The way I see it we have three options: SIP, SIP with calculated risks that help the community, or being part of the problem?  Which option have you and your family chosen?

Are you totally SIP?

Are you staying home except for work and groceries?

Are you staying home except for work, groceries, and necessary volunteer work?

Are you high risk?

Is someone in your household high risk?

Share what you are doing and why...

I am 70 I am totally SIP for 4 months or until things are better which ever comes first.  I can't chance it my lungs are not good.

I am at high risk.  The largest calculated risk I've taken in the last three weeks has been:

1 walk down the block at 7:30 a.m. to get milk and go to the bank.  Used hand santizer after touching anything like atm, and after leaving the bank and the store.  Pinned my hair back to keep myself from unconsciously brushing it out of my face with my fingers.  

2.  Receiving food deliveries that I'm wiping down each item with straight vinegar before putting away and then plastic bagging the delivery bags, tying shut and then washing my hands.

3.  Got one delivery from a restaurant where I wiped down the food containers with vinegar, plated food and microwaved it for 2 minutes before consuming.  Oh... and I washed my hands while my plate was in the microwave.

4.  I am generally up before dawn so about twice or three times a week I take a walk as the sun is coming up.  No one on the street.  Wash my hands when I come back in.  

So I've taken calculated risks.  If I get this thing, I'm going to be pissed as shit after taking all these precautions.

I work in Public Safety, so I have to be there.  My husband is 71 and my youngest child at home is 12.  They are in.  Only going out to go outside with our dogs.  I do store runs.  I have things put up, but today after leaving work I bought a small container garden for my daughter.  I got lettuce, herbs, etc. Can be a science project for school.   I am amazed at the teens I see out and about at stores, riding golf carts.  I am so afraid to bring something home.  I have hand sanitizer at the door.  Wash my hands as soon as I can. Change my clothes and wash the dirty ones  get  a shower.  Leave my shoes at the door.  Pray!

I am high risk, and work in longterm care.  I have to keep going to work for two reasons.  First, my residents need me.  They trust and depend on me.  Others come and go, but I have been with them for years.  Second reason is insurance.  I could afford to weather this thing for a couple of years financially, but my health is precarious enough that I have to have my insurance. 

I am in public utilities and I have to keep going to work. I have a high degree of anxiety about it, but there are thousands of people depending on the services my team provides. Our entire region is under a shelter in place order, but we have a responsibility to the community. I am proud of the people I work with, they have not complained and they know the risks. Like many others in public health and safety jobs, we show up....

QP

We are a family of five.  My husband is still working.  There are some things he can do from home, but some he has to go in for.  A lot of people in the buildings where he works are now working from home so he is not seeing as many people, but it is still a big risk for him to go.  

The teens and I are mostly staying home, except for our weekly trip to the food pantry  to serve.  One teen and my parents have been working there for years. My parents have agreed to stay home, and my other teens (and myself) are taking their place.  It is a huge risk as there are a lot of people there, but the need is also huge.  The food pantry is taking precautions, but they are slow in ramping them up.  

We are not high risk, but like others, we worry.  We count the cost and try to do the right thing.

Totally SIP!  Mail and deliveries are going into a box on our drive.  If we have to sign for something - mask + goggles: then in for a handwash and out again with disinfectant for every surface touched going in to wash.  Mail/deliveries then disinfected before being brought in.  Mail from abroad and anything non urgent then placed in resting places for a week.  Finally clothing disinfected.

Will be getting animal feed delivered.  That will be surface disinfected and kept outside.  Delivery man just drops it off.

Ny wife and I are both teachers. The schools are closed. Once they open we will have to go in. For now only going out to pick up pre ordered food from walmart. My wife picked up pizza from little C which I dubbed Covid pizza. 

Lakeman I really do not think any of us will be going back to school this year.  I am 70 and if they think I will go back they are wrong, I will put in another leave of absence until next fall.  The kids are spreaders and they can't chance that in the next 8 weeks! 

Pharmacy only for 90 day scripts.  Makes me nervous because the counter is all the way at the back of the store.  No drive throughs here and meds have to be signed for.  

Mask, and your own pen!  Gloves if you have them.  Gut up and go get them girl!

Was getting drive thru good but finally scored plenty of different meats, cheeses, onions, etc.  Now I am in full on SIP

I feel like I take a calculated risk just breathing. 

That is true BC.  Then again, it always was.

I have been ready for something like this for years, as many of you have, but now I have to take care of my elderly parents who refuse to completely isolate, so I have to take many calculated risks.  One of them is 80, the other will be 70 soon.  I try to do the shopping for them, they refuse to stop going to doctor appointments.

At this point I am just hoping for a state lockdown of some type that will force them to do what I have not been able to, before any of us get it.  If they get scared enough, that will do it.  But I can't abandon them, so we do what we have to do.  

Bob, I can relate to your problem. I have still a few stubborn family members who were part of "it's just the flu bro" deniers, who are now thinking it's a conspiracy to take away our civil rights and cover-up and bailout the corporations while destroying small businesses at the same time.(Two separate issues - pandemic vs. corrupt govt. response), still thinking it may have been engineered by the 1%. It's actually kind of insane. But the thing is, their denial and actions can have drastic consequences for not just themselves, but others who may die if they are downwind their transmission chain. Me? I simply refuse to be around them and tell them so. Honestly, it's immoral, on a societal basis.I told them I think it may unfortunately take them or someone they know getting sick or dying before they believe and take action. BUt by then, it's probably too late in an epidemiological spread sense.

