Originally broadcast on: http://radiosoapbox.com Radio Soapbox
Women's Hour broadcasts live every Sunday at 7:00p.m. uk time.
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to another episode of Women's Hour on radiosoakbox.com. I'm your hostess, Shelley Tasker, and tonight's date is Sunday, 14th July 2024. We have an insightful episode lined up with two amazing guests. Our first guest, Tracy Barnes, shares her experiences working in a care home during the COVID pandemic. Tracy recounts the initial disbelief about the virus, the proactive measures taken by her care home, and the surreal experiences of lockdown. She discusses the challenges of managing COVID within the care home, the emotional toll on both staff and residents, and the heartbreaking reality of elderly residents passing away without their families by their side. Tracy also touches on the fear and anxiety that permeated the care home environment and the difficulties in obtaining adequate PPE.
In the second half of the episode, we are joined by Helen Mantle, a spiritual and knowledgeable woman who discusses the importance of changing energies to overcome repeating patterns in our lives. Helen shares her background in health, energy, and spiritual practices, and how these have helped her and her clients break through limitations. She also talks about the power of women's circles and the transformative experiences they offer. Helen's insights into the interconnectedness of mind, body, and spirit provide a holistic perspective on health and well-being. https://www.facebook.com/groups/intuitionalchemy
We also have some interesting life hacks shared by our listeners, including a clever use of a shower curtain for privacy and a quick trick to remove creases from clothes without ironing. Stay tuned for more inspiring stories and practical tips in this episode of Women's Hour.
[00:00:58]
Unknown:
Good evening, ladies. And for the of you gentlemen listening, you are listening to women's hour coming out of radiosoakbox.com. It's good to have your company. I am your hostess, Shelley Tasker, and tonight's date is Sunday, 14th July 2024. I have 2 amazing ladies lined up again this evening, and our first guest is Tracy Barnes. And, we're gonna be talking about Tracy's time when she was working in a care home with COVID. Good evening, Tracy.
[00:01:30] Unknown:
Hello.
[00:01:31] Unknown:
How are you doing?
[00:01:33] Unknown:
I'm alright. Getting everyone's getting ready for the football. It's a bit football mad in my house at the minute. So So
[00:01:39] Unknown:
bunk off upstairs for half an hour. Quite nice having a few minutes away in silence, I think. Yeah. Well, thanks for coming on because I know we have talked about this before, but not in-depth. And I've always said, like, oh, we need to talk about this properly. So, let's go back to, like, right. COVID's out. It's on the news.
[00:01:58] Unknown:
You're I don't
[00:01:59] Unknown:
How did it start? Talk me through it.
[00:02:02] Unknown:
I don't think I really took much notice of it, you know, when it first came out on the news. I think I was pretty much one of those that was just sitting at home. The news was on in the background, and it was like, oh, there's a new something rather come out in wherever it came out, and, you know, people are worried. Because you hit you know, we've heard all of this before with bird flu, with swine flu, things like that. And I think you just kind of switch off to it a little bit. Right. And don't really take it all in. And it wasn't until, it it kind of everyone started talking about it within the home.
And, you know, husband was coming home, and he was saying, oh, have you seen about so and so and so and so? And And then it kind of became a little bit more real. Right. And when they started saying, you know, we might have on the news, it was like, oh, you know, we may have to start wearing masks. We may have to start doing this. We've gotta start sanitizing. I mean, washing hands, we should all do anyway.
[00:02:57] Unknown:
We should. Yeah. But I presume that this was was this after lockdown was introduced
[00:03:01] Unknown:
or, like, just before? No. Before. So this was all when it really first was all being spoken about. I was really lucky. The home that I worked in through COVID, locked down before the official lockdown.
[00:03:16] Unknown:
Right.
[00:03:18] Unknown:
Our manager, decided that she would be really proactive on that side of it and lock the home down as much as we could. We were still having visitors coming in, but we were sort of saying to people, you know, you need to sanitize your hands. You know, could you please wear a mask? Could you please make sure that you're just here to see who you're here to see? Things like that. So it was we were trying to do little things to try and help ourselves as much as possible. I think the only thing we probably didn't do was make sure we had enough PPE in place. Right.
Which, in hindsight, was our own fault. But it yeah. And then the lock and then sort of lockdown came into force, and it was all everything just went a bit surreal. I mean, even now, thinking back on it, I think it it does still feel like a dream Yeah. A little bit. Yeah. I mean, I can remember driving down the is it the 8:30 we drive on Yeah. Towards where I worked, and it was just empty. And this was in you're talking at the height of sort of summer when it should be absolutely heaving. Where I used to work is is a very picturesque village that is known for holidaymakers and everyone wanting to visit.
So to drive down there with nobody else on the road was very surreal. It was almost sort of postapocalyptic Yeah. In how you were driving. Like, you might see the old police car, or or whatever, but it was very rare to see anybody else out and about, which I found really bizarre and quite frightening, actually, when it all started. I remember we had to get given a special letter that we had to put in our car windows, because I did get stopped by the police twice. Where are you going? On the way, yeah, on the way to work. What are you doing? Because I used to work night shift. I was, oh, I'm going to work. Oh, really? Where would you work at this hour? Well, you're working at this hour, so why can't other people? Yeah. But, yeah. And then had to go through the whole rigmarole of, you know, giving over my badge, explaining what I did, that I'm going here, blah, blah, and having to go we'll sort of do all of that.
So that was a bit odd as well, because I've never been stopped by the police before, so that was all the good new experience. And then sort of going from sort of that to having to queue outside of sort of Tesco's, right around a car park with, like, 2 meters between everybody around these metal barriers and having a red light, green light system, which I never thought I'd see in secret rocket which was Yeah. Which was really bizarre, and then obviously, you know, having to actually go through the whole we were really lucky. We actually didn't get any COVID in the home in that first wave at all. So we were really lucky with that, and I do think a lot of that was down to locking down quite early and just trying to be as prepared as possible.
I think we got COVID probably in that second wave.
[00:06:28] Unknown:
Right.
[00:06:30] Unknown:
So when everyone was sort of starting to go shopping again without masks on.
[00:06:35] Unknown:
I thought that was November time, near the second lockdown.
[00:06:38] Unknown:
Yeah. And when everyone was starting to start driving again, which, again, we've spent so long. We spent almost 12 months driving down these roads with nobody else on them. Only sort of certain people were allowed out driving around, weren't they? So to suddenly go back on the a 30 and have these cars whizzing past you Yes. Was quite daunting. It was like, oh, Christ. There's bloody there's other people here now. And that that was all I found all that surreal trying to deal with all of that side of it as well. So then, obviously, 2nd lockdown hit, and I think that's when it hit us properly in the care home. So I think our first lot of COVID that we had was actually brought in by a resident who'd gone to hospital and then come back.
Right. So and I think, you know, we were very strict where it was like, you know, I I actually had turned people away overnight. We had somebody turn up really late one night. I can't remember. I think it must have been, like, 10 o'clock. I think the ambulance were trying to drop them back. And we normally, we wouldn't take people that time anyway, but, they just we opened I said to them on the phone, you know, unless they've had a negative COVID test, I can't accept them back in the building. And they turned up anyway, and it it was awful because I just had to stand there talking to them through the door, because I wouldn't open it, and just saying to them, I'm sorry. I'm not allowing them in the building.
Must have been really hard to do. Oh, it was it was really hard, because I was like, well, I don't know what they're gonna do with them. Obviously, I'm gonna take them somewhere safe. I didn't know where they were gonna go, where they were gonna end up. What what was I gonna tell the family?
[00:08:20] Unknown:
And was you scared yourself, Tracy, about contacting contracting COVID?
[00:08:28] Unknown:
I think I was. I think in those first sort of that first year and that second wave, I think there was a lot on the TV, wasn't it? There's a lot of statistics on the television, and it was always this amount have died, this amount have died, this amount have died. Fear. Fear. Fear. It was it was really scary thinking, oh my god. If I get that, am I gonna be one of the ones that's gonna be okay? Yes. They it all may it almost made it seem like it was, like, a lottery, and it was luck whether or not you would survive it or not.
[00:09:04] Unknown:
Yeah. I I was very frightened, very frightened.
[00:09:07] Unknown:
Yeah. And it was one of those it was like you would you didn't know, like, until you got it, basically.
[00:09:12] Unknown:
No.
[00:09:13] Unknown:
And and then when you kind of you were seeing things on the news about, like, oh, you know, you're you're fine you're fine until you have to be intubated. If you're intubated, then that basically means it's game over. Yeah. And I think that's what frightened a lot of people Oh, definitely. Was the thought of that as well. And, you know, I I can remember, obviously, with doing the night shift, I can remember sitting up through the night with sort of an you know, an old elderly lady who had it, and she all she wanted all through the night, she was just crying out for her mum all night Oh. Whilst struggling to breathe. And I can remember ringing sort of the one one one service taking probably 45 minutes to get through to them Right. Because they were just inundated with with calls and and everything else and basically just being told, well, yeah, I'm really sorry.
And it was basically and it it sounds awful, but it was, you know, you're in a care home. They're elderly people. They've got comorbidities anyway. They're dying. You just need to make them comfortable. There's nothing we can do. Right. And it was just that whole view of, well, they're in a care home. They're dying anyway. It was awful. Yeah. Yeah. It it was like our elderly were just kind of like, well, you know, we can't really do anything for you. You just just make them comfortable. Well, how can you make somebody who can't breathe comfortable?
[00:10:33] Unknown:
No. No.
[00:10:35] Unknown:
You know, it it's a really difficult situation to be in, and, you know, I still every now and then, I'll kind of something will trigger a memory or it's almost like a PTSD a little bit Right. Where you'll have a memory triggered, and it'll be like, I'll I'll get, like, my heart cut off. I'll get, like, get quicker. And I think, oh, Christ. I'm not bad. You know, that's done. I'm not there anymore. But I did I think I did 12 night shifts in a row. Oh. One after another. Not many. Because we just didn't have the the staff, and we had to do it so that we had barrier nursing and then people that were going into residents who didn't have COVID.
Yeah. That's right. And it it just made sense to keep the same people as the barrier nurses all the flight throughout if we could. And it it was I can remember at the end of that stint of night shift, because we were sleeping whilst we were there because normally, you don't it was a waking night. Right. But we were allowed to sleep between rounds. And I can just remember getting home at the end of all of that and literally almost collapsing and just saying to my husband, I'm I can't do this anymore. I'm gonna I feel like I'm just I'm done.
[00:11:48] Unknown:
Oh, wow. No wonder, really. 12 nights No. Anyway. And
[00:11:52] Unknown:
and I you know, the and I I can remember coming in, getting to my back door, which backs into my garden, stripping off at my back door completely. And luckily, I've got a shower off to the side in my kitchen and going into the shower before I did anything else because I was terrified that I was gonna give it to
[00:12:12] Unknown:
Yes. I You know, my husband or my kids. I remember as well because, obviously, I worked at the shoving your washing machine, stripping in the porch, and running straight upstairs in the shower. Shoving your washing machine, stripping in the porch, and going straight upstairs in the shower. But at at the time, yeah, it just seemed we were petrified. We didn't know what was what.
[00:12:35] Unknown:
No. I mean, luckily, we, stripped our uniforms at work and put them in, like you say, in those red bags, and they washed it. But you still don't know what's on your shoes. You still don't know what's you know? And we because we were so we didn't know really know what it was. And you're like, well, how is it spread? Is it? Like, can it stay on you and then someone touch you and get it if it's you know? It it was a very it was a really bizarre thing. I can remember shopping, and, actually, someone coughed next like, quite close to me as we were walking around an aisle, and I was absolutely terrified.
[00:13:10] Unknown:
Yeah. I I get it. See, because I was the opposite. I was like the I didn't really believe it because I wasn't seeing it. I do believe that it exists and stuff, not to the extreme how they locked down and stuff like that and the lies they told alongside it. But I still don't really know whether you can catch the flu or not. I think you can. I know people talk about germ theory and stuff, but I've had people in a room with me. And then the next day, like, 3 of them, they've all been struck down, said they've never been somewhere in their life. So, you know, some people say, oh, that's just, they they think that you're kind of, like, shedding. It's the time of the moon. You're detoxing. But all at the same time, it's just a bit too much.
