bud shoved up your nostrils until your eyes water, but heyho.
Of course, this meant we all had to self-isolate. Minor panic ensued. Lots of offers of help from neighbours, colleagues etcetera, but it still feels awkward to ask! Fortunately, the milkman came to the rescue (ouch that was expensive), and then teenage son with his lightning fast internet fingers got us a Tesco delivery slot. He now knows exactly which ones are released when - and promptly got us a click and collect too. I think we have enough food coming to last us a month!

My swab results came back on Sunday morning as 'invalid'. By this point Simon and teenage son both had vague symptoms similar to mine, and I still had a slight temperature. As a keyworker, you can have members of your household tested if you are self-isolating - of course, the NHS would rather have you back at work if you can. So I'd managed to get us an appointment for a swab in Ipswich, but the only way to do that was to have me tested too. I had planned not to use it, but now that my test was invalid, I needed to be tested again so this worked out quite well.
This was completely different from the first swab, which was fairly relaxed apart from the mild discomfort. It was a warm day, full sun, and of course we couldn't open any windows. We had to pass several 'booths' where staff would hold up signs telling us what to do - show my NHS badge, ring this number, don't do this, go there. We had been told you could either do the test yourself or have someone do it for you, but nobody actually offered so we ended up doing it ourselves. The instructions we were given on the phone were rather concise and very different from the instructions in the pack, and even those weren't 100% correct. It was rather obvious that this was all set up very hastily. After a stressful 10 minutes where teenage son kept saying he couldn't do it and Simon was making retching sounds for swabbing his throat and I thought I would faint with the heat, we threw our biobags in the collection bin and were off again, not feeling particularly confident that these had been done properly.
We spent the next day or so trying to come up with all the different permutations of test results and the consequences. To our surprise, last night during supper teenage son suddenly said he'd had a text saying his results had come back negative. Much to our relief, all our tests were negative. I have no idea what I've had, but I've definitely been under the weather with something that is still lingering. However, the test proves I have no active disease at the moment, and so I'm safe to go back to work. Tomorrow is my first shift in 10 days or so - and in the meantime our ward has gone from Covid19 ward back to a normal ward again! There is still a possibility that we will return to Covid19 ward, should we suddenly have more Covid19 patients again, but for now, it is good news. Still the stricter rules, as in getting changed at work, wearing surgical masks at all times, no visitors and restricted numbers in the staff room, but we're not receiving Covid19 patients, the bays aren't sealed off anymore and things should feel a little bit more normal.
Ten days in isolation, and I'm looking forward to a little bit of normality!

Patchwork cushion finally finished, plus painted garden chair

Cat approves...