Two weeks ago, we got that awesome slip of orange level terror alert in my first grader’s backpack: THERE HAS BEEN A CONFIRMED CASE OF H1N1 IN YOUR CHILD’S CLASS.
I sat in butt clenched terror for a week or so, because I have nothing real to worry about and so Zomg, the terror of the flu! is right up my alley, with subcategories about wee children who are too young for drugs and such. I finally broke and called the Ped and signed my kids up for whatever vaccine they had on hand because Holycrap! PokeMyKidWithSomethingToEaseMyTerror. And that’s when a real bored secretary told me I was on the waiting list and expect a call next month.
Eventually, my glutes couldn’t take it anymore and unclenched from sheer exhaustion, leaving me with a trembly muscle feeling that I generally associate with relief.
That weekend, we actually saw Agent Zero Kid at a birthday party, and aside from his mother telling me he ended up in the Emergency Room with difficulty breathing, it really wasn’t that bad. Also? If my kid didn’t show symptoms after three days of her kid getting sick? Then her kid was Not! Responsible! Because incubation and contagion windows and omigod, don’t blame her. But I was all smiles and ‘ohpleases’ and ‘you can’t control that kind of things’ and ‘so glad he’s betters’. Which, if I knew then what I know now, I would have not given out so freely because even though it’s not her fault? The messenger must be sacrificed.
Five days after that, my kid puked, cried, and started running a temperature. The fever spikes up to 104 about an hour before she can get her next dose of meds. That’s been going on since Friday. Ugh. I actually have her in confinement, like some Little House on the Prairie episode in which the sick must lay in a dark room in the back. Which made her cry. Which made me cry. But I have a six month old kid, and there’s not a lot of drugs you can give a baby.
The other kids are sticking to me like cling wrap on a jello dessert, and I am walking around the house, trying to keep everybody sane.
Mostly now I’m just waiting for the other shoe to drop. What does it look like? Who is wearing it? Does it smell like bacon? Should I make my kids get the flu shot next month just to be mean? Can I unclench my ass yet?
21 Responses to “Hamthrax”
I feel like we are all just biding our time before we get it. I have found out someone I work in the building with, who I was at dinner with on Friday eating off of the same cheese plate with, as were 6 of our colleagues, has “the flu”. Since in our state they are not testing for H1N1 unless someone gets critical or dies, we don’t know when someone actually gets it. They say “assume you have it” if you come down with flu like symptoms. Talk about butt clenching free floating anxiety. If your kids all come down with flu like symptoms I would defer to your doctor, but unless you KNOW they caught the pig flu, you can’t be sure they won’t still get it. Get it? Was that helpful? No, I didn’t think so.
MidLifeMama – I think you are right on the ‘assume you have it’ – the mom of Kid Zero said they actually did test him for H1N1 because he ended up in the ER and so he was a confirmed case.
And with that, I have decided to NEVER LEAVE THE HOUSE AGAIN.
in June my son was child zero. I felt like I had a scarlet A on my chest (or just a pink pig). Turns out that he only had the high fever for a few days and then was fine. The other kids were not so lucky but no one was hospitalized. My husband and I were put on Tamiflu and never had a problem. Just treat it like any other flu, lots of fluid and rest. Good luck.
It’s winter time, the reason that we all choose this time of year to mingle indoors at parties and such is beyond me. From here on out, we are going to rock the medical masks, and only go out for supplies.
I’m terrified, because I’m already immuno-compromised so I’m pretty sure I’d end up in hospital. Actually, both kids are immuni-compromised too, so it could get nasty. We’re getting jabbed as soon as we can.
About the fever, my ped told me once that you can safely alternate ibuprofen with Tylenol. So give a dose of one and then follow 2 hours later with the other. Then re-dose on the appropriate time schedule for each med. This helped keep a stubborn fever down for my (at the time)young son and kept me from jumping off a bridge.
Hang in there and stay healthy!
Oh and “Hamthrax” is inspired! You rock!
Here’s what our little rural New Mexico clinic would tell you: The child with the high fever – and it would be high longer if there weren’t active doses of Tylenol going on – probably has H1N1. Jello, lots of chicken soup, popsicles, and as many kiddie videos as your parenting style can stand. Hydration is the key to staying out of the hospital. The rest of you have been exposed: So you can either do prophylactic Tamiflu, or get the vaccine, depending on what your doctors are willing to give you. Hang in there – you’ve got a bad week ahead of you.