And I was poorly, and I think I said to you a couple of days ago, there was moments when it felt like I had an elephant sat on the chest, and I've never had anything like that in my life. And, I mean, I've had it. I've had it 2 about 4 3 or 4 times I've had it. And the first time I had it, like, I I we were saying the other day,
[00:14:07] Unknown:
it was more my sort of smell and taste went, and that was the only issue I had. Other than that, I felt fine. The other two times I had it, I was I was okay just a bit, like, you would like, a general cold. Right. Like, just feeling a bit bummed up and a bit crap. And the last time I had it, which was a couple of Christmases ago, I honestly I've never been so poorly. My chest, it still isn't a 100% right now, but my chest at the time was horrendous. I'm like you. It felt like something was just pressing. And no matter what I did, I couldn't get that heavy feeling
[00:14:43] Unknown:
to go. No. That's quite frightening, isn't it? It just,
[00:14:47] Unknown:
yeah, it just wouldn't go. And I was, you know, even taking a deep breath, I didn't feel like I was getting enough air or anything at the time. It it was really scary. But I think the worst bit the worst bit about the whole COVID experience for me was, I think, realising how easy it is, for these health professionals to turn away from the elderly and from the
[00:15:17] Unknown:
the the care home side of it. Right. Because presumably, if we wasn't in COVID times, you would phone up for an ambulance, somebody who's struggling to breathe, they would take them to the hospital and send a doctor in.
[00:15:29] Unknown:
Yeah. They'd come out. They'd check them over. Because we were residential as well. They you know, they'd come out. They'd do observations because we weren't actually you know, we were doing them, but we weren't supposed to be because we weren't trained to do them. Right. So it's one of those things where, actually, you know, yes, we can do them, but, you know, we're not on paper. We're not actually supposed to. And I can remember we had 3 residents pass away in 1 night.
[00:15:57] Unknown:
Gosh.
[00:15:59] Unknown:
Now did they all have COVID? Yes. They did. Did they all pass away from COVID? I don't know. I can only assume it is that because that's what they had when they passed away, and it was the breathing that was making it difficult for them. But, you know, I can remember having to verify deaths over similar to this sort of a Skype program, but it wasn't Skype, holding an iPad over a person's face so that the doctor could verify they weren't breathing. Unbelievable. You know? And it was just horrendous.
[00:16:39] Unknown:
And I'm presuming they weren't allowed visitors, or were they? No. We weren't allowed anybody in.
[00:16:44] Unknown:
Again, that, you know, that was the hardest thing was ringing up and saying to a family member, I'm really sorry. Mum has tested positive for COVID. We're currently keeping an eye on her. She's really, you know, she is really poorly and then literally 2 or 3 days later, ringing them up, You know, I'm really sorry. Mom's passed away. Well, their only wish was to be with them at the end. You know what I mean? And it it's awful to think that we couldn't facilitate that.
[00:17:10] Unknown:
Did you get any of them, like, turning up at the home, like, demanding to come in and because if that was my mom, I would be dragging her out or I I would be We had a we had a few that came and to reception,
[00:17:22] Unknown:
and just sort of, you know, wanted to to give clothes or flowers or or give something, you know, bring something in. That was hard as well because a lot of the times we had to say, I'm really sorry. I can't take that or it had to go in an office and then be disinfected or it was just it was a very really bizarre time, and I just you know, my heart did go out to the families because I just I'm like you. I wouldn't have been able to sit there and not see them.
[00:17:47] Unknown:
Yeah. Yeah.
[00:17:49] Unknown:
You know, it it it was just and and this is another thing. See, people don't see this side of it. You know, people sort of see care homes on the news and things like that and think, oh, that was awful. But they weren't you know, they didn't actually live it or experience it. So, you know, these guys, these residents were used to coming out of their rooms every day, sitting in a lounge with other people and interacting through lockdown for 6 weeks. We had everybody shut in their bedrooms. I mean, what must that do to somebody mentally for their well-being?
[00:18:25] Unknown:
Well, yeah, I mean, even doing some work a year or so ago, there were certain people with special needs and stuff, and they've never gone back to going out again.
[00:18:34] Unknown:
No. It's just And and and we had to do it because we couldn't risk COVID spreading throughout the entire home. So every time you had a new someone test positive, you then had to start your isolation from the beginning again. Right. So it felt like you were constantly taking a step back. Yeah. Going around in circles. But you'd think, oh, we've only got another week left, and then people can come out. Brilliant. And then somebody else would test positive. And you'd be like, right. Crap. Now we're back to square 1. Now we've got 2 weeks left or whatever it whatever it was. So it it was a bit like that, but I you know, we did notice a huge decline in a lot of people. So a lot of people became non mobile.
They were mobile because, you know, you've got to imagine, they're in these rooms, 4 walls. They're not the largest of rooms. You know? They can't really move about in them very well, so they just spent majority of the day sitting in a chair.
[00:19:35] Unknown:
And then I suppose when the carers come in, they're all, like, masked up and everything. There's no none of that, you know, facial stabilization. People were frightened, so there was not really much. People just wanted to be in and out as good as possible.
[00:19:47] Unknown:
Yeah. Not much interaction. People were scared. Not only of getting COVID themselves, but are they frightened that they might spread it to somebody? Yeah. So, you know, you just tried you tried to get things done and get out, basically. And it it was, you know, it was a it must have been a really lonely, confusing time for these people. And then to have staff walking in with these face masks on and shields and, you know, not really being able to hear them properly because masks do muffle when you're trying to speak. And I do think with because, obviously, I primarily work in dementia. So a lot of these people actually do look at you, and they try and gauge you by your face Sure. And by your expressions. And when all that's covered up, it's very, very difficult to then not have somebody frightened and confused and and anxious and upset. And it it you know, we saw a lot of that, a lot of people becoming very anxious, very upset, very frightened.
And then at the same time, when the if ambulances did turn up or even the undertakers when they came, they'd walk they'd knock on the door. You'd open the door. They'd be there in full hazmat suits with, like, breathing devices on the back of them. And there's us stood there with this flimsy little mask, the flimsiest apron you've ever seen in your life, and a pair of gloves, and you're like, really? This is my protection, and you're in that.
[00:21:21] Unknown:
So how come the PPE I've said that right. Yeah. And I always usually say PPI. Yeah. Yeah. How come it was, like, so hard in the care homes? Was it that you were, like, not prepared and there wasn't enough go about by time, like, you try to walk through? I think I do think it was a prepared thing. I do think we were very flippant about it at first,
[00:21:41] Unknown:
and I think everyone was, not just Karens. I think everybody was. It was a little bit flippant about it all. We were very lucky. We had a very proactive senior, and if it wasn't for her, we would have been seriously, up the creek without a paddle. I mean, she sourced all of our masks, all of our visors, our antibacterial. We had a special spray rather than, like, the hand gel stuff. If it wasn't for her, we wouldn't have had any of that. And she, you know, she went out of her way to to try and get all of that sorted, went to other care homes, went to other care companies begging for PPE. And it was actually I suppose that was one of the the good things to come out of it was care homes and companies were working together a lot more. Right.
And they became more of, like, a solid unit rather than, oh, that company over there or all that company over there. Do you know what I mean? It was more of a cohesive sort of everyone trying to work together to help each other out, which was really nice. But it wasn't it wasn't a very nice time for anybody. I don't think it was just it was one of those horrible sort of, like I say, it's almost like a nightmare when you think about it now, and you kind of think, well, did that really happen?
[00:23:07] Unknown:
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we're, what, 4 years on. Yeah. And I and I still think now, like, did did that really happen? Was I did I imagine that? Did it Yeah. And I'm still confused by a lot of it. A lot of it, I I don't agree with, didn't agree with. Like I said, the hospital situation is a lot different than the care home. I mean, the hospitals were empty.
[00:23:28] Unknown:
I mean, the one thing that did used to make me really angry was that the hospitals were really trying to kick these people out into the care homes. Yeah. And care homes got the blame then for COVID spreading when actually it wasn't us. No. And when it spread in the homes, it was like, well, it's your own fault. You blah blah blah. No. We, you know, we can only go by what we're told. If we're told somebody has had a negative test, that's what we have to believe.
[00:23:56] Unknown:
Yeah. Of course it is. But, like, out of interest, have you have you have her in all your years working with care? Have you seen, like, a flu virus spread like COVID?
[00:24:05] Unknown:
No.
[00:24:06] Unknown:
No.
[00:24:07] Unknown:
No. Don't get me wrong. Like, you get flu, like, every year, don't we? We hear about flu on the news. You know, in your GP surgery, you always see the posters up, get your flu jab. I don't I mean, I've I've had my flu jab twice. Both times, I've reacted really badly to it, so I don't have it anymore. But flu, you kind of know about it and that it can affect the elderly quite badly. But not to the extent of k not to the extent of COVID, not how it and the fact that it spreads so quickly, like, you know, you could have 5 people in the lounge, somebody sneezes, and then suddenly, a week later, although 5 of them were testing positive for COVID. Do you know what I mean? So it was a bit it was so it was really bizarre. And the minute the first as soon as you had that first positive, it was like this dread just went through you.
Because then it was like, I'm gonna have to test 40 people now. How many of them are actually going to because you gotta remember as well, we're talking about elderly people with dementia. Some you know, not all. Some have learning disabilities or difficulties. There's a there's a mixture, but, you know, these people would cough and then touch everything, sneeze, not put a hand in front of their face. They were you know? Yeah. There were bodily fluids, you know, and and things that were happening all over the place. So it it's one of those environments that if it's in there, it is going to spread. And you can kind of bet your life on it that it would, you know, it's gonna spread quickly. So I remember that first positive we had, because we had to we were doing them all, and we were sending them off. Right. We didn't have any of these really quick tests that you can get now.
I think they came out quite a lot later, didn't they? So it was all testing, sending them off. A courier would come pick it all up, take it away. We'd get the results sort of 24, 48 hours later. And I can remember the email for that first one, and we were all just sat there and the whole room was just you could just see everyone just went white. And it was like, right. We now have to get every you know, we now lockdown everyone in their rooms. And it was like a ghost town in a care home, which was really bizarre. You'd walk in, and it was just nothing. There was nobody in the lounges. The TVs were off. It was like silence. It was quite unnerving, actually.
[00:26:36] Unknown:
Right. I mean, because when I worked at the hospitals, I I had no work because it was that empty. Yeah. Yeah. So when I feel for you guys, because I didn't know the other side of it, you know, until much later.
[00:26:50] Unknown:
Oh, it was I remember before I left, to move on to, a new position in a in a nursing home, funnily enough, so away from the residential side of it, Me and my colleague who left with me, we had I think we had 28 residents all tested positive for COVID.
[00:27:13] Unknown:
And were they all ill or some of them? Because Yeah. They weren't they were poorly.
[00:27:18] Unknown:
We didn't lose anybody on that particular incident of it. But people were sort of they were on Wow, so we had you know, there were temperatures, chesty, things like that. But I can remember me and her did a night shift, and it was me, her, and then we had 2 agency workers in who'd never been before. And they had to do, I think, 8 or 9 residents. They were the only 9 that didn't have COVID. And me and her had to do everybody else. And that was a hard, hard shift because it was literally every round was bed change, pad change, clothes change. It was just constant.
[00:28:02] Unknown:
Yeah. It is it is awful. And I mean, now what happens? I I should know, really. So if you've got somebody poorly now, would you be instinctive to test them now?
[00:28:13] Unknown:
With when it all started, it was if if you had COVID, you had to isolate everybody. Everybody in the home had to be isolated. Whether they had it or not, they were isolated to their bedrooms, which I was really unfair, actually. And I think our manager at one point said, right, enough's enough. And we I know we had a group of people who were COVID free, and we had a big conservatory. And we put a television in there for them, and they all went in there, because it was just getting too much. They would they weren't really suffering from it.
And I think I can't remember what the isolation was, but it was I think it was probably 3 weeks, I think, because you had to make sure that you you got the whole cycle or something. Because I think they was back then, they were saying that if you if you had COVID, you wouldn't test positive for at least a week. So you'd had to have had it in your system for a week before this test would come up positive. And I can remember staff had to test before every shift.
[00:29:19] Unknown:
Yes. I do remember those days.
[00:29:22] Unknown:
Yep. And we used to have to go in, and we used to have to did you have to I don't know if you guys had to do it, but when they first brought out the antibody test, we had to do that. I think when I started a new jaw, I had to go and have an antibody no. I had an antibody test because I worked for the NHS. Yeah. Well, they do the finger prick one and because I was convinced I'd had it because I was really poorly just before, but it wasn't. It must have just been flu. But, yeah, I remember doing that and that wasn't very pleasant. But, yeah, I remember doing that, and that wasn't very pleasant. And then if staff had it, I can remember we had to be off for 10 days, and you couldn't come back to work until you'd had a negative COVID test.
