H1N1

I have been looking on the internet for actual information about what it is really like to have the H1N1 flu virus. I was wondering if is it worse than the “regular” flu? What about normal healthy kids? No information. I wanted a real- life account. I couldn’t find one. Here is ours:

We have been infected. Last week we were on vacation. Every vacation we have ever been on has dealt us some kind of illness. One time it was measles, another it was bronchitis. It’s always something. This vacation was no different. The morning of the last day of our trip our son woke up complaining he did not feel well. He even wanted us to cancel the birthday party that we had planned for Adriana’s 9th birthday at the American Girl Store. I am sure most 5 year old boys might even fake an illness to get out of that party. He had no symptoms other than telling us he didn’t feel well. We spent the day as planned celebrating (sorry to anyone who we may have transmitted it to!)  and then started home. He started to run a fever. A couple hours into the drive our oldest, Briana started complaining of not feeling well. Then she started running a fever. In the back of my head I was a little worried that it could be H1N1. Our kids are all healthy but with any illness, you know as parents, we worry. With all the stuff in the news, I wasn’t sure how frightened I should be. Honestly, without all the hype in the media I would not have even taken them to the doctor. I usually don’t take them to the doctor for just a fever.

I called the doctor first thing in the morning. Our appointment wasn’t until 1:30. By then, my son looked like he had been hit by truck. His fever was about 104 and Motrin wasn’t really doing much for him. My daughter Briana, who almost never gets sick was only complaining of a sore throat. Briana and Payton both tested positive for H1N1 .  They only had fever and the yucky feeling that it gives and fatigue. Usually for fever unless they are feeling really bad, I don’t even medicate. I let the fever do what it is intended to do. Fight the illness. But with a recent death of a 5 year old boy in our area and all the hysteria, I figured I would take them in get them looked at, and get the facts from our doctor. He said he could give us Tamiflu but did not recommend it because all of our children are healthy, over the age of 2 and had no other risk factors such as asthma or undergoing chemotherapy and other things like that. For us, the risk of side effects of Tamiflu (hallucinations!?) far out weighed the benefit (which would be shortening the illness by only about 24 hours). He said most healthy children were feeling better in 2-3 days. We were already on day 2. We opted to ride it out.

So far for us it has been pretty mild. Last night, Juliana started to run a fever but by this afternoon it is already down on its own with no medicine. She is only coughing a little. Briana’s fever seems to have broken this afternoon. Her throat is still sore and she is a little stuffy but not miserable or anything. She is more bummed out about missing her cross country meets than anything. Payton seems to just have a little low grade fever lingering but is feeling well enough to play with his new erector set. He is pale and doesn’t look well, but at least his fever has finally lowered.

We had the flu once before while I was pregnant with Payton. I remember being completely miserably sick and had to take care of three sick kids because Brian had to be hospitalized. The flu is serious. Each year, in the United States, on average 36,000 people die from flu-related complications and more than 200,000 people are hospitalized from flu-related causes. Of those hospitalized, 20,000 are children younger than 5 years old. But for us so for, this seems mild compared to that.

I just wanted to put some information out there that is reassuring to other parents. I think that the media has us more afraid than we really need to be. Yes, there are families with children that need to be protected from this. Yes, H1N1 is more widespread and so more people will contract it and also have complications from it. We had our kids out before they had fevers but when they were not feeling well. I now wish I would have just gotten them home and not exposed other families to this. I would encourage you, if your child is not feeling well, just to keep them home. But if your child is otherwise healthy most likely they will be feeling better in no time.

The only good information I found was from the CDC. Click here to here what they say..

Here is how I am taking care of  everyone: Yesterday I made some homemade organic chicken, leek and rice soup. We have been drinking a ton of herbal tea and watered down juice. We have been eating lots of fruit and healthy snacks to keep our energy up. We are vitamin takers anyway but I upped our vitamin C intake. The sick kids are all quarantined to one bed room with TV. Although I am wondering if we should just not try to keep them apart. If they are all going to get it, maybe we should get it over with. And lots and lots of sleep. Tomorrow I will treat them with homemade juice-sicles.

Two of our children have managed to stay healthy so far. My husband is starting to not feel well so I think he is coming down with it now. I will be updating about how we are doing.