Here's a good video of a doc in the UK trying to deal with this denial issue:

https://twitter.com/goaldenera/status/1241418899549237248 - https://twitter.com/goaldenera/status/1241418899549237248

bobisavirgin wrote: I have been ready for something like this for years, as many of you have, but now I have to take care of my elderly parents who refuse to completely isolate, so I have to take many calculated risks.  One of them is 80, the other will be 70 soon.  I try to do the shopping for them, they refuse to stop going to doctor appointments. At this point I am just hoping for a state lockdown of some type that will force them to do what I have not been able to, before any of us get it.  If they get scared enough, that will do it.  But I can't abandon them, so we do what we have to do.

Doctor appointments are OK and you can keep them safe by following a few rules:

a) minimize touching all surfaces - I carry Kleenex and disinfecting wipes with me at all times, and use a fresh Kleenex to open ANY door handle when out.  After using a restroom, I wash my hands, and use a paper towel to open the door.  (I'm trained in hospital infection control, this is SOP). 

b) call the MD office first to ensure that they do not have a packed waiting room, so you can social distance properly. 

c) make sure that the MD visits are for real, pressing problems & not just routine maintenance

d) see if your MD has virtual tele-medicine sessions.  This is becoming standardized and fast. 

Sorry they are resisting, COVID-19 will be around for years, and until/unless they develop a vaccine, all of us will catch it eventually, unless we can crush it completely as we did with SARS.  I'm not optimistic about that scenario.

My calculated risk of the day was going to a local “mom & pop” store that actually had yeast in stock to grab some more that bolstered my supply. The lady who got in line behind me was soooooo close to me that I actually bonked her with my backpack by taking a step back. I breathed as shallowly as possible and literally RAN out of the store upon completing my transaction! 

My wife and I are both high risk and are doing all we can to minimize our chances of exposure. The one thing that really chaps my hide is this: I’m disabled and have chronic pain problems. I rely on pain meds to make my life somewhat easier but my state requires that every month my wife has to go to the doctors office and pick up a physical prescription. Its bad enough that she has to go to the pharmacy every month, but going to the doctors office is an unnecessary added risk. 

Chronic pain patients nearly always have other underlying ailments and yet the damnable rule makers make it more likely that we’ll be bumped off by this bug. 

I wrote my state and federal legislators on Friday so we’ll see if their staff passes along the message but who knows. 

Sorry for the tone but I really needed to vent this out before my head popped. 

Contact your doctor to see if during this time you could arrange a different way to get your pills.  He most likely will not want her in his office anyway.  Worth a try.

Glupa wrote: My wife and I are both high risk and are doing all we can to minimize our chances of exposure. The one thing that really chaps my hide is this: I’m disabled and have chronic pain problems. I rely on pain meds to make my life somewhat easier but my state requires that every month my wife has to go to the doctors office and pick up a physical prescription. Its bad enough that she has to go to the pharmacy every month, but going to the doctors office is an unnecessary added risk.  Chronic pain patients nearly always have other underlying ailments and yet the damnable rule makers make it more likely that we’ll be bumped off by this bug.  I wrote my state and federal legislators on Friday so we’ll see if their staff passes along the message but who knows.  Sorry for the tone but I really needed to vent this out before my head popped.

I have the same issues, and have to do the same thing every month.  It's incredibly frustrating.  I've been trying to figure out a way around it.  So far the best I've come up with is calling the office from the parking lot and asking them to bring the prescription to my car, where I put it in a large envelope.  That at least avoids going into the doctor's office.

There's no way around the pharmacy that I have thought of. So it will be mask, gloves, a 2nd layer of clothes that I can step out of in the parking lot, and a lot of sanitizer. And probably goggles over my glasses. And going outside to wait for it to be filled rather than waiting in the store.

After typing this, I will call the pharmacy to see if there is any way around this. They know me well enough that they *might* be willing to come to my car and get the prescription. But I have to sign for it and show id so will have to go inside either way.

I guess I could see how their drive-through location handles pain scripts. Might be able to do it that way. Is that an option for you?

And after writing this - I'm also going to ask my doctor if she'll write the rx to cover 2 months - I think I'm under the max limit so that might work.

OR - since the state governs when the prescriptions can be filled, if she gives me 3 prescriptions at once that would cover 3 months, and there's no way for me to fill them sooner because of how the prescription is written.  Might ask about that too.  

Now is not the time to press for changes to the system, but here in Finland the doctors have recently been allowed to write prescriptions for up to two years!   Also with the internet health system if the prescription is old one can request on line for it to be renewed --- my wife was able to get her asthma medicine renewed this way. 

On second thoughts now might be the time to press for changes to reduce needless trips to the doctor's office, to "free up doctor's time to combat the virus"

EdwinSm, wrote: Now is not the time to press for changes to the system, but here in Finland the doctors have recently been allowed to write prescriptions for up to two years!   Also with the internet health system if the prescription is old one can request on line for it to be renewed --- my wife was able to get her asthma medicine renewed this way.  On second thoughts now might be the time to press for changes to reduce needless trips to the doctor's office, to "free up doctor's time to combat the virus"

I heard that in the US insurance companies have relaxed the rules on filling regular prescriptions. People that were blocked can now get 90 days at a time. woo effing hoo.  (some insurance companies allow that anyway)  But in response to the 'opiod crisis' the restrictions for even low-level pain meds are extremely cumbersome.   I take a low dose of hydrocodone (vicodin), and have to jump through the hoops every single month.  

And... you have a point. Our governor is doing a great job on handling this, so if it's in her control (I have NO idea if it is) she might be open to relaxing the rules during this.