Influenza A

Anyone who lives in this area knows that the Influenza A has struck our school ... to the point that one day over 60 children were missing from school (out of 269 (?) children - or somewhere around there) and the City sent home a letter advising us to take precautions and keep our children home if they showed any symptoms.

Influenza A also includes the H1N1 strain (or swine flu) that we have all heard about more then we care to over the past half year or more. Does this mean we all have swine flu? Probably not, possibly we could ... we'll might never know. The only way to know is to have blood work and nobody is going to go around doing nasal swabs or blood work on every person with some sort of flu symptoms just so they can know for sure. Doctors really don't want to see those who are sick unless it's seriously ill with respiratory problems, dehydration, etc and then you have to go to emergency ... where you would likely have testing done, and then might know the answer. Does it really matter whether it's swine flu or not? Not really, regardless it's an influenza and has to be treated with care to try and help the spread of it and give us the strength to fight against it. The symptoms of influenza A and symptoms of H1N1 are basically the same, as well as the treatment and the outcome. The difference with the H1N1 virus is the speed at which is is infecting people, the fact that it seems to hit the younger people worse then the older and that sometimes there is diarrhea or vomitting associated with H1N1 which is not associated with normal influenza.

Well we knew we wouldn't be able to escape such a rapidly spreading flu and it has now entered our family. Marietta came down with it yesterday and we'll have to see how long it lasts, how severe it gets and who else in the family will come down with it. Fingers are crossed that the rest of us don't as it's a long lasting flu, usually taking a week (or more) to recover from ... and with our moving date set for October 31st ... well ya, that could be interesting and fun ... especially if Matthew comes down with it as he has a tendency to take a lot of time and effort when sick as well as a very long time to recover from any sort of illness!!

I knew we'd come down with the flu ... I just mailed our handy dandy wonderful Braun Thermostat Ear Thermometer in for warranty repair (actually replacement) on Friday. I told Rob that night that we'd be guaranteed to get the flu with it gone for about 2-3 weeks. Nope, I'm not superstitious, but that just seems to be how life works :(