SWINE FLU SYMPTOMS

I'm happy to post that after a long haul, the swine flu symptoms are on the decline around my house. Another happy dance that I'm willing to do is in celebration of the fact that for some odd reason that I'm the only one in the family that got sick.

One of the comments that I got was from a visitor who asked me how I knew that I had the swine flu and not your garden variety seasonal flu virus. The answer to that question is that I do not know for certain because as bad as I felt, I never felt the need to visit the emergency room or for that matter to even contact our doctor for antiviral medications. The reasons that I suspected H1N1 was because I had gotten my regular flu shot weeks earlier.

If I had gotten sick a few weeks earlier, the first thing I would have done would have been to call my doctor to get a prescription for tamiflu. But do you remember my post on how to remove a tick last month? Well, while talking to a medical professional about that I squeezed in some questions about whether or not to get the swine flu vaccine should it become available AND I did my best to talk him into prescribing Tamiflu ahead of the game which failed. He said that unless the seasonal or swine flu symptoms became severe that he would not use the antivirals.
He seemed knowledgeable on the subject so I weathered it out. I ran fever for several consecutive days but here I am now none the worse for wear.

Dear hubby on the other hand has had it tough with the MRSA but I'll be back later with the latest information on that and thanks to all of you that are praying for his recovery.

SWINE FLU and MRSA

I’m here to tell you that the swine flu and MRSA infections are a painful match. My family is exhausted and while I feel that every day brings me a little relief from the symptoms, there are moments when I feel that I’m about to relapse...big time.


Of all times for the only adult male in the house to have a full blown MRSA episode this is not a great time and perhaps one of the worst. To give you some background that illness has kept me from sharing, the man of the house has had a little accident that has left him with some cuts and scrapes which at first seemed to be no big deal.


Moms who have been with me for awhile know that my baby (who has asthma and food allergies) got MRSA during a hospital stay. Well, a few days after daddy’s minor accident it is now clear that those abscesses, that we are all too familiar with, are starting to pop up in practically every place that he was scratched. One of them in particular is very painful and nasty, so I see rounds of antibiotics for our family in the future as a preventative measure.


Meanwhile, I’m on about day 5 of the swine flu and weak as a kitten with a houseful of kids and a sick man with a staph infection. The universe is being terribly unfair to dish out a case of the swine flu and MRSA in one single dose. More later, I’m off to scrape up some recipes made from as many anti-viral foods as I can find in the cabinets.

Swine Flu, Babies and Asthma

The word is that Swine flu and asthma is a nasty combination. But then every illness is further complicated when breathing problems exist. The numbers of reported cases of confirmed cases are increasing with every newspaper that hits my driveway. And my anxiety is spreading through my body faster than the virus is mutating because I have children who are in the high risk group that have allergies and can't take the regular flu vaccine much less the H1N1 vaccination.

It depends on how I’m feeling at the moment but I’m waffling between being worried about the actual illness and what might happen if one of my girls catches it which would be bad enough under any set of circumstances but even more so given their existing breathing problems and fear of the girls being a guinea pig. The reports that this vaccine has not been put to the test and could possibly be more dangerous than the swine flu in and of itself.

What’s a mother to do when put between a rock and a hard place? Should I roll the dice, keep my fingers crossed and pray that the H1N1 bypasses our family or trust the medical talking heads and put these little souls in line to get a vaccination that some doctors are on record as stating that in their opinions the swine flu vaccine is not ready for use in humans?

Return to Oooh Baby Baby Parenting, Family and Environmental Issues to find out whether we decide to vaccinate or not.