Right. Because it can actually because, because we weren't we weren't allowed to do PCR tests up to a month after we'd had COVID because they could still come up positive.
[00:30:13] Unknown:
Yeah. Well, that's my flaw with the whole PCR test is they do show up anything that's could be in your could have been in your system for a long time, longer than a month, really.
[00:30:23] Unknown:
So they're not Yeah. So for at least a month after like, if you contracted COVID, you didn't have to do the PCR testing weekly, which is what we were doing. But that was all. Yeah. I think they were really they were flawed. They were not accurate. They weren't overly accurate, I don't think.
[00:30:40] Unknown:
Yeah. The cycles are, like, ramped up to, like, 40 times, which would and and the guy that invented them mysteriously died as well. But, you know, I'm not a conspiracy theorist.
[00:30:51] Unknown:
But, it's all changed now. So everything so we've suddenly gone from that where it was like you have to isolate for 10 days. You have to isolate for a week. Yeah. And then now it's if you get COVID or if you test positive on one of those thingy tests that you take and it tells you within seconds, you only have to you only have to, be off work now for 3 days, and you don't have to test before you come back. So you could potentially still be positive on those, still be carrying it, but it doesn't matter. It's been 3 days. Come back. Yeah. Oh, it's And we don't even have to test him. We really, we don't have to test anymore. Unless you're symptomatic, we don't test.
[00:31:31] Unknown:
Right. A lot to learn from that, really. Anyway, I can't To be honest, I personally,
[00:31:38] Unknown:
for me, unless I was really, really poorly, I probably wouldn't test anyway. No. No. Not now. And it's like all the jabs and stuff. See, that's that got a lot of people as well. So we were all told, you know and and this was and it was a thing. And people sometimes I think people think sometimes it was just something that was said on the news, and it was all rubbish. And, you know, why are we all making a big deal of it? But we were told if we did not have our COVID jabs, we would lose our jobs.
[00:32:06] Unknown:
Hold it there, Tracy, because I've got another guest waiting, but we will have to do part 2 if you're up for that in a couple of weeks. Yeah. Definitely. About that because I think it's really important. Yeah. It is. I mean, it is I'm sorry to cut you short. I didn't you know, you think half an hour. It's never long enough, not for a big subject like that. But we'd we'd do it again in a couple of weeks when you're free, and, we'll talk about the testing and the vaccines and vaccines and stuff. Yeah. I'd love to come on anytime you want to have me. Give me a shout out. Alright, ma'am. Lovely. Thank you so much for your time, Tracy, and thanks for being a hero and giving me a bit more of an understanding in other people because I think lots of people, they haven't really got a clue of what happened. You know? I to be honest, I don't think I really still know what happened. It's so surreal and bizarre. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, bless you. Well, keep up the good work, my lovely, and I'll catch up with you soon. No worries. Take care, my lovely. Thank you. Bye. Bye bye. Bye bye.
Wow. That was interesting because I am that conspiracy theorist, and I was I got some big stories. I might do a show one night just me talking about my experience with COVID, actually, because there was a time I really thought, nah, it's a load of rubbish. I don't now I really don't think, but the testing, the jabs, bloody blah blah, I think it's a load of rubbish. And, you know, to go for 3 weeks isolating that then down to 3 days, It was a bit of a shite show, should we say. Anyway, moving on. We got this week's life hacks. I am going to read them out today because I have not got any voice notes.
So I've got a couple here what people sent me. I've got a special music on. Okay. Let me just bring them up. And if you've got any life hacks that you would like to share, please send them to me. Leave me a voice note. My email address is shellytasker@btinternetdot com. And also, if you know of any women, inspirational people, anybody that's got a story to tell and share, please do get in touch with me. Right. This week's life hacks. Gemma Kaylee. I keep a shower curtain and clothes pegs in the boot of my car. So when my toddler needs the potty or one of us needs to get changed after the beach or anything where we need privacy. I peck the shower curtain around my open boot and it turns into a little cubicle to do whatever you need to do.
I don't have a big van or anything so this works really well for those who have smaller vehicles but still want the privacy for changing in public. I like that. That's a good idea. And this one. I love this one. Cerroburn. If I have any creased clothes to save the agro of getting the iron out etcetera I throw a few ice screws in the dryer with the creased item. 10 to 15 minutes later creases are gone and you haven't wasted time ironing. I threw my iron out 2 years ago and I've never looked back. I use my ghds for straightening collars, hems, etcetera, if needed. Oh, I love that. The hair straighteners, they do And is there another one?
Emma Moore I think the best learned was rule number one never assume yeah that's a good one as well right that's it for life hacks so we shall move on to our next guest who is waiting for us. The next guest is a wonderful Helen Mantle. Helen is a bit of a she knows about so much stuff. Very spiritual woman, very knowledgeable, and, I love chatting to her. Hope you enjoy whatever it is we're going to chat about. Right. Let's bring her up. Bear with me. Okay. Skype sound is gonna happen. Jenny. Hello. How are you? I'm good. Thank you, my lovely. How are you? I'm very well. Thank you. Yes. Can you hear me okay? Yeah. You're a little bit distant. My little how's that? Does that work any better? You just sound a little bit like you're, I don't know,
[00:36:24] Unknown:
behind a glass screen. Far away. It might be the host ceiling here that might be doing it.
[00:36:31] Unknown:
It's it's okay. I can hear you. Just speak nice and loud. Shout. I will do. I'll project my voice. Project. Yeah. So how are you, my lovely?
[00:36:39] Unknown:
I'm really well. Thank you. It's been, it's been an intense year of change
[00:36:46] Unknown:
but much needed. So, yeah, very well. Thank you. Good. I like whenever I speak to you, you usually say very well, very well. So when I said earlier, like, what were you gonna talk about? Because I know it's always something a little bit spiritual and a little something out there. Little yeah. Something a little bit that's out there. And you said, like, about people changing their energies to, like, go the right way. Tell us more.
[00:37:10] Unknown:
Yeah. So one of the things I mean, I suppose my background is quite eclectic when it comes to health and energy and the ultimate goal being living our full potential with as few limitations as possible in this in this world that we live in, this crazy kind of dynamic that we find ourselves in. So part of the thing that's been really showing up, and it showed up a lot in my life, and I was looking at in another people's lives and my clients' lives in particular. We're repeating patterns, and they're very different for each individual, so we don't we don't all have the same repeating patterns, but I don't know if you can recognize any aspect of when you keep bumping up against the same problems again and again even though you've worked on yourself?
I don't I don't know if you does that resonate at all? Not at the moment,
[00:38:01] Unknown:
but it's it's probably is sort of live. But perhaps I'm just a little bit wiser now. I'm not yeah. Probably in the past, those things have happened. Yeah.
[00:38:09] Unknown:
Those bumping up against. So, it could be finding yourself in the same money patterns or finding yourself in the same relationship patterns or just bumping up against the same problems and thinking, oh, I really feel like I've worked on this. So that's something that's, come up a lot in current work recently and really helping them to deal with that core energy underlying pattern that's going on for them, so so driven by our subconscious minds, but we're all made of energy and it influences our energy fields and we tend to then sort of reexperience this glass ceiling effect. So it's helping people to bust through that glass ceiling that we can often keep reconnecting to.
[00:38:50] Unknown:
Does that make sense? Yeah. Yeah. I suppose people quite often, it's like, something happens. I mean, I suppose actually with depression, depression, I used to suffer with bad depression, and that's something, like, it rears its ugly head, and it would keep coming and going. And then you think you're free of it, and then it comes back again. And, going. And then you think you're free of it, and then it comes back again. And, yeah, you just think you're free. That was something that I used to always, you know, struggle with And touch wood for the last couple of years, I'm, like, I seem to be out of that way, so to speak.
But I'm always aware that it could rear its ugly head again. But I've got different coping mechanisms. I've know about seeing the signs and keeping busy, so to speak.
[00:39:33] Unknown:
Yeah. Yeah. And that's so so good to hear because that's vital, isn't it? Recognizing when things are coming up and kind of preempting them where where it's possible to do that.
[00:39:43] Unknown:
Yeah. I think we find it hard like, I well, I don't know about you, but, like, it's your mind. It's constant chatter, and I know people say, oh, I haven't got time to get bored. It's like a lovely day and I think I could go outside and sunbathe, and then after half an hour, I'm like, oh, I'm bored. I need to do something. Boredom to me is when I could get really low. I mean, it's alright, you know, in the sun, but if it was a winter's day and I'm bored, you know when you, like, really need to do something because you need to get out of that mindset, so to speak, but it could just whiz and spiral out of control.
[00:40:13] Unknown:
Yeah. So it's Completely completely.
[00:40:15] Unknown:
Even for me, like, booking a holiday for a week, it's like, actually, that's hard going because we'll have to be busy because I'll get, like, I'll be cleaning the apartment or something to be. I'm just an active person, and if I can't do that, I'll go nuts.
[00:40:30] Unknown:
And it's fine that sometimes that distraction applied in the right way.
[00:40:42] Unknown:
Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, you're you're a healer. You're you're so you've got so many names. I I don't know what to say because you've you've got so many, like, things under your belt, but helping people. You're a bit of a women's leader, aren't you? I find it funny when, I speak to somebody and they mention Helen Mantle. I'm like, oh, I know Helen. And it's just like, well, of course, you would know Helen because she's on the same sort of wavelength as me and all these other people that I know. It's always really worrying when you get that away. It was something
[00:41:14] Unknown:
something they know. I know you. Yes. It's it's definitely been an eclectic thing. I find it really interesting because for me, it all operates on a spectrum. So it came about my my whole sort of work, if you like, came about from my own illness in my mid twenties. Well, to be honest, it's been going on my entire life because it's a genetic condition, but it really fled up in my mid twenties, and I became housebound and, with all sorts of crazy stuff going on in my body. And I was essentially sort of forced into this meditation for 2 years, and there wasn't a meditation in the traditional senses, so I was thrilled to do anything. So, yeah, if you're if you're really unwell and you you can't access that distraction because you feel so awful, you you actually can't do anything to distract yourself. So it almost becomes your your within yourself.
It was like that. So I started looking at nutrition initially, and to be honest, I was looking for magic bullet because I didn't want a magic bullet. I wanted something that was just gonna absolutely solve all my problems and I thought I could get the right chemistry in my body. I could solve it all and I really realized quite early on that that was a huge part of the picture but it wasn't gonna do all of it that I had to address the kind of psychological and the energetic or spiritual soul or whatever you wanna call it. So after I trained in nutrition for 3 years, oh, well, actually, a bit overlapped, I worked with with energy healers, was mentored in that, was mentored in psychic development, trained in hypnotherapy, and I've got this collective toolbox of all of those things. And while they look really different on paper, I I just see them as part of the same package.
[00:42:59] Unknown:
Yeah. Yeah. Well, I suppose it's all connected, isn't it? And it's I think this whole mind, body, spirit thing, it's all so true. Somebody said that to me a couple of weeks ago, and I thought, I've never really looked at it like that. You know, you've got to be well in your body. You've got to be well in your mind.
[00:43:15] Unknown:
Yeah. And and we've been led down the garden path for that because Michelle, basically, if we if we apply something physical to our bodies, the issues will be solved. I mean, I think we're moving away from that now. I think we're really even in the mainstream, we really start to realize that our environment, our psychology, how we we feel about our communities, all of those things hugely impact on our physical health. And it's it's not just loo woo out there stuff that sort of gets thrown at us sometimes. I hate that term, but it it does get thrown around quite a lot. It's there's a lot of solid evidence that a physiologist really impacted by the way we, you know, the way we experience the world and how we interpret that.
You know, we've all just been through a crazy experience, haven't we? I think, we're still kind of kind of emerging the other side and trying to find our bearings, but it's had an impact and we can see it. It's also woken people up a lot, I think, as well, hasn't it? So so there being more than we're told.
[00:44:18] Unknown:
Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. And it it's all coming out. I know I bring it up frequently now because I'm massively into this gut health and stuff like that. Mhmm. And, wow, it's just massive. I'm living down my own learning curves. You know? I'm, again, I'm loving it to be fair.
