H1N1!1!?

[senoritafish]

Home from work today, as Gareth's been sick all week, with runsamuck following suit shortly after. Gareth started feeling poorly on Saturday, then on Sunday he had a temperature of 103.4°F. We kept pushing the fluids and ibuprofen, and made him take a tepid shower to cool down. It started coming down later that evening, enough that after he was asleep, John and I went up to Dismalland for about an hour for my birthday. The fever was mostly gone the next day, except for about a degree higher in the evening, but he was still pretty miserable with the cough and aches that remained. We kept him home Monday and Tuesday, Wednesday was a holiday, and we were going to try going back today, but he's still a bit out of it. I figured he was going to need a doctor's note to go back to school anyway, so I took him to get checked out today. After examining him, and listening to his symptoms, the doctor told he probably did have H1N1, but he was on the tail end of it - a lot of kids are getting it but don't seem affected too severely. He still has quite a bit of lung congestion and coughing, and started getting a runny nose today, so he told him to take tomorrow off, too. While that seems to be a free week off school, he's probably going to have a lot of homework to make up on the weekend.

runsamuck has it now too, . Dammit, I really wanted him to get a vaccination, but he didn't ask his doctor about it last time he went in. When I called to make Gareth's appointment, I unintentially got that medical office's H1N1 update, which said they'd ordered 2500 vaccinations, but only received 100 so far. Those were given to high risk patients and are all gone already. He can't get one now being ill. So if that's what he has, should he bother now? Apparently, they're not testing for it, they're just assuming everthing is. Anyway, John's weird - he always acts like he has a fever - constant alternating chills/burning up - but he only rarely has a temperature. And every time he's sick he starts having nightmares.

Angus is ok; Avalon has the sniffles but no fever, she might be staying home tomorrow, too. As for myself, I had a bit of a tickly throat and dry cough earlier in the week (I didn't really feel sick, but I did try to be careful to wash hands often and smother any coughs on a closed mouth), but it seems to have gone now. I dunno, can one virus affect everyone in different ways like this? If you've had one, but you don't know for sure which one it was, should you still get the other or both?

I asked Dad to check with his doctor before he catches something - has he yet? No. Gonna have to keep bugging him.

Somewhat related - Ran across this blog post today; silly person is trying to blame his athlete's foot on getting a flu vaccine. Idiot.

Comments

[rosehiptea.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry to hear people are ill in your family. I hope everyone recovers quickly. Sounds like Gareth had a nasty case.

[senoritafish.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the thoughts - it's a common enough occurrence around here, although that high a fever was worrying enough to call the nurse. Gareth's on the mend, though; I'm grateful it only lasted this long. Someone at work was telling me some kids on the soccer team he coaches had it and they were out for a couple of weeks. The doctor said kids seem to be coming through it ok, though.

John just got over something a week ago, so I don't know if this is something different or a relapse.

[xero-sky.livejournal.com]

My daughter had similar symptoms of horrible fevers for about three days. I came down with it a day after she finished, but mine was full-blown awful and lasted a week and a half.

Locally we're out of vaccine now, even for kids, with no restock date in sight. Not quite Captain Trips, but still nasty.

[senoritafish.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the doctor said it was affecting adults worse than kids. I really wish John could've avoided it. He's got asthma pretty bad.

I just saw something on the news about a pediatric office the next town (Newport Beach) over that has something like 17,000 vaccines, when nobody else has been able to get any. What gives?

[aliki.livejournal.com]

I hope everyone recovers swiftly.

[senoritafish.livejournal.com]

Gareth's pretty much over it; John always takes longer to get over anything because of his asthma. Luckily nobody else has really come down with it. Weird how that works.

[senoritafish.livejournal.com]

The Not-Quite-Captain-Trips, heh, that's a good name for it, I think!