We survived!

We are officially part of society again today as we are no longer contagious with the dreaded swine flu. The illness part of it wasn't any worse than any other cold.
What was so hard for us was the confinement. The kids had to stay home from school for a week. They felt well enough to fight and terrorize each other but were not allowed out in public. Once they were feeling better, I kicked them outside during the day when all of the other kids were in school. They had to come inside promptly at 3 pm and work on homework.
Today they can go back to school. FREEDOM!!!

Swine flu

I know the swine flu thing has been beat to death but now I have it (I think). I was pretty prepared because both times there was a local panic over it, I went to the store and got masks, hand sanitizer, meds ect. What I wasn't prepared for was how completely horrible I would feel. The kids got it first and are already almost over it. I on the other hand just came down with the worst of it this morning. I seriously want to crawl into a hole and die. I have a headache that makes my migranes feel like a walk in the park. My throat is sore and swollen, its hard to breathe. As fast as the kids felt better, I don't think we got it really bad. If this is mild, I am grateful we didn't get it really bad. I will keep you up to date on if I get better as fast as the boys. In the meantime, I have three hyper active boys home from school for a week. That might prove to be worse than the flu.

Sick today

I was going to do an elaborate blog continuing the pioneer preps theme but I woke up SICK. Now I have been battling severe allergies for the last 2 weeks or so but this is different. I swear if I have the swine flu I am going to be VERY UPSET. (I don't believe I have the swine flu, but its hard to convey sarcasm online). So I filled our pellet stove and I think I am going to spend the day curled up in a chair watching the rain. Stay safe and healthy everyone.

Of all the families in all the towns in all the world.....

mine has to end up with a case of potential swine flu. Now luckily it is not in my immediate family but family I was hoping to see this weekend has potentially been exposed. My nephew has tested positive for Influenza A but the strain won't be determined until Monday. I am not sure I could in good conscious take Squeak over there even though the household we would be visiting is not the household the flu is present in. She is just about 5 months old and unable to really battle an illness like that yet. I would absolutely loose it if i did go over and she ended up sick and died and I could have avoided them. I know the incubation is short so I plan to give them until Sunday to display symptoms and then go from there but I am pretty sure that Hubs will still prefer that I not go over there. I really don't want to risk my baby.

Flu that dare not speak it's name in Washington State

Tonight I went and had dinner with my sister and Mom. Sister is getting married in July and has been having a heck of a time picking a veil. Since I'm the maid of honor it's my job to help with these things. As we are browsing veils online and half-assed watching American Idol, a little reader board across the scene caught my eye. The part I caught was basically talking about a couple counties, and news conference, and to watch their news at 10.

Sister pulls up the channel's news website, and in big red letters you see "6 probable Swine Flu Cases". Apprently this covers 3 counties so far. King county (Seattle), Snohomish County (the 'burbs) and Spokane County (mainly Spokane Metro area).

The really fun part of this is that my mom is a nurse in South Pierce County, and my sister works for a government in a very very large building and is exposed to hundreds of people a day. This flu has a 7-10 day incubation period, and so likely hundreds if not thousands have been exposed by the original 6.

When I got home I google'd some, and found an article from the Seattle Times with some more details. The suspected cases are in a women, young child and male in King County. A male in Spokane county, and 2 more in Snohomish County; one a child and the other I can't remember. The women in King County also happens to be a Primary Care Physican (oops). The article stressed that the child in King County had not been to school during the period he/she was contagious.

I'm officially very very glad I stocked up when I did. No more extra outings ANYWHERE. If I need anything I'm not taking the boy and you can bet I'm wearing a mask. Even with the current US death rate (let's call it 1 in 100) what will it be in 7 days? 10 days? 14 days? A month? I'm not taking anymore chances. I don't care if they call me crazy, I sure as hell would rather be crazy then dead.

I'm burrowing into my hidey hole, and I'm not coming out for a long long time.

I swear I'm not that paranoid. Really.

I'm getting more and more concerned about the Swine Flu. Not necessarily getting my family or I getting it, but more the panic side. When this stuff spreads further and people are scared to go to the grocery store, work, or school is when things are going to get tricky.

My mom is a nurse, and she's concerned but not hugely. When the Avian flu came out in Asia a few years ago, her old work had the option for nurses to personally purchase face masks at the wholesale cost. She bought a ton of them for the whole family including various child sizes for the Boy (who was just a baby at the time). I called her yesterday because one of the outbreaks in California is near some of our family. Her advice for me now was just to be careful. Don't go places I don't have to, avoid large groups like sporting events or malls. Watch the Boy for any flu symptoms and track them if he starts to develop any (our family doesn't really get fevers, so doctors tend to say "well, you have no fever" when we're about to die we're so sick).

She and I also agreed that should either the Boy or I get symptoms instead of rushing him into the Army Medical Center (which was my Plan A previously) that I would call the doctors office. Because as she pointed out, we could just have the flu. It wouldn't help for us to not have it, and then unknowingly expose ourselves to someone who does.

I went a step or two further because well, I'm getting *cough cough* a little more paranoid. I went to the store this morning and stocked up on enough groceries and non-perishables to last at least 2 weeks without having to go to the store, even assuming we don't have power. I don't have as much water as I'd like, but I'm going to get some tonight at Wally-World. It's plain cheaper, and I'm going to go pretty late at night to our 24 hr one so I can avoid as much exposure as possible. My mom also suggested if I do stock up, to be sure and get medications just like for any other flu, so I'm buying some large bottles of (generic) Tylenol and things like that. I'm also stocking up on essentials like antibacterial gel (instead of soap), toiletries, soap things like that. I can fairly effective quarantine myself off from contact if need be, but I want to have at least 2 weeks if not more of vital supplies.

My mom basically told me I'm over-reacting. And maybe I am. But frankly it's a good reason to fluff up my food storage and rotate some out. If something happens, I'm more prepared them most. If nothing happens, I have 2 more weeks of food storage supplies.

Being in limbo sucks so let's talk FLU!

While we work on the whole home buying thing it leaves the preparedness issue a bit in the "will get to soon" category. Don't want to add to what we need to move, lol.

Sooooo that leaves me with a lot of time to ponder other things. So the Swine Flu issue has been in my thoughts. I am hoping the reason for no American deaths is due to our vaccines, immunities, and health care but I figured it was important to remind people not using the vaccines and health care that they need to. Even if you know you have the flu please get it confirmed by your doctor. With so many strains out there it can help the CDC get a fix on trends and risk areas to have the data of our tests.

Also flu facts seem prudent to share here. Flu 'season" is typically October - May in the U.S. with peak falling somewhere between December and March. Being vaccinated is good but is not 100% protection as the vaccine is formed from the data I told you about earlier. Better to be vaccinated then not though.

The best fighter we have against flu are anti-viral meds. These need to be started within 12-48 hours of onset of symptoms hence another reason seeing the Dr. is important. Another good reason for anti-viral meds is that if a family member catches the flu the meds can help protect you from catching it.

All my info came from fluFACTS.com. Remember children and the elderly are most at risk but anyone can catch it!