[00:44:34] Unknown:
And it's It is massive. It's completely massive. I know my son was really bored, which is another major motivator. I mean, you know, sort of and I was just I was studying nutrition at the time and saying to the GP, I mean, I don't know how what I was expecting to get from him. I think I had a bit more faith than I do now in general, but I'm saying to him, I think I think there might be a gut health issue. I think he might have some dysbiosis. He actually laughed at me and told me it was a lot of, you know, hippie rubbish, and now look where we are. Well, this is it. This is it. And I said, well, we're seeing on the shelves of the supermarkets. Like, these are cold drinks and stuff, and I've said, now I don't know whether I have to just stop buying them because they're rubbish.
[00:45:25] Unknown:
They're just trying to feed you stuff when, actually, just, you know, we'll ferment some food and stuff like that. But I'm a bit like with my son because I can't get any goodness in him because he's such a picky eater and stuff. I'm just thinking with a few things that he does eat, I'm getting clever, you know, like raw milk to give him some good bacteria and things like that. You know, it's a massive journey. It's fascinating as well.
[00:45:48] Unknown:
So if you if you've got a child that's, you know, that struggles to eat foods, a wide range of foods, or even even kind of any range of foods, you've got so much of a challenge on your hands trying to find ways of encouraging them or
[00:46:02] Unknown:
making available foods that are healthy that they're going to eat. I I hate you on that one completely. And that's the thing as well because you think, well, actually, if we could just get your diet right, you probably wouldn't suffer with a lot of these other issues
[00:46:14] Unknown:
Yeah. That are all steps. Away. So
[00:46:17] Unknown:
But we can't you know, trying to get him to take a vitamin tablet. He will do it now every day. I mean, I'm sure it's not the best, but, it's something. But, you know, that's taken years. And I think, oh, you got a tiny little bit of vitamin c in you. But it's not really enough. But, anyway, it is what it is. But, you're busy running change the subject so we quickly because I know we haven't got ages, and I know that I could talk to you for hours on about different subjects.
[00:46:46] Unknown:
You've, like, run women's circles, so to speak, don't you? Yeah. I do. I do run women's circles, and and I've found them so incredibly, powerful. Just the the experiences and the shifts that go on people within those circles, really hard to describe when you if you've never been to 1, and I don't know if you have, Shay, but but the it's it's alchemical is the only way I can describe it. Amazing thing that things happen within those circles and realizations and people finding their feet with a certain boundaries in their wider life, you know, not not just not in the circle, they go away and they come back, they go, really change this thing that's been, been dragging me down for the last 30 years or people deciding to move up from jobs that they they don't want to hang on to anymore. And it's just it sounds like how can how can spending a couple of hours in a circle of women do that? But it it really does incredible things. So I I do do that and I also train other people how to hold spaces that are supportive and boundaried and safe for other women to have those experiences too.
[00:47:57] Unknown:
Yeah. My friend, she's doing one of your courses at the moment, Claire Gibson. Oh, yeah. She wouldn't mind. Yeah. And she was telling me she didn't go into too much detail because I am on your page on Facebook, but I don't spend ages scrolling. It never seems to have popped up, but she said that she did, a manifestation course with you, and it was just amazing.
[00:48:18] Unknown:
Yeah. We did the, this this kind of ties back into the to the whole repeating patterns and how how our unconscious mind affects our energy and how we can get caught in cycles of, you know, maybe repeated debt or repeated low earnings in a in a way that's, you know, is holding people back. So it was called the magic of money healing, and actually it's it's less or the program I write is less about traditional manifesting stuff and more about busting through our limitations. Once we clear those out of the way amazing things happen and it was it was incredible to watch people in those groups and they they just saw the windfalls that people had within days as well that were amazing.
There was one lady who my mom was saying she she literally wrote me a testimony and put her photo on it so I'm not breaking any confidences here. But she'd, been owed some money for a long time, 20 odd years. It's about £3,000 from memory, and we were working through using different energy techniques and emotional pruning techniques to work out that the resentment of that, which was a a real, understandably, a real thing for her, a real block. So we worked through that, and I had a message that just said, oh my god. I I wonder what length is wrong. And I messaged back and said, you're right. She said, you're not gonna believe this. But this woman from sort of 20 odd years ago has messaged me and said, I've been trying to find you. I've got your money, and I'd like to pay it into your bank for 3 days.
[00:49:48] Unknown:
Wow.
[00:49:49] Unknown:
So things, you know, things like that were happening left, right, and center, and it was, it's
[00:49:54] Unknown:
a real privilege, actually. I don't have a sense of it possibly. No. No. I don't I don't think it does because I think if you've got a good relationship about how you feel with money and stuff, things do start to change. I've noticed that with my job. I was, you know, my studio my photography studio has been open for a year, and I've done quite a few bookings. But to get more, I would push regular mini sessions and things really cheap. And in a couple of months ago I thought, do you know what? I'm not doing this anymore because I'm not giving myself the worth that I am or the value.
I'm actually some people think well actually she's probably rubbish because she's so cheap. And I just decided there and then no more. And every week since somebody's like, oh, can I book in a photo shoot, please? Yeah. It's the name is. It just comes from nowhere.
[00:50:40] Unknown:
Yeah. It's like it's so you get to Primrose. That's a almost fall the love is falling out the sky. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:50:48] Unknown:
I'm not, you know, I'm by no way loaded or anything, but I think I've always been hung up on money for a long time because I've always been bringing up children, and I've never had that chance to, like, go out and work as much as I can and save money and blah blah blah. You know? And that's that's my choice, and, I you know, being a mom is more important, but it's nice even if sometimes I think, you know, I'm slightly in my overdraft at the moment. Think it doesn't matter. It all works out. Don't even get caught in with that thought. You know?
[00:51:17] Unknown:
Yeah. Completely. And it's it's I don't think it's about being judged. I think it's about a feeling that things are on the up, you know, feeling more of control, things, flowing in a way that they didn't before, having more freedom.
[00:51:32] Unknown:
Yeah. And not going not going without.
[00:51:35] Unknown:
Just And it's it's all just energy. But we I mean, as women, we're at a complete disadvantage. I'm trying to remember the year. Since 1970 it's like 1976 or 1978, but as women in the UK, we weren't allowed to open bank accounts on our own or take out a credit card without our husband or our father's permission, that's even if we had So there's no wonder we feel overwhelmed by it. Of course, we do because it's it's so recent that we've actually been involved with it and been involved with making some decisions on investment and also having a lot for a lot of us having careers. I mean, for most of us having careers, if we go back a 100 years, that but it just wasn't a thing. No. It wasn't. I've got some people who have worked.
Yeah.
[00:52:44] Unknown:
To subsidize, you know. And I'm not sure if that's necessarily a good thing or not because I do get, sometimes I think, you know, women it's nice for women to be at home and to look after their children. But on the other hand, there's lots of women. They don't want to be at home and look after their children. Everybody's got their reasons, haven't they? And it's but it's nice to have the choice. But now it's like no choice in it. It's gotta be, like, 50 50. One house can't rely on 1 income alone.
[00:53:11] Unknown:
Yeah. That's that's exactly it's that for me, it's about choice. It's not about you should do this or you should do that. It's about having a choice and then it works for you. So I know for me, when my son was little, I was a much better mom if I just worked 15, 20 hours a week. I just I just was just getting out of the house and being able to work and interact with other people and then come back fresh. I don't actually wanna work any more than that at that point, but I wouldn't say to anybody that did or did you know, it has to be has to work for for each individual, but I think it's about not having those circumstances dictated to you and having the choice to make the right decisions for you and your family and and having some freedom in that and some some extra for fun and joy and it not just being about grind.
[00:53:58] Unknown:
No. But it does pose the question, and I think this at the moment because, my daughter is probably struggling a little bit at the moment because I just see the younger, younger generation, they want it all. Can we have it all?
[00:54:14] Unknown:
That's a really difficult one, isn't it? I well, I I don't think we can. I've been having this discussion recently for me. I mean, I I'm not convinced we can have it all.
[00:54:26] Unknown:
It depends what you mean by all, doesn't it, I guess, as well as I think we wanna be a parent, we want a good job, we want to be a mum, we want to go to the gym, we want to party, and I get that because they're young. And I was probably like that at that age as well. And now I think, though, but I wouldn't be getting up, credit to them for determination and stuff, but I wouldn't be getting up at 4 o'clock so I could go to the gym. You know, I'd be like, just cut that out my life.
[00:54:51] Unknown:
No. No. No. No. No. No. I think, for them. For me, that wouldn't be right. I need my sleep, and I think there's there's something to be said. I know I I really realized that I sound like an old just Just if I'm really old now. Something I realized as I got older was that everything had its seasons well. So just because I couldn't do those things at that time didn't mean in 5 years when Yes. When my son was at school, I had a bit more flexibility around work, but I couldn't do those things then.
[00:55:28] Unknown:
And I think that's part of being a mum, isn't it? I mean, I'm I'm getting to that point now, you know, my youngest is getting a bit older. I could pop out for an hour to the gym if I wanted to. So perhaps there's no excuse for me, but actually, I just don't wanna go, Helen. Well, I think I'll be honest, I think also,
[00:55:44] Unknown:
It's it's not all of those things are right for people, you know, just not not everybody thrives on going to the gym. Some people thrive on just going for a walk through the woods and Yeah. Can only be a good thing.
[00:56:04] Unknown:
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I joined the gym. I'm gonna I I'm supposed to be signed up for 6 months, but I'm gonna cancel my subscription because I haven't been for a month. And, you know, you start off with all these good intentions. I have met my daughter down a couple of mornings at, like, 6 o'clock. And, you know, I have really enjoyed it. But it's been a nice day both days that I've done it. But it's not something seriously. You know, when September comes, the dark mornings and stuff, I won't be wanting to get up and go to the gym.
[00:56:30] Unknown:
And even now, no. No. No. I would I wouldn't either. I don't mind going for a walk. No. I don't. I don't mind doing that and being out in nature and loving out in nature because there's something, really soothing about that and something that's part of my whole intuitive practice as well as get out in nature and just enjoy the stillness. But, yeah, going to the gym first in the morning would definitely
[00:56:51] Unknown:
or even even at night, actually. Well, this is it. There's no good time, is there? I don't think there's any good time because I tried to work it so we could come home from work and, like, we'd have dinner when I got in, but then it messed up tea time for everyone. And then then it's, like, half past 8, 9 o'clock before everything's done, and it's like, oh my god. You gotta give something to lose something else. And I'm like, you know, I think I'm probably that age as well. I'm 47. I would like to lose a little bit of weight, not loads. I'd like to be toned up, but I've been saying this for about 3 or 4 years now. And, I mean, if I really wanted to that bad, I would have done it, wouldn't I? I I just not that. I get days when I feel really deflated, and they, oh, I wanna do something about this. But then I can look around today and think, do you know what? I've carried 3 children. I am who I am, and, yeah, I like myself.
[00:57:36] Unknown:
Yeah. I I completely knew you, and I think one of the things to me was actually quite a lot of the time, if I'm a size bigger, I'm actually become more emotionally happier. So That's very interesting. Before, I'm being really in control of everything I do. Oh, wow. Studied nutrition for 3 years. I can be super in control about what I eat. But I came to the I just came to really explore whether that was healthy or not, and whether being more fluid about it was actually more healthy in the holistic sense than being super controlled or punishing ourselves because I hate so many women. And it's a hard mindset to get out of because, I mean, I don't know about you, but I was reading just 17 in this magazine from about 13 years old, and that it it jumps into you so early on.
[00:58:26] Unknown:
Yeah. It does. And it is probably things like that that set us all our generation on this constant thing about what we should look like.
[00:58:32] Unknown:
Yeah. Completely. And it's, you know, but I think part of it is exploring. Are we doing this for us? Are we doing this for external, you know, approvals probably, but it's or it's not not for everybody. It probably is for me now, a bit of a strong word, but but where's the motivation? And are are we just being really punitive? Can we not just give ourselves some grace here and do our best rather than strive with perfection, which is really rich coming from me because I've had a a strong trend of that through my life, but it's something that I continue to work on.
[00:59:04] Unknown:
No. I I think me me as well, but I think you're right. Where where does that come from? But I think then where did we get those images of the self from? It's magazines, you know, that we've looked at. It's like, oh, that's what we're supposed to look like.
[00:59:16] Unknown:
Yeah. Yeah. And there's it's such a narrow, you know, such a narrow bandwidth of what women should, in inverted commerce, be. Yeah. Yeah. How we should look and behave, and it's really hard to break out of that because we're really conditioned.
[00:59:31] Unknown:
We are. Do you know what, Helen? I'm gonna have to cut you short there because we are about to end.
