I had planned on doing an update on any news regarding the swine flu for a while now.  I planned on keeping up to date on the spread of the virus and certainly a reminder update when it got closer to flu season for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere.  What I hadn’t planned on was the swine flu hitting my home so soon.  As of the writing of this post we have been dealing with the swine flu for 10 days now.  This morning”s paper announced that another Rhode Islander has fallen victim to this virus.  We are told that she had an “underlying medical condition”.

Late Sunday afternoon a week ago my 9 year old son Kevin started to get quiet.  He was just not is usual bubbly self.  He is normally a very active chatty boy.  My little firecracker.  He started slow down quite a bit and I even found him sound asleep in the middle of the day.  Not at all like my Kevin.  My motherly instinct new that something wasn’t right.  As the day wore on he seemed to lose his appetite and was way too quiet.  His color was off, he looked pale to me.

Later Sunday evening I went in to check on him and he felt really worm.  I took his temperature and it read 104.  Not a number I am comfortable with, but Kevin is my third child and I have seen dozens of times when one of the kids would spike a temperature only to have it go back down 24 hours later with no explaination.  I knew what I needed to do.  I gave him some ibuprofen and put a cold compress on him and gave him plenty of fluids.   The ibuprofen seemed to bring the temperature down but only down to 100.2.  I knew then it would be a long night.  Every hour I checked his temperature, made sure that I kept a cool compress on him and watched and naturally worried.  He seemed to be out of it the next morning, but then again Mom had been into bother him many times the night before.

First thing the next morning I started asking questions, Does anything hurt? Do you feel achy?  Do you have a head ache?   He said no he just felt cold.   I suspected  that was his fever that was making him feel cold.  I continued to monitor him and by the end of the day his fever seemed to have broken and I thought it was just one of those 24 hour things that kids get.

Boy o boy was I wrong .

The next few days he had no fever or aches or pains just coughing and coughing and more coughing, post nasal drip and stuffy head. Night after night coughing all night long.  He had no appetite but I was grateful that he was drinking plenty of fluids.   Although I was not happy about his cough I was not overly concerned by it either.  I gave him some cough medicine.  I thought that he had caught a summer cold.

Then late Thursday evening he started with another fever.  This time the fever was only 102.  I knew at this point it was neither just a cold nor a 24 hour thing.  He needed to see a doctor.  This thing was not getting better on its own and now he’s got fever number 2.  The first thing Friday morning I called the pediatrician’s office.  We were lucky and got a 10:00am appointment.  On the way there Kevin starts telling me how much better he is feeling. I still wanted the doctor to take a look at him.

We got into to see the doctor and after a thorough check up he announces that Kevin has all the symptoms of the swine flu.  He tells me that he is  seeing a dozen cases every day and they all seem to follow the same pattern. Initially a really high temperature that seems to pass after about 24 hours followed by cold like symptoms and then a secondary fever with contiunuing cold like symptoms. He even had one patient in the hospital with this virus. He also tells me that the state is not testing anymore because it is too expensive for so many mild cases of this virus.  He said that the only time that the state would test is if the patient ended  up with complications that cause them to end up in the hospital.  He  then tells me that Kevin has seen the worst of it and there is really nothing to do but keep an eye on him and if he gets worse come back in, but he didn’t anticipate that happening.

I actually asked the doctor if he was sure that it was the swine flu.  I just couldn’t believe what I was hearing.  After the shock wore off I asked the doctor if I should be concerned because of the medication I take for my RA.  He suggested that I call my rheumatologist immediately which is exactly what I did.  She put me on tamiflu for ten days and wanted immediate blood work done to check on my white blood count..

While we have spent the better part of 2 weeks now coughing and sneezing with tissues galore in my house,  this was according to the doctor a really mild case of this H1N1 flu virus.  The doctor’s say that we are actually lucky to have caught this virus now when the symptoms are mild so that our bodies have the chance to build up a resistance to this virus come flu season.  I want everyone reading this to know I am very concerned how bad this will be during flu season.   If what we have experienced is mild I for one cannot imagine what severe of even a normal case of this virus is like.  When the flu vaccine is available I would suggest that everyone get it.  You do not want to get this virus.