The Swine Flu is discussed on every news cast and has caused panic across the nation. I have personally dealt with this horrible illness and have a new perspective. Although many people are only having a mild case, my family had to deal with a moderate case. I couldn’t imagine the hardship a severe case would cause.
Early last week my husband told us he was starting to not feel so well, thinking he was getting a cold or something like that. The next day he was feeling a little worse, but was not running a fever or cough. He was still able to rearrange our son’s room and was up and around until that afternoon. I left to run errands around 9:00am. When I returned before noon, his temperature was about 102 and he felt horrible. I bought over the counter flu medications and they didn’t help. Nothing would bring down his fever and he started to have a dry cough. The following morning I took him to the urgent care. They made him wear a mask upon entering the building and made us sit in a special waiting room designed only for patients with flu-like symptoms. After talking with the doctor, he concluded my husband had the Swine Flu without swabbing or anything. He was prescribed Tamiflu and sent home. As we were leaving the doctor told us “Good luck finding the Tamiflu, it’s sold out in most pharmacies.“ I took my husband home, quarantined him to the bedroom and started calling around to find the medication, luckily the strength he needed was available. He took the pills that day and continued for the next five days. When he called his work and told them he had the flu, they told him regardless of how he feels he can not return for at least seven days. He wasn’t feeling better for about seven days total and was out of work for nine days total. The only other person in my household that has shown any signs of illness is our youngest, who is three years old.
So you are wondering what this Tamiflu is and how it helps? Tamiflu is a antiviral medication. What this means is it helps to get rid of the virus and shorten the length of the illness. It is NOT antibiotics, so even if you are taking this medicine, you are still contagious. A person with the Swine Flu is contagious a day before the symptoms start and then five to seven days after.
It still amazes me that I was able to keep the germs from getting everyone in our house sick. Here are some things I did:
- Keep the sick person in a room to themselves, do not allow them to interact with healthy people except at an extreme distance. Our kids stayed outside the door and could talk to him from there.
- Keep everything cleaned, either using antibacterial wipes or good old-fashioned soap and water.
- If the sick wants to come out of quarantine, ensure they have washed their hands well and make them wear a mask. The sick can get cabin fever after being stuck in a room for days on end, so make them wear a mask!
- Do not share towels! Germs live in towels and it’s better to switch to paper towels for the kitchen and drying hands in the bathroom while there are sick people in the house.
- I stayed away. It was hard not going into my own room and having to sleep on the couch, but I’m not sick, so I think it was worth it!
So, now comes the question of the H1N1 vaccine. I have three children that were exposed. Do I bother with the vaccine? There are hundreds of thousands of people that are sick with flu-like symptoms every day and doctors are now saying this is the Swine Flu. If they are showing signs today, they were contagious yesterday. This means they could have exposed many people without even knowing it. Being that we had Swine Flu hit our home and my kids still didn’t get sick, I’m thinking I will hold off on the vaccine. Even keeping the house germ-free helped, but my husband had spread his germs prior to us realizing he had the flu. You would think we all would have gotten it. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) says 99% of people that get it have mild cases, so I think we’ll take our chances. I’m not alone in my opinion, according to this poll by the ABC News/Washington Post. This poll shows that almost half of the parents questioned are not going to have their children vaccinated.