[00:59:35] Unknown:
That's right. I mean, you've cut you short so we could talk for hours anyways. It's probably I know. We're doing that we'll do another night. Where can people catch you, Helen? So probably the best place at the moment is the Intuition Alchemy Circle Facebook
[00:59:54] Unknown:
Okay. What I'll do is I'll I'll add it all all in the link description in a Yeah. I'll drop that over to you. So Okay. Well, we're done. It's 8 o'clock. Yeah. I can see you. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Thank you, my darling. You take care. Bye bye. Bye bye. Well, that hour flew by. I'll be back the same time next week with another 2 great guests. Take care, guys. Have an awesome week.
Good evening, ladies. And for the of you gentlemen listening, you are listening to women's hour coming out of radiosoakbox.com. It's good to have your company. I am your hostess, Shelley Tasker, and tonight's date is Sunday, 14th July 2024. I have 2 amazing ladies lined up again this evening, and our first guest is Tracy Barnes. And, we're gonna be talking about Tracy's time when she was working in a care home with COVID. Good evening, Tracy.
[00:01:30] Unknown:
Hello.
[00:01:31] Unknown:
How are you doing?
[00:01:33] Unknown:
I'm alright. Getting everyone's getting ready for the football. It's a bit football mad in my house at the minute. So So
[00:01:39] Unknown:
bunk off upstairs for half an hour. Quite nice having a few minutes away in silence, I think. Yeah. Well, thanks for coming on because I know we have talked about this before, but not in-depth. And I've always said, like, oh, we need to talk about this properly. So, let's go back to, like, right. COVID's out. It's on the news.
[00:01:58] Unknown:
You're I don't
[00:01:59] Unknown:
How did it start? Talk me through it.
[00:02:02] Unknown:
I don't think I really took much notice of it, you know, when it first came out on the news. I think I was pretty much one of those that was just sitting at home. The news was on in the background, and it was like, oh, there's a new something rather come out in wherever it came out, and, you know, people are worried. Because you hit you know, we've heard all of this before with bird flu, with swine flu, things like that. And I think you just kind of switch off to it a little bit. Right. And don't really take it all in. And it wasn't until, it it kind of everyone started talking about it within the home.
And, you know, husband was coming home, and he was saying, oh, have you seen about so and so and so and so? And And then it kind of became a little bit more real. Right. And when they started saying, you know, we might have on the news, it was like, oh, you know, we may have to start wearing masks. We may have to start doing this. We've gotta start sanitizing. I mean, washing hands, we should all do anyway.
[00:02:57] Unknown:
We should. Yeah. But I presume that this was was this after lockdown was introduced
[00:03:01] Unknown:
or, like, just before? No. Before. So this was all when it really first was all being spoken about. I was really lucky. The home that I worked in through COVID, locked down before the official lockdown.
[00:03:16] Unknown:
Right.
[00:03:18] Unknown:
Our manager, decided that she would be really proactive on that side of it and lock the home down as much as we could. We were still having visitors coming in, but we were sort of saying to people, you know, you need to sanitize your hands. You know, could you please wear a mask? Could you please make sure that you're just here to see who you're here to see? Things like that. So it was we were trying to do little things to try and help ourselves as much as possible. I think the only thing we probably didn't do was make sure we had enough PPE in place. Right.
Which, in hindsight, was our own fault. But it yeah. And then the lock and then sort of lockdown came into force, and it was all everything just went a bit surreal. I mean, even now, thinking back on it, I think it it does still feel like a dream Yeah. A little bit. Yeah. I mean, I can remember driving down the is it the 8:30 we drive on Yeah. Towards where I worked, and it was just empty. And this was in you're talking at the height of sort of summer when it should be absolutely heaving. Where I used to work is is a very picturesque village that is known for holidaymakers and everyone wanting to visit.
So to drive down there with nobody else on the road was very surreal. It was almost sort of postapocalyptic Yeah. In how you were driving. Like, you might see the old police car, or or whatever, but it was very rare to see anybody else out and about, which I found really bizarre and quite frightening, actually, when it all started. I remember we had to get given a special letter that we had to put in our car windows, because I did get stopped by the police twice. Where are you going? On the way, yeah, on the way to work. What are you doing? Because I used to work night shift. I was, oh, I'm going to work. Oh, really? Where would you work at this hour? Well, you're working at this hour, so why can't other people? Yeah. But, yeah. And then had to go through the whole rigmarole of, you know, giving over my badge, explaining what I did, that I'm going here, blah, blah, and having to go we'll sort of do all of that.
So that was a bit odd as well, because I've never been stopped by the police before, so that was all the good new experience. And then sort of going from sort of that to having to queue outside of sort of Tesco's, right around a car park with, like, 2 meters between everybody around these metal barriers and having a red light, green light system, which I never thought I'd see in secret rocket which was Yeah. Which was really bizarre, and then obviously, you know, having to actually go through the whole we were really lucky. We actually didn't get any COVID in the home in that first wave at all. So we were really lucky with that, and I do think a lot of that was down to locking down quite early and just trying to be as prepared as possible.
I think we got COVID probably in that second wave.
[00:06:28] Unknown:
Right.
[00:06:30] Unknown:
So when everyone was sort of starting to go shopping again without masks on.
[00:06:35] Unknown:
I thought that was November time, near the second lockdown.
[00:06:38] Unknown:
Yeah. And when everyone was starting to start driving again, which, again, we've spent so long. We spent almost 12 months driving down these roads with nobody else on them. Only sort of certain people were allowed out driving around, weren't they? So to suddenly go back on the a 30 and have these cars whizzing past you Yes. Was quite daunting. It was like, oh, Christ. There's bloody there's other people here now. And that that was all I found all that surreal trying to deal with all of that side of it as well. So then, obviously, 2nd lockdown hit, and I think that's when it hit us properly in the care home. So I think our first lot of COVID that we had was actually brought in by a resident who'd gone to hospital and then come back.
Right. So and I think, you know, we were very strict where it was like, you know, I I actually had turned people away overnight. We had somebody turn up really late one night. I can't remember. I think it must have been, like, 10 o'clock. I think the ambulance were trying to drop them back. And we normally, we wouldn't take people that time anyway, but, they just we opened I said to them on the phone, you know, unless they've had a negative COVID test, I can't accept them back in the building. And they turned up anyway, and it it was awful because I just had to stand there talking to them through the door, because I wouldn't open it, and just saying to them, I'm sorry. I'm not allowing them in the building.
Must have been really hard to do. Oh, it was it was really hard, because I was like, well, I don't know what they're gonna do with them. Obviously, I'm gonna take them somewhere safe. I didn't know where they were gonna go, where they were gonna end up. What what was I gonna tell the family?
[00:08:20] Unknown:
And was you scared yourself, Tracy, about contacting contracting COVID?
[00:08:28] Unknown:
I think I was. I think in those first sort of that first year and that second wave, I think there was a lot on the TV, wasn't it? There's a lot of statistics on the television, and it was always this amount have died, this amount have died, this amount have died. Fear. Fear. Fear. It was it was really scary thinking, oh my god. If I get that, am I gonna be one of the ones that's gonna be okay? Yes. They it all may it almost made it seem like it was, like, a lottery, and it was luck whether or not you would survive it or not.
[00:09:04] Unknown:
Yeah. I I was very frightened, very frightened.
[00:09:07] Unknown:
Yeah. And it was one of those it was like you would you didn't know, like, until you got it, basically.
[00:09:12] Unknown:
No.
[00:09:13] Unknown:
And and then when you kind of you were seeing things on the news about, like, oh, you know, you're you're fine you're fine until you have to be intubated. If you're intubated, then that basically means it's game over. Yeah. And I think that's what frightened a lot of people Oh, definitely. Was the thought of that as well. And, you know, I I can remember, obviously, with doing the night shift, I can remember sitting up through the night with sort of an you know, an old elderly lady who had it, and she all she wanted all through the night, she was just crying out for her mum all night Oh. Whilst struggling to breathe. And I can remember ringing sort of the one one one service taking probably 45 minutes to get through to them Right. Because they were just inundated with with calls and and everything else and basically just being told, well, yeah, I'm really sorry.
And it was basically and it it sounds awful, but it was, you know, you're in a care home. They're elderly people. They've got comorbidities anyway. They're dying. You just need to make them comfortable. There's nothing we can do. Right. And it was just that whole view of, well, they're in a care home. They're dying anyway. It was awful. Yeah. Yeah. It it was like our elderly were just kind of like, well, you know, we can't really do anything for you. You just just make them comfortable. Well, how can you make somebody who can't breathe comfortable?
[00:10:33] Unknown:
No. No.
[00:10:35] Unknown:
You know, it it's a really difficult situation to be in, and, you know, I still every now and then, I'll kind of something will trigger a memory or it's almost like a PTSD a little bit Right. Where you'll have a memory triggered, and it'll be like, I'll I'll get, like, my heart cut off. I'll get, like, get quicker. And I think, oh, Christ. I'm not bad. You know, that's done. I'm not there anymore. But I did I think I did 12 night shifts in a row. Oh. One after another. Not many. Because we just didn't have the the staff, and we had to do it so that we had barrier nursing and then people that were going into residents who didn't have COVID.
Yeah. That's right. And it it just made sense to keep the same people as the barrier nurses all the flight throughout if we could. And it it was I can remember at the end of that stint of night shift, because we were sleeping whilst we were there because normally, you don't it was a waking night. Right. But we were allowed to sleep between rounds. And I can just remember getting home at the end of all of that and literally almost collapsing and just saying to my husband, I'm I can't do this anymore. I'm gonna I feel like I'm just I'm done.
[00:11:48] Unknown:
Oh, wow. No wonder, really. 12 nights No. Anyway. And
[00:11:52] Unknown:
and I you know, the and I I can remember coming in, getting to my back door, which backs into my garden, stripping off at my back door completely. And luckily, I've got a shower off to the side in my kitchen and going into the shower before I did anything else because I was terrified that I was gonna give it to
[00:12:12] Unknown:
Yes. I You know, my husband or my kids. I remember as well because, obviously, I worked at the shoving your washing machine, stripping in the porch, and running straight upstairs in the shower. Shoving your washing machine, stripping in the porch, and going straight upstairs in the shower. But at at the time, yeah, it just seemed we were petrified. We didn't know what was what.
[00:12:35] Unknown:
No. I mean, luckily, we, stripped our uniforms at work and put them in, like you say, in those red bags, and they washed it. But you still don't know what's on your shoes. You still don't know what's you know? And we because we were so we didn't know really know what it was. And you're like, well, how is it spread? Is it? Like, can it stay on you and then someone touch you and get it if it's you know? It it was a very it was a really bizarre thing. I can remember shopping, and, actually, someone coughed next like, quite close to me as we were walking around an aisle, and I was absolutely terrified.
[00:13:10] Unknown:
Yeah. I I get it. See, because I was the opposite. I was like the I didn't really believe it because I wasn't seeing it. I do believe that it exists and stuff, not to the extreme how they locked down and stuff like that and the lies they told alongside it. But I still don't really know whether you can catch the flu or not. I think you can. I know people talk about germ theory and stuff, but I've had people in a room with me. And then the next day, like, 3 of them, they've all been struck down, said they've never been somewhere in their life. So, you know, some people say, oh, that's just, they they think that you're kind of, like, shedding. It's the time of the moon. You're detoxing. But all at the same time, it's just a bit too much.
And I was poorly, and I think I said to you a couple of days ago, there was moments when it felt like I had an elephant sat on the chest, and I've never had anything like that in my life. And, I mean, I've had it. I've had it 2 about 4 3 or 4 times I've had it. And the first time I had it, like, I I we were saying the other day,
[00:14:07] Unknown:
it was more my sort of smell and taste went, and that was the only issue I had. Other than that, I felt fine. The other two times I had it, I was I was okay just a bit, like, you would like, a general cold. Right. Like, just feeling a bit bummed up and a bit crap. And the last time I had it, which was a couple of Christmases ago, I honestly I've never been so poorly. My chest, it still isn't a 100% right now, but my chest at the time was horrendous. I'm like you. It felt like something was just pressing. And no matter what I did, I couldn't get that heavy feeling
[00:14:43] Unknown:
to go. No. That's quite frightening, isn't it? It just,
[00:14:47] Unknown:
yeah, it just wouldn't go. And I was, you know, even taking a deep breath, I didn't feel like I was getting enough air or anything at the time. It it was really scary. But I think the worst bit the worst bit about the whole COVID experience for me was, I think, realising how easy it is, for these health professionals to turn away from the elderly and from the
[00:15:17] Unknown:
the the care home side of it. Right. Because presumably, if we wasn't in COVID times, you would phone up for an ambulance, somebody who's struggling to breathe, they would take them to the hospital and send a doctor in.
