Swine Flu Rant

AKA Swine Flu AKA H1N1

Final Update

My daughter finally beat the Swine Flu. Luckily the worst of it for her was the fever. Thanks everyone for the prayers.

Update on my Daughter

This morning when I woke up my daughters temp was down to 98.9. Cool great she kicked it and she can go back to school Friday. Her temp has to be gone for 24 hours before she can return. She was more active today so I though all was well again.

But around 6pm I took her temperature and once it again it is back up 101.6. So that means not only is she still fighting this swine flu bull she is out of school again. She has been fighting this fever since Monday morning.

I have never had any of my kids have a fever stick with them so long. Maybe tonight is the last night with a fever, but.. I’ve thought that every night.

October 21 2009

That picture above sure looks cute doesn’t it? But there is nothing cute about the actual Swine Flu (H1N1). I, like the rest of you have been hearing about Swine Flu all over the news and it’s what everyone talks about worried about who will get it and what to expect. The reported deaths, especially amongst are children are what is the scariest thing about it. My daughter catches anything, and I mean anything that is contagious. She has had almost everything. Well ok that may be a little exaggerated but she has more than her fair share of contagious illnesses in her 14 years. So when Swine Flu was reported I prayed she would not get it but I knew I would not be shocked if she did.

Monday October 19^th I got her up for school as usual and she said she had a sore throat and didn’t feel well. I felt her forehead and she felt normal. I told her to go o to school and if she started feeling worse to call me.

Around 9:30 am the phone rang and sure enough she now had a fever. It was only 99.2 but that was enough to bring her home, especially with so many kids out sick from school anyway and so many with swine flu.

I brought her home gave her some Tylenol and was hoping it was just a 24 hour bug. But as the day went on the temperature was rising a little. I was supposed to be at work at 5 PM so I figured I would go on to work and when I got off at 10 I would take her to the E.R. At 2 pm I took her temperature and it was now 102.3. That was enough to make me realize I better not wait until later. I took her to the E.R and sure enough my little illness magnet now has H1N1. I was scared and she was terrified a boy her age had just died from it a few days earlier and I had to calm her down and convince she would be alright.

Ever since Monday we have been fighting temps from 101.5 to 103.8. That one happened last night and it scared it scared me to death. I called the E.R they said all I could do was plenty of fluids and alternate Tylenol and Motrin. I had just been giving her Tylenol. So off to the store I went to buy Motrin. When I got back home I gave her the Motrin. Within a couple hours her fever went down to 98.9 and she started sweating. I thought well her fever as broke and now she is sweating it out of her system.

At 6:30 am I got up to send her brother to school. I checked her temp and it was right back to 103.1. She said her throat her even worse than before. We had a doctor’s appointment at 9am. We went to the doctor and her temp was then 101.8. He asked what is wrong honey she replied “Well, Duh I have swine flu (she wasn’t in good mood) and I am also pretty sure I have strep throat to. He laughed and said well let me see. He did the check on her throat and said yes you are right you have strep.

So off to the pharmacy we went to get Amoxicillin. Her fever broke for a little while today but now as I am typing this it is 102.3. She is out of school until her fever is gone without medication for 24 hrs so looks like she won’t be back till next week.

This is just about the worse thing I have seen her have to go through. I can’t stand to see her miserable. Four days so far she has been sick, fevered, feeling lousy and sleeping. We will probably all end up with it. The thing is I can handle me or my husband being this sick but to see my kids go through is just horrible. But hopefully we have this thing over half gone and she get back to her usual teen self of arguing with me and wanting to run around with her friends.

I know there are much worse cases of swine flu patients out there and I am thankful it is just this horrendous fever and no worse complications but geez four days of burning up is just too much for anyone to put with especially a kid.

If you or your child does get swine flu be sure to alternate the Tylenol and Motrin at least it does bring it down for a few now and then. Using just one of them doesn’t seem to touch the fever at all so use both.