So, what do you do when it's possible you *may* have swine flu but also possible that you haven't? Me and my husband are both starting to feel under the weather - sore throats, runny noses, headaches and the like. Nothing awful, just sort of cold-y kind of symptoms. My first thought is, 'oh well, we probably have a summer cold' - hardly unheard of, right? But, what if it is swine flu. Although it's only the first day, it doesn't feel anywhere bad enough to have the label of 'flu' of any kind. As the government, in their wisdom, are no longer testing people to see if they actually do have swine flu, the whole world and their wife are being diagnosed with it. I have jeard of lots of mild cases which sound similar to ours, but what if there's just a summer cold doing the rounds as well as the flu? How would anyone know? Now, as we have no intention of getting tamiflu or even ringing up the pandemic service, does it matter if we have a cold or flu, I hear you ask? Well, yes, because if it's damned flu we'll have to quarantine ourselves for a whole bloody week at least! Gah, just the thought of it is driving me crazy already!
Daughter is showing signs that she's sickening for something, so whatever it is, she's probably already incubating it and, given that even if it is just a little cold she will act like it's the worst flu ever, that'll be fun. Son seems his usual self and hopefully it'll pass him by as he's still breastfed.
Bloody swine bloody flu. *grump*
About Me
- Liz
- I am a stay-at-home mother to an 8 year old daughter and a 5 year old son who are home educated. I also have an allotment, a partner, 2 step-daughters on occasion, and a cat, but not much spare time. I'm a Pagan and a writer.
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10 comments:
Sorry to hear you're not feeling well.
I know exactly what you mean about the dilemma though. I keep hearing about people who've been told they or their children have it but its only mild and how would you even know.
I tend to think its totally blown out of proportion but then really hope i don't get it as it would be awful now. Russ has gone to bed with a headache and i'm slightly panicking as he's never ever unwell and some people in his office are off with 'it'.
Oh and then i saw this today: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/jul/31/tamiflu-side-effects-children (not that we would use it anyway).
Anyway, hope you'll feel better in the morning and that its just a cold. Will be thinking of you xx
We've had the same thing. We've all just had colds and as we didn't have temperatures which on everything I've read seems to be the main sympton of swine flu, I just assumed it was a cold and carried on as normal.
I think it's ridiculous that they're just handing out the tamiflu like sweets without even testing. Even if I had swine flu there is no way I'd be having the tamiflu. I'd rather just put up with the symptons and take my chances.
Hope you're feeling better soon
Reasonably sure that Tim had it a couple of weeks ago - he ran a fantastic temp for about 24 hours and the whole achy joints thing. The kids have been a bit under the weather last weekend, but I don't think either of them got ill enough to designate it as flu. Know what you mean about the quarantine aspect of it all, so difficult to decide what to do.
I appreciate that it must be slightly annoying for you to stay in for a bit in order not to pass on any potential flu viruses - but I have a disabled child with severe immune deficiencies. There are many parents like me out there who are desperately hoping that their children can avoid the virus until the vaccine is made available.
Some children do not have the luxury of choice when it comes to these drugs.
This is exactly my dilemma Bonnie, we also have friends with immunity problems and obviously we'd avoid them anyway, but do we have to stay in the house for 1-2 weeks every time we get a mild cold until next spring, just in case it's swine flu? Presumably that would be the responsible course, but doing so is not just a little inconvenient, it's very difficult indeed as both my husband and I are self-employed and no working means no money, plus we have other other responsibilities in the community (such as leading the local Home Ed Group) and I have an allotment too. If I knew this was swine flu, fine we'd stay in, let it run its course and then it would be over. But given that this might actually be a cold, and we might get other colds and not know if it's swine flu, we can't all stay in for 1-2 weeks every time.
Also, maybe look more deeply into the vaccine as I believe the WHO said it was to be a live, attenuated vaccine which are contra-indicated for many immuno-depressed people anyway.
Hope you can avoid it!
We've been feeling poorly this weekend too (bad chests, wrong temperature, snuffly, headaches), we had to put off visiting a friend and her baby in case it's something nasty.
Let's hope it's a normal cold virus and that we all get better soon.
Well actually, we seem to be feeling better this morning. Not completely well, but much improved, and the headache was the worst thing for us both, and the kids seem to be fine. So what was that all about then?
Hope you lot feel better soon Beth.
Hi Liz
How are you today? Still better? Mine was on and off for the first few days before it got a lot worse, and I thought it was a cold but then it got a whole lot worse.
My children who caught it have had it very mildly though.
I have spoken to a couple of other people and the awful headache seems to be one of the only universal symptoms. Mine lasted from first symptom to last and couldn't be gotten rid of.
Once I knew it was flu and not a summer cold I stayed away from everyone and stayed in. Unfortunately I saw lots of pregnant mama's in the first few days when it felt like a cold :-/ None of them have caught it thank goodness but I did feel awful to have exposed them.
Hope things are better for you.
HOpe you're feeling better hon.
Thing is, if it's flu, then you'll be on you rback and not want to go anywhere for probably a week anyway. A cold will just make you feel miserable but not at deaths door.. I think that has to be the clue surely?
As you know (I think) I don't have a tv so I don't follow the news and don't tend to follow much online either..but I fail to see how swineflu can be diagnosed if it's not been tested for... am Imissing something?????
And the swineful epidmeic line.. again I don't see the point of it as the people on there aren't medical professionals.. just joe blogs with a tick box.. and as swine flu, from what I understand, has the same symptoms as flu/colds.. I really don't undersand how the heck they can diagnose as such without testing....
I'm assuming its a cost thing.. testing so many people will be costing a fortune so play it safe and say it's swine flue so people have to quaratine and shove drugs down their throats.
Or am I being overly cynical?
We're feeling fine now - just 2-3 days of awful headache that we couldn't shake, as you said Becky, but no other symptoms to speak of after the first 48 hours. I'm really puzzled now. Was that swine flu or not?
Joxy, obviously, I'd usually say the same as you - if it's cold, you just feel a bit under the weather and if it's flu, you really know about it. But with the swine flu it seems to be different in that it's a very mmild flu for many people - either that or most people are being misdiagnosed, which could also be the case! Gah, whatever, it's over now and no-one else we know or have been in contact with seems to have had the same thing since we've had it, so hopefully we haven't passed it on, whatever it was.
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