Susan
We’ve been dealing with it for a week. The kid finally is better; I am not. It’s the fatigue that kills you.
Oh- and we both have asthma, but we used our inhalers a lot and fended off anything awful. Again- The worst was the frickin’ fatigue.
I am SO sorry.
Good luck to you & your family! I hope your little one recovers quickly!
I was going to tell you about the motrin/tylenol staggering but was late to the party. Start drinking?
freakin’ swine flu… if i get it at this point in my life it may actually kill me off.
*wanders back off into strep throat level of hell*
Longtime lurker here, probably violating the rules of blogging etiquette by responding to a post on which you closed comments on an earlier post that’s totally unrelated, but . . . what you said about starting your blog to say all the things you couldn’t say to people IRL and then changing/questioning your voice because of your readers is something to which I strongly relate. And, I love reading all your posts, sad, funny, angry, whatever. I actually welcome the sad ones because they offer a fuller picture of who you are. FWIW.
I will thwart your above closed comments by coming here to say…..
I have a list of blogs I check several times daily. And one of those blogs is yours. I’m here several times a day, every day, to see if you have anything to share. And I read the good stuff and the bad stuff with equal glee. Also, I totally understand the comment-whore issue and the need to make happy your audience. You should know that we, your audience? Don’t need that kind of babysitting. Write what you want when you want to write it, and that’ll be just perfect. I’ll still come by to check several times a day, every day…
Ah Sabrina thought it through too… I wanted to speak last night but didn’t know how to reply…
Hello Anne (nom de plume)
I have been dropping in for a month or so.
I say thank you for the time spent here. I am toungue tied to express my compassion for the situation in the following post… Just know that you are appreciated for being YOU, don’t worry about what anyone else might think.
YES, I realize that this blog is sort of a dichotomy. (did I use the right term?) This is your alter ego, so to speak- but really it is a mirror- and likewise it is a reflection of who you are inside and out. I like you-as it is my knack to see both sides.
Actions speak louder than words?! Yes, but putting those sounds into type is an action and therefore the blog speaks!
I’m truly sorry you are being conflicted- I speak from experience myself-.
Please take care, you ARE a sweetheart, and do what you need, to be good with yourself-your man-and your kids!
If blogging here is part of it, YEAH!
If not, just be confident that it was a pleasure getting to interact while we did…
God speed you on your journey and carry you when you are down.
John O.
Funny, I’ve been reading your site for a couple months now and havent commented. I just finished reading your post from Wed…and I wanted to comment! Ah well, comments closed. In a nutshell, was going to say I can really relate to you on that! *thinks, great now she won’t appreciate my comment-she closed it for a reason. hmm maybe I shouldnt post this…screw it I’m posting*
Feeling your pain. Buy stock in Lysol.
And your above post? I love you anyway too. I’m a fan of yours, no matter what. M’kay?
in reference to the magpies: dude. it’s why i cease writing on my blog for months at a time. and i’ve never once been able to articulate the issue as you have done in the magpies post. thank you, a thousand times thank you, for saying it for me, for articulating what all of us struggle with, as women, as moms, as the feminine mystique continues to do its silent damage, thank you.
FUCK comments, and FUCK emails and fucking communicating in a way that brings everyone else up. that’s the original point of blogging, at least in *my* mind, and though this is your blog and not mine, where i should officially be stealing all of this space to say these things that i believe, i’m mostly just trying to validate your conviction that you ought to be free to use your blog to dump it all out and not need to be — something. whatever thing you feel you need to be to make everyone else (but you) happy.
so go on, then. Anne it the fuck UP. Anne Nahm us to bits with your you-ness, minus any need to perform. just fucking be.
sorry ’bout the swears littering this business. but leaving them in to underline and punctuate.
and a big, fierce hug. and a cookie. (you like cookies, right?)
The doctors gave my 8mo niece tamiflu as preventative when my 3yo nephew got the flu. He’s better now and she never got it, FWIW.
Hang in there.
I’m getting over the big, bad S. Flu right now. It’s exhausting if nothing else. My asthma is adding to the chance of complications or something like that so I’m trying to take it easy. It’s incredibly hard to take it easy when you’re moving from one apartment to another, working, and teaching a kid’s ballet class. It’s very difficult. Time to go back to sleep.