[00:15:29] Unknown:
Yeah. They'd come out. They'd check them over. Because we were residential as well. They you know, they'd come out. They'd do observations because we weren't actually you know, we were doing them, but we weren't supposed to be because we weren't trained to do them. Right. So it's one of those things where, actually, you know, yes, we can do them, but, you know, we're not on paper. We're not actually supposed to. And I can remember we had 3 residents pass away in 1 night.
[00:15:57] Unknown:
Gosh.
[00:15:59] Unknown:
Now did they all have COVID? Yes. They did. Did they all pass away from COVID? I don't know. I can only assume it is that because that's what they had when they passed away, and it was the breathing that was making it difficult for them. But, you know, I can remember having to verify deaths over similar to this sort of a Skype program, but it wasn't Skype, holding an iPad over a person's face so that the doctor could verify they weren't breathing. Unbelievable. You know? And it was just horrendous.
[00:16:39] Unknown:
And I'm presuming they weren't allowed visitors, or were they? No. We weren't allowed anybody in.
[00:16:44] Unknown:
Again, that, you know, that was the hardest thing was ringing up and saying to a family member, I'm really sorry. Mum has tested positive for COVID. We're currently keeping an eye on her. She's really, you know, she is really poorly and then literally 2 or 3 days later, ringing them up, You know, I'm really sorry. Mom's passed away. Well, their only wish was to be with them at the end. You know what I mean? And it it's awful to think that we couldn't facilitate that.
[00:17:10] Unknown:
Did you get any of them, like, turning up at the home, like, demanding to come in and because if that was my mom, I would be dragging her out or I I would be We had a we had a few that came and to reception,
[00:17:22] Unknown:
and just sort of, you know, wanted to to give clothes or flowers or or give something, you know, bring something in. That was hard as well because a lot of the times we had to say, I'm really sorry. I can't take that or it had to go in an office and then be disinfected or it was just it was a very really bizarre time, and I just you know, my heart did go out to the families because I just I'm like you. I wouldn't have been able to sit there and not see them.
[00:17:47] Unknown:
Yeah. Yeah.
[00:17:49] Unknown:
You know, it it it was just and and this is another thing. See, people don't see this side of it. You know, people sort of see care homes on the news and things like that and think, oh, that was awful. But they weren't you know, they didn't actually live it or experience it. So, you know, these guys, these residents were used to coming out of their rooms every day, sitting in a lounge with other people and interacting through lockdown for 6 weeks. We had everybody shut in their bedrooms. I mean, what must that do to somebody mentally for their well-being?
[00:18:25] Unknown:
Well, yeah, I mean, even doing some work a year or so ago, there were certain people with special needs and stuff, and they've never gone back to going out again.
[00:18:34] Unknown:
No. It's just And and and we had to do it because we couldn't risk COVID spreading throughout the entire home. So every time you had a new someone test positive, you then had to start your isolation from the beginning again. Right. So it felt like you were constantly taking a step back. Yeah. Going around in circles. But you'd think, oh, we've only got another week left, and then people can come out. Brilliant. And then somebody else would test positive. And you'd be like, right. Crap. Now we're back to square 1. Now we've got 2 weeks left or whatever it whatever it was. So it it was a bit like that, but I you know, we did notice a huge decline in a lot of people. So a lot of people became non mobile.
They were mobile because, you know, you've got to imagine, they're in these rooms, 4 walls. They're not the largest of rooms. You know? They can't really move about in them very well, so they just spent majority of the day sitting in a chair.
[00:19:35] Unknown:
And then I suppose when the carers come in, they're all, like, masked up and everything. There's no none of that, you know, facial stabilization. People were frightened, so there was not really much. People just wanted to be in and out as good as possible.
[00:19:47] Unknown:
Yeah. Not much interaction. People were scared. Not only of getting COVID themselves, but are they frightened that they might spread it to somebody? Yeah. So, you know, you just tried you tried to get things done and get out, basically. And it it was, you know, it was a it must have been a really lonely, confusing time for these people. And then to have staff walking in with these face masks on and shields and, you know, not really being able to hear them properly because masks do muffle when you're trying to speak. And I do think with because, obviously, I primarily work in dementia. So a lot of these people actually do look at you, and they try and gauge you by your face Sure. And by your expressions. And when all that's covered up, it's very, very difficult to then not have somebody frightened and confused and and anxious and upset. And it it you know, we saw a lot of that, a lot of people becoming very anxious, very upset, very frightened.
And then at the same time, when the if ambulances did turn up or even the undertakers when they came, they'd walk they'd knock on the door. You'd open the door. They'd be there in full hazmat suits with, like, breathing devices on the back of them. And there's us stood there with this flimsy little mask, the flimsiest apron you've ever seen in your life, and a pair of gloves, and you're like, really? This is my protection, and you're in that.
[00:21:21] Unknown:
So how come the PPE I've said that right. Yeah. And I always usually say PPI. Yeah. Yeah. How come it was, like, so hard in the care homes? Was it that you were, like, not prepared and there wasn't enough go about by time, like, you try to walk through? I think I do think it was a prepared thing. I do think we were very flippant about it at first,
[00:21:41] Unknown:
and I think everyone was, not just Karens. I think everybody was. It was a little bit flippant about it all. We were very lucky. We had a very proactive senior, and if it wasn't for her, we would have been seriously, up the creek without a paddle. I mean, she sourced all of our masks, all of our visors, our antibacterial. We had a special spray rather than, like, the hand gel stuff. If it wasn't for her, we wouldn't have had any of that. And she, you know, she went out of her way to to try and get all of that sorted, went to other care homes, went to other care companies begging for PPE. And it was actually I suppose that was one of the the good things to come out of it was care homes and companies were working together a lot more. Right.
And they became more of, like, a solid unit rather than, oh, that company over there or all that company over there. Do you know what I mean? It was more of a cohesive sort of everyone trying to work together to help each other out, which was really nice. But it wasn't it wasn't a very nice time for anybody. I don't think it was just it was one of those horrible sort of, like I say, it's almost like a nightmare when you think about it now, and you kind of think, well, did that really happen?
[00:23:07] Unknown:
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we're, what, 4 years on. Yeah. And I and I still think now, like, did did that really happen? Was I did I imagine that? Did it Yeah. And I'm still confused by a lot of it. A lot of it, I I don't agree with, didn't agree with. Like I said, the hospital situation is a lot different than the care home. I mean, the hospitals were empty.
[00:23:28] Unknown:
I mean, the one thing that did used to make me really angry was that the hospitals were really trying to kick these people out into the care homes. Yeah. And care homes got the blame then for COVID spreading when actually it wasn't us. No. And when it spread in the homes, it was like, well, it's your own fault. You blah blah blah. No. We, you know, we can only go by what we're told. If we're told somebody has had a negative test, that's what we have to believe.
[00:23:56] Unknown:
Yeah. Of course it is. But, like, out of interest, have you have you have her in all your years working with care? Have you seen, like, a flu virus spread like COVID?
[00:24:05] Unknown:
No.
[00:24:06] Unknown:
No.
[00:24:07] Unknown:
No. Don't get me wrong. Like, you get flu, like, every year, don't we? We hear about flu on the news. You know, in your GP surgery, you always see the posters up, get your flu jab. I don't I mean, I've I've had my flu jab twice. Both times, I've reacted really badly to it, so I don't have it anymore. But flu, you kind of know about it and that it can affect the elderly quite badly. But not to the extent of k not to the extent of COVID, not how it and the fact that it spreads so quickly, like, you know, you could have 5 people in the lounge, somebody sneezes, and then suddenly, a week later, although 5 of them were testing positive for COVID. Do you know what I mean? So it was a bit it was so it was really bizarre. And the minute the first as soon as you had that first positive, it was like this dread just went through you.
Because then it was like, I'm gonna have to test 40 people now. How many of them are actually going to because you gotta remember as well, we're talking about elderly people with dementia. Some you know, not all. Some have learning disabilities or difficulties. There's a there's a mixture, but, you know, these people would cough and then touch everything, sneeze, not put a hand in front of their face. They were you know? Yeah. There were bodily fluids, you know, and and things that were happening all over the place. So it it's one of those environments that if it's in there, it is going to spread. And you can kind of bet your life on it that it would, you know, it's gonna spread quickly. So I remember that first positive we had, because we had to we were doing them all, and we were sending them off. Right. We didn't have any of these really quick tests that you can get now.
I think they came out quite a lot later, didn't they? So it was all testing, sending them off. A courier would come pick it all up, take it away. We'd get the results sort of 24, 48 hours later. And I can remember the email for that first one, and we were all just sat there and the whole room was just you could just see everyone just went white. And it was like, right. We now have to get every you know, we now lockdown everyone in their rooms. And it was like a ghost town in a care home, which was really bizarre. You'd walk in, and it was just nothing. There was nobody in the lounges. The TVs were off. It was like silence. It was quite unnerving, actually.
[00:26:36] Unknown:
Right. I mean, because when I worked at the hospitals, I I had no work because it was that empty. Yeah. Yeah. So when I feel for you guys, because I didn't know the other side of it, you know, until much later.
[00:26:50] Unknown:
Oh, it was I remember before I left, to move on to, a new position in a in a nursing home, funnily enough, so away from the residential side of it, Me and my colleague who left with me, we had I think we had 28 residents all tested positive for COVID.
[00:27:13] Unknown:
And were they all ill or some of them? Because Yeah. They weren't they were poorly.
[00:27:18] Unknown:
We didn't lose anybody on that particular incident of it. But people were sort of they were on Wow, so we had you know, there were temperatures, chesty, things like that. But I can remember me and her did a night shift, and it was me, her, and then we had 2 agency workers in who'd never been before. And they had to do, I think, 8 or 9 residents. They were the only 9 that didn't have COVID. And me and her had to do everybody else. And that was a hard, hard shift because it was literally every round was bed change, pad change, clothes change. It was just constant.
[00:28:02] Unknown:
Yeah. It is it is awful. And I mean, now what happens? I I should know, really. So if you've got somebody poorly now, would you be instinctive to test them now?
[00:28:13] Unknown:
With when it all started, it was if if you had COVID, you had to isolate everybody. Everybody in the home had to be isolated. Whether they had it or not, they were isolated to their bedrooms, which I was really unfair, actually. And I think our manager at one point said, right, enough's enough. And we I know we had a group of people who were COVID free, and we had a big conservatory. And we put a television in there for them, and they all went in there, because it was just getting too much. They would they weren't really suffering from it.
And I think I can't remember what the isolation was, but it was I think it was probably 3 weeks, I think, because you had to make sure that you you got the whole cycle or something. Because I think they was back then, they were saying that if you if you had COVID, you wouldn't test positive for at least a week. So you'd had to have had it in your system for a week before this test would come up positive. And I can remember staff had to test before every shift.
[00:29:19] Unknown:
Yes. I do remember those days.
[00:29:22] Unknown:
Yep. And we used to have to go in, and we used to have to did you have to I don't know if you guys had to do it, but when they first brought out the antibody test, we had to do that. I think when I started a new jaw, I had to go and have an antibody no. I had an antibody test because I worked for the NHS. Yeah. Well, they do the finger prick one and because I was convinced I'd had it because I was really poorly just before, but it wasn't. It must have just been flu. But, yeah, I remember doing that and that wasn't very pleasant. But, yeah, I remember doing that, and that wasn't very pleasant. And then if staff had it, I can remember we had to be off for 10 days, and you couldn't come back to work until you'd had a negative COVID test.
Right. Because it can actually because, because we weren't we weren't allowed to do PCR tests up to a month after we'd had COVID because they could still come up positive.
[00:30:13] Unknown:
Yeah. Well, that's my flaw with the whole PCR test is they do show up anything that's could be in your could have been in your system for a long time, longer than a month, really.
[00:30:23] Unknown:
So they're not Yeah. So for at least a month after like, if you contracted COVID, you didn't have to do the PCR testing weekly, which is what we were doing. But that was all. Yeah. I think they were really they were flawed. They were not accurate. They weren't overly accurate, I don't think.
[00:30:40] Unknown:
Yeah. The cycles are, like, ramped up to, like, 40 times, which would and and the guy that invented them mysteriously died as well. But, you know, I'm not a conspiracy theorist.
