The Sickness That Shall Not Be Named
I’ve been asked many times over the last week, “How do you know you have H1N1?” and although the question is valid, we have no idea if we actually got the much publicized flu, I think I started to resent the insinuation that perhaps what we were going through wasn’t – valid.
Of course, on the surface, I know this isn’t what people meant but it still got to me after awhile. I was worried. The chance of anything actually going wrong, actually causing a death, was extremely small – H1N1 or not – but that chance was big enough for me. Any chance is big enough.
I’m not a big fan of regret.
My doctor was worried enough to subscribe Tamiflu for Eliza and ahead of time for Franklin. Didn’t that say something? The fact that she told us to stay isolated for 7 days after the start of symptoms say she thought it was more than the regular flu?
All this time I’m taking off work, is it being questioned?
The Tamiflu? Thought of as unnecessary?
Am I scaring people? Am I crying wolf?
Everything was so confusing on television and online that I finally just went by one person’s advice, our doctor.
When I mentioned the odd email questioning my label of H1N1 (“how dare you self-diagnosis such a thing?”) to my husband last night he calmly replied, “But we don’t know for sure. If we did, we wouldn’t be planning on getting the vaccination once they are well enough”.
And he’s right.
We don’t know for sure.
We do plan on vaccinating for the H1N1 on Friday – once everyone’s no longer contagious.
There is no harm in questioning my diagnosis. I hope I’m not adding to the hysteria by doing so, but perhaps I am. However, I’ll repeat my reply to Jessica’s comment on Monday’s post – if it smells like a fox, sounds like a fox and looks like a fox, it’s probably a fox. Pretending that we have a big, wild, long haired dog like creature doesn’t make it any less scary. It also wouldn’t have changed a thing we did – the Tamiflu or the extended time at home now. In fact I’d like to know, if I’m supposed to be cautious in case it’s H1N1 then why the hell am I not supposed to call it H1N1?
I’m sick of the debate. I’m sick of the vaccination debate and I’m sick of the H1N1 conspiracy debate. It is a pandemic. It’s not a serious pandemic in that there is a vaccination and it is not fatal for most people but why are people hoping, praying that this isn’t a big deal? Why are people willing to put more stock into conspiracy theorists than researchers and scientists?
What happens if it’s not a big deal? My thoughts are that in the long run, it’s an economic problem; which when it comes to the government’s point of view, is a big scary deal.
1. you get the flu, you suffer, and then you go back to work with a cough and a bit of a runny nose.
2. your cough-about-town sends a dozen people to bed – people you met in the grocery store, the pregnant lady at the pharmacy, and the entire staff at Starbucks goes down because you hacked on a pin pad and “Alexia” can’t afford the time off so works through the flu while at work.
3. your boss doesn’t get her Starbucks before work because the shop is closed, comes in grumpy and then fires your ass.
It’s economics, baby.
That part’s not confusing.
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This is all driving me to eat a whole chocolate bar…..not a halloween treat size….many many grams of not even that good chocolate.
I went for J’s regular innoculations this afternoon. For some reason I asked if this would affect her getting the h1n1 vaccine. It turns out she will have to wait a month before she can get it. I then asked the nurse what the best choice for me would be overdue innoculations or the H1N1 vaccine? She then went on to tell me that she had gotten a red flashing light message on her computer after lunch (can you visualize this?) stating that the following week of flu clinics in our area were suspended until further notice.
Can you hear me screaming through the computer?
I feel for you sister. We are trying to make the better choices people (said in my loud exasperated voice through the wires to the skeptics).
xx glad you are all feeling better
fack.
we asked the health clinic last night (getting the same immunizations as you – late as well:o) and we were told that the vaccines were NOT contra-indicated.
Lord Love a Duck.
I had Lochren scheduled for routine immunizations for tomorrow (and was going to ask to have the H1N1 done, too) but he’s still too sick to take out (and risk hacking on things) so I called to cancel. The line to reschedule has been busy all day. Oh joy.
BTW the image on my blog that made you growl about the freaks wasn’t meant to provoke, I just thought it was a cool sculpture, hehe.
Damn those foxes.
This whole thing is so hard to get a handle on. I called the nurses line one night, and it was so busy they were not even queuing calls, and they referred people to the symptom checker on the website. I filled in the symptom checker for my 6 year old and – voila – result says contact a health care provider. A bit too circular for my liking, and only emergency health care providers are available at that time of the night anyway….
I am very glad that your clan is feeling better now, being sick sucks big time.
If I was a mother I would have done what you did. Glad you stayed home to care for Eliza and Franklin. Your coworkers send get well wishes. The vaccination debate is a hard one, recently read an article on H1N1 vaccine rage, like road rage. I think all this is confusing and making people scared because they don’t know what to do, they hear conflicting reports, they see the line ups.
Man, if I didn’t have a self reining mechanism in place I think i might develop a “not got the vaccine” rage .
and can you imagine the rage and chaos if this was a completely fatal disease, a more serious pandemic? Talk about a disaster management nightmare. We aren’t looking all that good as a society.
a friend of mine posted the following link on facebook:
http://www.askdrsears.com/thevaccinebook/2009/09/four-swine-flu-vaccines-approved-by-fda.asp
In the long, detailed info about vaccines is the following:
What about other routine childhood vaccines that are also needed during this time?
I would advise parents to delay any vaccines for diseases that don’t pose an immediate danger to a baby’s or child’s life and catch up on those vaccines in Feb or March, a couple months after finishing the flu vaccines. Diseases that aren’t usually life-threatening (keeping in mind that ANY disease can be fatal, but the following are less likely to be) include measles, mumps, rubella, chickenpox, and Hep A. Diseases that don’t exist in the U.S. or that don’t occur during infancy in the U.S. (so even though they can be very severe, a child has almost no risk of catching it in the U.S.) that could be safely delayed are polio, Hep B, tetanus, and diphtheria (although to get a pertussis vaccine, tetanus and diphtheria have to come along with it).
Diseases that DO pose an immediate danger to babies and children are HIB and PC meningitis, Rotavitus, and Pertussis. So, I would rather children stay on time with those four vaccines and delay the flu shots (if you feel comfortable delaying flu shots).
If you want to make sure your child has flu coverage and stays up to date on these other shots, you can stagger them by two weeks.
For teens, I would follow the same guidelines – don’t get flu shot around any of the other routine teen shots like HPV, meningococcal, or Tdap. The only disease here that would be more severe than flu would be meningococcal, so that’s more of a priority.
So, there’s that. I’m still going to call my doctor and ask though. When in doubt, ignore the internet and the television. It’s my new motto.
Jo also got the chicken pox vaccine which may actually be the real culprit in having to delay the flu vaccine as it doesn’t show reactions for two weeks….I have so tried not to think of it today…
I too delayed Renee’s vaccinations – and now throw the H1N1 into the mix, sigh. At the rate this is all going, we’ll never get it, although I have one high risk kid, one that is two and one that is exposed to a cesspool of germs in his grade 2 class. Deciding to get the vaccine wasn’t nearly as hard as actually trying to get it. I think I’ll have to get Ken to sharpen his skate blades and become a pro hockey player, that might be an easier way to go…