[00:30:51] Unknown:
But, it's all changed now. So everything so we've suddenly gone from that where it was like you have to isolate for 10 days. You have to isolate for a week. Yeah. And then now it's if you get COVID or if you test positive on one of those thingy tests that you take and it tells you within seconds, you only have to you only have to, be off work now for 3 days, and you don't have to test before you come back. So you could potentially still be positive on those, still be carrying it, but it doesn't matter. It's been 3 days. Come back. Yeah. Oh, it's And we don't even have to test him. We really, we don't have to test anymore. Unless you're symptomatic, we don't test.
[00:31:31] Unknown:
Right. A lot to learn from that, really. Anyway, I can't To be honest, I personally,
[00:31:38] Unknown:
for me, unless I was really, really poorly, I probably wouldn't test anyway. No. No. Not now. And it's like all the jabs and stuff. See, that's that got a lot of people as well. So we were all told, you know and and this was and it was a thing. And people sometimes I think people think sometimes it was just something that was said on the news, and it was all rubbish. And, you know, why are we all making a big deal of it? But we were told if we did not have our COVID jabs, we would lose our jobs.
[00:32:06] Unknown:
Hold it there, Tracy, because I've got another guest waiting, but we will have to do part 2 if you're up for that in a couple of weeks. Yeah. Definitely. About that because I think it's really important. Yeah. It is. I mean, it is I'm sorry to cut you short. I didn't you know, you think half an hour. It's never long enough, not for a big subject like that. But we'd we'd do it again in a couple of weeks when you're free, and, we'll talk about the testing and the vaccines and vaccines and stuff. Yeah. I'd love to come on anytime you want to have me. Give me a shout out. Alright, ma'am. Lovely. Thank you so much for your time, Tracy, and thanks for being a hero and giving me a bit more of an understanding in other people because I think lots of people, they haven't really got a clue of what happened. You know? I to be honest, I don't think I really still know what happened. It's so surreal and bizarre. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, bless you. Well, keep up the good work, my lovely, and I'll catch up with you soon. No worries. Take care, my lovely. Thank you. Bye. Bye bye. Bye bye.
Wow. That was interesting because I am that conspiracy theorist, and I was I got some big stories. I might do a show one night just me talking about my experience with COVID, actually, because there was a time I really thought, nah, it's a load of rubbish. I don't now I really don't think, but the testing, the jabs, bloody blah blah, I think it's a load of rubbish. And, you know, to go for 3 weeks isolating that then down to 3 days, It was a bit of a shite show, should we say. Anyway, moving on. We got this week's life hacks. I am going to read them out today because I have not got any voice notes.
So I've got a couple here what people sent me. I've got a special music on. Okay. Let me just bring them up. And if you've got any life hacks that you would like to share, please send them to me. Leave me a voice note. My email address is shellytasker@btinternetdot com. And also, if you know of any women, inspirational people, anybody that's got a story to tell and share, please do get in touch with me. Right. This week's life hacks. Gemma Kaylee. I keep a shower curtain and clothes pegs in the boot of my car. So when my toddler needs the potty or one of us needs to get changed after the beach or anything where we need privacy. I peck the shower curtain around my open boot and it turns into a little cubicle to do whatever you need to do.
I don't have a big van or anything so this works really well for those who have smaller vehicles but still want the privacy for changing in public. I like that. That's a good idea. And this one. I love this one. Cerroburn. If I have any creased clothes to save the agro of getting the iron out etcetera I throw a few ice screws in the dryer with the creased item. 10 to 15 minutes later creases are gone and you haven't wasted time ironing. I threw my iron out 2 years ago and I've never looked back. I use my ghds for straightening collars, hems, etcetera, if needed. Oh, I love that. The hair straighteners, they do And is there another one?
Emma Moore I think the best learned was rule number one never assume yeah that's a good one as well right that's it for life hacks so we shall move on to our next guest who is waiting for us. The next guest is a wonderful Helen Mantle. Helen is a bit of a she knows about so much stuff. Very spiritual woman, very knowledgeable, and, I love chatting to her. Hope you enjoy whatever it is we're going to chat about. Right. Let's bring her up. Bear with me. Okay. Skype sound is gonna happen. Jenny. Hello. How are you? I'm good. Thank you, my lovely. How are you? I'm very well. Thank you. Yes. Can you hear me okay? Yeah. You're a little bit distant. My little how's that? Does that work any better? You just sound a little bit like you're, I don't know,
[00:36:24] Unknown:
behind a glass screen. Far away. It might be the host ceiling here that might be doing it.
[00:36:31] Unknown:
It's it's okay. I can hear you. Just speak nice and loud. Shout. I will do. I'll project my voice. Project. Yeah. So how are you, my lovely?
[00:36:39] Unknown:
I'm really well. Thank you. It's been, it's been an intense year of change
[00:36:46] Unknown:
but much needed. So, yeah, very well. Thank you. Good. I like whenever I speak to you, you usually say very well, very well. So when I said earlier, like, what were you gonna talk about? Because I know it's always something a little bit spiritual and a little something out there. Little yeah. Something a little bit that's out there. And you said, like, about people changing their energies to, like, go the right way. Tell us more.
[00:37:10] Unknown:
Yeah. So one of the things I mean, I suppose my background is quite eclectic when it comes to health and energy and the ultimate goal being living our full potential with as few limitations as possible in this in this world that we live in, this crazy kind of dynamic that we find ourselves in. So part of the thing that's been really showing up, and it showed up a lot in my life, and I was looking at in another people's lives and my clients' lives in particular. We're repeating patterns, and they're very different for each individual, so we don't we don't all have the same repeating patterns, but I don't know if you can recognize any aspect of when you keep bumping up against the same problems again and again even though you've worked on yourself?
I don't I don't know if you does that resonate at all? Not at the moment,
[00:38:01] Unknown:
but it's it's probably is sort of live. But perhaps I'm just a little bit wiser now. I'm not yeah. Probably in the past, those things have happened. Yeah.
[00:38:09] Unknown:
Those bumping up against. So, it could be finding yourself in the same money patterns or finding yourself in the same relationship patterns or just bumping up against the same problems and thinking, oh, I really feel like I've worked on this. So that's something that's, come up a lot in current work recently and really helping them to deal with that core energy underlying pattern that's going on for them, so so driven by our subconscious minds, but we're all made of energy and it influences our energy fields and we tend to then sort of reexperience this glass ceiling effect. So it's helping people to bust through that glass ceiling that we can often keep reconnecting to.
[00:38:50] Unknown:
Does that make sense? Yeah. Yeah. I suppose people quite often, it's like, something happens. I mean, I suppose actually with depression, depression, I used to suffer with bad depression, and that's something, like, it rears its ugly head, and it would keep coming and going. And then you think you're free of it, and then it comes back again. And, going. And then you think you're free of it, and then it comes back again. And, yeah, you just think you're free. That was something that I used to always, you know, struggle with And touch wood for the last couple of years, I'm, like, I seem to be out of that way, so to speak.
But I'm always aware that it could rear its ugly head again. But I've got different coping mechanisms. I've know about seeing the signs and keeping busy, so to speak.
[00:39:33] Unknown:
Yeah. Yeah. And that's so so good to hear because that's vital, isn't it? Recognizing when things are coming up and kind of preempting them where where it's possible to do that.
[00:39:43] Unknown:
Yeah. I think we find it hard like, I well, I don't know about you, but, like, it's your mind. It's constant chatter, and I know people say, oh, I haven't got time to get bored. It's like a lovely day and I think I could go outside and sunbathe, and then after half an hour, I'm like, oh, I'm bored. I need to do something. Boredom to me is when I could get really low. I mean, it's alright, you know, in the sun, but if it was a winter's day and I'm bored, you know when you, like, really need to do something because you need to get out of that mindset, so to speak, but it could just whiz and spiral out of control.
[00:40:13] Unknown:
Yeah. So it's Completely completely.
[00:40:15] Unknown:
Even for me, like, booking a holiday for a week, it's like, actually, that's hard going because we'll have to be busy because I'll get, like, I'll be cleaning the apartment or something to be. I'm just an active person, and if I can't do that, I'll go nuts.
[00:40:30] Unknown:
And it's fine that sometimes that distraction applied in the right way.
[00:40:42] Unknown:
Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, you're you're a healer. You're you're so you've got so many names. I I don't know what to say because you've you've got so many, like, things under your belt, but helping people. You're a bit of a women's leader, aren't you? I find it funny when, I speak to somebody and they mention Helen Mantle. I'm like, oh, I know Helen. And it's just like, well, of course, you would know Helen because she's on the same sort of wavelength as me and all these other people that I know. It's always really worrying when you get that away. It was something
[00:41:14] Unknown:
something they know. I know you. Yes. It's it's definitely been an eclectic thing. I find it really interesting because for me, it all operates on a spectrum. So it came about my my whole sort of work, if you like, came about from my own illness in my mid twenties. Well, to be honest, it's been going on my entire life because it's a genetic condition, but it really fled up in my mid twenties, and I became housebound and, with all sorts of crazy stuff going on in my body. And I was essentially sort of forced into this meditation for 2 years, and there wasn't a meditation in the traditional senses, so I was thrilled to do anything. So, yeah, if you're if you're really unwell and you you can't access that distraction because you feel so awful, you you actually can't do anything to distract yourself. So it almost becomes your your within yourself.
It was like that. So I started looking at nutrition initially, and to be honest, I was looking for magic bullet because I didn't want a magic bullet. I wanted something that was just gonna absolutely solve all my problems and I thought I could get the right chemistry in my body. I could solve it all and I really realized quite early on that that was a huge part of the picture but it wasn't gonna do all of it that I had to address the kind of psychological and the energetic or spiritual soul or whatever you wanna call it. So after I trained in nutrition for 3 years, oh, well, actually, a bit overlapped, I worked with with energy healers, was mentored in that, was mentored in psychic development, trained in hypnotherapy, and I've got this collective toolbox of all of those things. And while they look really different on paper, I I just see them as part of the same package.
[00:42:59] Unknown:
Yeah. Yeah. Well, I suppose it's all connected, isn't it? And it's I think this whole mind, body, spirit thing, it's all so true. Somebody said that to me a couple of weeks ago, and I thought, I've never really looked at it like that. You know, you've got to be well in your body. You've got to be well in your mind.
[00:43:15] Unknown:
Yeah. And and we've been led down the garden path for that because Michelle, basically, if we if we apply something physical to our bodies, the issues will be solved. I mean, I think we're moving away from that now. I think we're really even in the mainstream, we really start to realize that our environment, our psychology, how we we feel about our communities, all of those things hugely impact on our physical health. And it's it's not just loo woo out there stuff that sort of gets thrown at us sometimes. I hate that term, but it it does get thrown around quite a lot. It's there's a lot of solid evidence that a physiologist really impacted by the way we, you know, the way we experience the world and how we interpret that.
You know, we've all just been through a crazy experience, haven't we? I think, we're still kind of kind of emerging the other side and trying to find our bearings, but it's had an impact and we can see it. It's also woken people up a lot, I think, as well, hasn't it? So so there being more than we're told.
[00:44:18] Unknown:
Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. And it it's all coming out. I know I bring it up frequently now because I'm massively into this gut health and stuff like that. Mhmm. And, wow, it's just massive. I'm living down my own learning curves. You know? I'm, again, I'm loving it to be fair.
[00:44:34] Unknown:
And it's It is massive. It's completely massive. I know my son was really bored, which is another major motivator. I mean, you know, sort of and I was just I was studying nutrition at the time and saying to the GP, I mean, I don't know how what I was expecting to get from him. I think I had a bit more faith than I do now in general, but I'm saying to him, I think I think there might be a gut health issue. I think he might have some dysbiosis. He actually laughed at me and told me it was a lot of, you know, hippie rubbish, and now look where we are. Well, this is it. This is it. And I said, well, we're seeing on the shelves of the supermarkets. Like, these are cold drinks and stuff, and I've said, now I don't know whether I have to just stop buying them because they're rubbish.
[00:45:25] Unknown:
They're just trying to feed you stuff when, actually, just, you know, we'll ferment some food and stuff like that. But I'm a bit like with my son because I can't get any goodness in him because he's such a picky eater and stuff. I'm just thinking with a few things that he does eat, I'm getting clever, you know, like raw milk to give him some good bacteria and things like that. You know, it's a massive journey. It's fascinating as well.
[00:45:48] Unknown:
So if you if you've got a child that's, you know, that struggles to eat foods, a wide range of foods, or even even kind of any range of foods, you've got so much of a challenge on your hands trying to find ways of encouraging them or
[00:46:02] Unknown:
making available foods that are healthy that they're going to eat. I I hate you on that one completely. And that's the thing as well because you think, well, actually, if we could just get your diet right, you probably wouldn't suffer with a lot of these other issues
[00:46:14] Unknown:
Yeah. That are all steps. Away. So
[00:46:17] Unknown:
But we can't you know, trying to get him to take a vitamin tablet. He will do it now every day. I mean, I'm sure it's not the best, but, it's something. But, you know, that's taken years. And I think, oh, you got a tiny little bit of vitamin c in you. But it's not really enough. But, anyway, it is what it is. But, you're busy running change the subject so we quickly because I know we haven't got ages, and I know that I could talk to you for hours on about different subjects.
[00:46:46] Unknown:
You've, like, run women's circles, so to speak, don't you? Yeah. I do. I do run women's circles, and and I've found them so incredibly, powerful. Just the the experiences and the shifts that go on people within those circles, really hard to describe when you if you've never been to 1, and I don't know if you have, Shay, but but the it's it's alchemical is the only way I can describe it. Amazing thing that things happen within those circles and realizations and people finding their feet with a certain boundaries in their wider life, you know, not not just not in the circle, they go away and they come back, they go, really change this thing that's been, been dragging me down for the last 30 years or people deciding to move up from jobs that they they don't want to hang on to anymore. And it's just it sounds like how can how can spending a couple of hours in a circle of women do that? But it it really does incredible things. So I I do do that and I also train other people how to hold spaces that are supportive and boundaried and safe for other women to have those experiences too.
[00:47:57] Unknown:
Yeah. My friend, she's doing one of your courses at the moment, Claire Gibson. Oh, yeah. She wouldn't mind. Yeah. And she was telling me she didn't go into too much detail because I am on your page on Facebook, but I don't spend ages scrolling. It never seems to have popped up, but she said that she did, a manifestation course with you, and it was just amazing.
[00:48:18] Unknown:
Yeah. We did the, this this kind of ties back into the to the whole repeating patterns and how how our unconscious mind affects our energy and how we can get caught in cycles of, you know, maybe repeated debt or repeated low earnings in a in a way that's, you know, is holding people back. So it was called the magic of money healing, and actually it's it's less or the program I write is less about traditional manifesting stuff and more about busting through our limitations. Once we clear those out of the way amazing things happen and it was it was incredible to watch people in those groups and they they just saw the windfalls that people had within days as well that were amazing.
There was one lady who my mom was saying she she literally wrote me a testimony and put her photo on it so I'm not breaking any confidences here. But she'd, been owed some money for a long time, 20 odd years. It's about £3,000 from memory, and we were working through using different energy techniques and emotional pruning techniques to work out that the resentment of that, which was a a real, understandably, a real thing for her, a real block. So we worked through that, and I had a message that just said, oh my god. I I wonder what length is wrong. And I messaged back and said, you're right. She said, you're not gonna believe this. But this woman from sort of 20 odd years ago has messaged me and said, I've been trying to find you. I've got your money, and I'd like to pay it into your bank for 3 days.
[00:49:48] Unknown:
Wow.
[00:49:49] Unknown:
So things, you know, things like that were happening left, right, and center, and it was, it's
[00:49:54] Unknown:
a real privilege, actually. I don't have a sense of it possibly. No. No. I don't I don't think it does because I think if you've got a good relationship about how you feel with money and stuff, things do start to change. I've noticed that with my job. I was, you know, my studio my photography studio has been open for a year, and I've done quite a few bookings. But to get more, I would push regular mini sessions and things really cheap. And in a couple of months ago I thought, do you know what? I'm not doing this anymore because I'm not giving myself the worth that I am or the value.
I'm actually some people think well actually she's probably rubbish because she's so cheap. And I just decided there and then no more. And every week since somebody's like, oh, can I book in a photo shoot, please? Yeah. It's the name is. It just comes from nowhere.
[00:50:40] Unknown:
Yeah. It's like it's so you get to Primrose. That's a almost fall the love is falling out the sky. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:50:48] Unknown:
I'm not, you know, I'm by no way loaded or anything, but I think I've always been hung up on money for a long time because I've always been bringing up children, and I've never had that chance to, like, go out and work as much as I can and save money and blah blah blah. You know? And that's that's my choice, and, I you know, being a mom is more important, but it's nice even if sometimes I think, you know, I'm slightly in my overdraft at the moment. Think it doesn't matter. It all works out. Don't even get caught in with that thought. You know?
[00:51:17] Unknown:
Yeah. Completely. And it's it's I don't think it's about being judged. I think it's about a feeling that things are on the up, you know, feeling more of control, things, flowing in a way that they didn't before, having more freedom.
[00:51:32] Unknown:
Yeah. And not going not going without.
[00:51:35] Unknown:
Just And it's it's all just energy. But we I mean, as women, we're at a complete disadvantage. I'm trying to remember the year. Since 1970 it's like 1976 or 1978, but as women in the UK, we weren't allowed to open bank accounts on our own or take out a credit card without our husband or our father's permission, that's even if we had So there's no wonder we feel overwhelmed by it. Of course, we do because it's it's so recent that we've actually been involved with it and been involved with making some decisions on investment and also having a lot for a lot of us having careers. I mean, for most of us having careers, if we go back a 100 years, that but it just wasn't a thing. No. It wasn't. I've got some people who have worked.
Yeah.
[00:52:44] Unknown:
To subsidize, you know. And I'm not sure if that's necessarily a good thing or not because I do get, sometimes I think, you know, women it's nice for women to be at home and to look after their children. But on the other hand, there's lots of women. They don't want to be at home and look after their children. Everybody's got their reasons, haven't they? And it's but it's nice to have the choice. But now it's like no choice in it. It's gotta be, like, 50 50. One house can't rely on 1 income alone.
[00:53:11] Unknown:
Yeah. That's that's exactly it's that for me, it's about choice. It's not about you should do this or you should do that. It's about having a choice and then it works for you. So I know for me, when my son was little, I was a much better mom if I just worked 15, 20 hours a week. I just I just was just getting out of the house and being able to work and interact with other people and then come back fresh. I don't actually wanna work any more than that at that point, but I wouldn't say to anybody that did or did you know, it has to be has to work for for each individual, but I think it's about not having those circumstances dictated to you and having the choice to make the right decisions for you and your family and and having some freedom in that and some some extra for fun and joy and it not just being about grind.
[00:53:58] Unknown:
No. But it does pose the question, and I think this at the moment because, my daughter is probably struggling a little bit at the moment because I just see the younger, younger generation, they want it all. Can we have it all?
[00:54:14] Unknown:
That's a really difficult one, isn't it? I well, I I don't think we can. I've been having this discussion recently for me. I mean, I I'm not convinced we can have it all.
[00:54:26] Unknown:
It depends what you mean by all, doesn't it, I guess, as well as I think we wanna be a parent, we want a good job, we want to be a mum, we want to go to the gym, we want to party, and I get that because they're young. And I was probably like that at that age as well. And now I think, though, but I wouldn't be getting up, credit to them for determination and stuff, but I wouldn't be getting up at 4 o'clock so I could go to the gym. You know, I'd be like, just cut that out my life.
[00:54:51] Unknown:
No. No. No. No. No. No. I think, for them. For me, that wouldn't be right. I need my sleep, and I think there's there's something to be said. I know I I really realized that I sound like an old just Just if I'm really old now. Something I realized as I got older was that everything had its seasons well. So just because I couldn't do those things at that time didn't mean in 5 years when Yes. When my son was at school, I had a bit more flexibility around work, but I couldn't do those things then.
[00:55:28] Unknown:
And I think that's part of being a mum, isn't it? I mean, I'm I'm getting to that point now, you know, my youngest is getting a bit older. I could pop out for an hour to the gym if I wanted to. So perhaps there's no excuse for me, but actually, I just don't wanna go, Helen. Well, I think I'll be honest, I think also,
[00:55:44] Unknown:
It's it's not all of those things are right for people, you know, just not not everybody thrives on going to the gym. Some people thrive on just going for a walk through the woods and Yeah. Can only be a good thing.
[00:56:04] Unknown:
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I joined the gym. I'm gonna I I'm supposed to be signed up for 6 months, but I'm gonna cancel my subscription because I haven't been for a month. And, you know, you start off with all these good intentions. I have met my daughter down a couple of mornings at, like, 6 o'clock. And, you know, I have really enjoyed it. But it's been a nice day both days that I've done it. But it's not something seriously. You know, when September comes, the dark mornings and stuff, I won't be wanting to get up and go to the gym.
[00:56:30] Unknown:
And even now, no. No. No. I would I wouldn't either. I don't mind going for a walk. No. I don't. I don't mind doing that and being out in nature and loving out in nature because there's something, really soothing about that and something that's part of my whole intuitive practice as well as get out in nature and just enjoy the stillness. But, yeah, going to the gym first in the morning would definitely
[00:56:51] Unknown:
or even even at night, actually. Well, this is it. There's no good time, is there? I don't think there's any good time because I tried to work it so we could come home from work and, like, we'd have dinner when I got in, but then it messed up tea time for everyone. And then then it's, like, half past 8, 9 o'clock before everything's done, and it's like, oh my god. You gotta give something to lose something else. And I'm like, you know, I think I'm probably that age as well. I'm 47. I would like to lose a little bit of weight, not loads. I'd like to be toned up, but I've been saying this for about 3 or 4 years now. And, I mean, if I really wanted to that bad, I would have done it, wouldn't I? I I just not that. I get days when I feel really deflated, and they, oh, I wanna do something about this. But then I can look around today and think, do you know what? I've carried 3 children. I am who I am, and, yeah, I like myself.
[00:57:36] Unknown:
Yeah. I I completely knew you, and I think one of the things to me was actually quite a lot of the time, if I'm a size bigger, I'm actually become more emotionally happier. So That's very interesting. Before, I'm being really in control of everything I do. Oh, wow. Studied nutrition for 3 years. I can be super in control about what I eat. But I came to the I just came to really explore whether that was healthy or not, and whether being more fluid about it was actually more healthy in the holistic sense than being super controlled or punishing ourselves because I hate so many women. And it's a hard mindset to get out of because, I mean, I don't know about you, but I was reading just 17 in this magazine from about 13 years old, and that it it jumps into you so early on.
[00:58:26] Unknown:
Yeah. It does. And it is probably things like that that set us all our generation on this constant thing about what we should look like.
[00:58:32] Unknown:
Yeah. Completely. And it's, you know, but I think part of it is exploring. Are we doing this for us? Are we doing this for external, you know, approvals probably, but it's or it's not not for everybody. It probably is for me now, a bit of a strong word, but but where's the motivation? And are are we just being really punitive? Can we not just give ourselves some grace here and do our best rather than strive with perfection, which is really rich coming from me because I've had a a strong trend of that through my life, but it's something that I continue to work on.
[00:59:04] Unknown:
No. I I think me me as well, but I think you're right. Where where does that come from? But I think then where did we get those images of the self from? It's magazines, you know, that we've looked at. It's like, oh, that's what we're supposed to look like.
[00:59:16] Unknown:
Yeah. Yeah. And there's it's such a narrow, you know, such a narrow bandwidth of what women should, in inverted commerce, be. Yeah. Yeah. How we should look and behave, and it's really hard to break out of that because we're really conditioned.
[00:59:31] Unknown:
We are. Do you know what, Helen? I'm gonna have to cut you short there because we are about to end.
[00:59:35] Unknown:
That's right. I mean, you've cut you short so we could talk for hours anyways. It's probably I know. We're doing that we'll do another night. Where can people catch you, Helen? So probably the best place at the moment is the Intuition Alchemy Circle Facebook
[00:59:54] Unknown:
Okay. What I'll do is I'll I'll add it all all in the link description in a Yeah. I'll drop that over to you. So Okay. Well, we're done. It's 8 o'clock. Yeah. I can see you. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Thank you, my darling. You take care. Bye bye. Bye bye. Well, that hour flew by. I'll be back the same time next week with another 2 great guests. Take care, guys. Have an awesome week.
Introduction and Guest Introduction
Tracy Barnes' Experience During COVID in a Care Home
Challenges Faced by Care Homes During COVID
Host's Reflections on COVID and Transition to Life Hacks
Introduction to Helen Mantle and Her Work
Women's Circles and Empowerment
