It’s a few days before Hall-O-Ween, and I am Completely. Freaked. Out.
Not by by goblins and werewolves and vampires.
No. It’s the creepy-crawly H1N1 that’s got me hiding under the sheets with a bottle of bleach.
The Swine Flu scare is on here in West Michigan where I live. Schools are closed, churches and community centers are canceling activities hoping to stop the rapid spread. Emergency rooms and doctor’s offices are clogged, mostly with parents looking to get some relief for their kids.
I’m usually a pretty skeptical person, not falling prey to the latest national panic.
I slept like a baby on the eve of Y2K, sure that all the hype was just that, and the bulk of our electronic infrastructure was not about to implode. I scoffed at the Bird Flu a few years ago. I didn’t run out and stock up on 25 lb. bags of rice when the world was supposedly running out.
But people I know are sick with Swine Flu. Reports of dangerously high fevers, miserable children and exhausted moms have me very close to falling off the edge of reality.
I’ve considered simply locking up baby Wade and four-year-old David in the house until spring. We certainly will be avoiding sticky, germ-ridden places like the play land at our local fast food restaurant. I’ve even thought about skipping church so the boys aren’t exposed to all the snotty, sneezy, hacky kids whose parents aren’t courteous enough to keep their sick children at home and away from my healthy ones.
Then there’s Trick-or-Treating.
Is it safe to spray down the wrapped candy with Lysol before I let my kid eat it?
Where can I get a gallon of hand sanitizer to carry around the neighborhood with us so we can disinfect after each new door we knock on?
I’m thinking of making David wear this over his costume on All Hallows’ Eve.
Unless anyone knows where I can get a hazmat suit in boy’s size 6.
If you’re throwing a Hall-O-Ween party, please skip the Bobbing for Swine Flu Apples’ Tub this year. Maybe you could play a game of Vaccinate the Donkey instead.
There is no H1N1 vaccine available to the general public here yet, but my husband took David to the pediatrician on Friday for his regular seasonal flu shot. David was under strict orders not to play with any of the waiting room toys or books. I went so far as to tell him to stay away from the other kids. “Don’t even make direct eye contact,” I said. I was only kind of kidding.
Oh, I’m a mean mother.
But come on. Everybody knows the peds office is the germiest place on earth.
I keep flashing back to all those end-of-world science fiction movies like Outbreak and I Am Legend. How long until we’re under marshal law and there’s a curfew enforced?
Maybe I should just go underground with my family until this whole Swine Flu thing blows over. But we’re not prepared to go into hiding. If only I’d believed that Y2K hype back in ‘99. I’d already have a stockpile of canned goods and water.
I’m gonna go breath into a paper bag, and try to calm down now.
Wait.
No I’m not.
Who knows where that paper bag’s been.
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About Colleen Stout
Yeah this one seems to be getting to everyone! Love the picture – perhaps I should rethink what the girls are wearing??? LOL!!
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I just had a scare. I thought I might have it, I was exposed last week. But after 3 days I am better. We have a breathing machine in the family so I hooked myself up to that to break up all the stuff in my chest and am feeling better today, although I do hear my body say please slow down, since I have been playing catch up all morning.
I have been making my kids change clothes after school, washing hands after school, and just realized I had forgot about that great stuff on the marker Airborne, they have kids things you sprinkle in their mouths, also vitamins in the AM and PM…watch the sugar intake (it weakens the immune system) and stuff lots of vitamin C down your kids throat…oranges, kiwis, broccoli…OJ etc.
And I never thought about all the germs on Halloween…maybe the kids can wear gloves??
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I don’t know whether to laugh or to cry on this article! The picture is priceless, yet the swine flu is creepy. Actually, the regular flu is just as creepy. I don’t want any of it coming near us.
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I’m totally scared, too. The vaccine became availabe today in Canada and the lineups are insane. But we have enough for everyone so there is no fear there. I’m thinking I’m going to get the vaccine, and I’m thinking my kids will, too. Better safe than sorry. The risks of not getting the vaccine far outweigh not getting the vaccine, you know? So yeah. That’s where I’m at right now. But still… terrified. Blah. I wish we could stay inside until spring!
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We are living it — the scare — right now. It is so not fun.
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Relax – it’s just flu! Flu mutates every year, kills people every year, spreads rapidly every year. Most people are not profoundly effected – and most won’t be this year, either. Just as nothing TRULY changed on 9/11 excepct people’s PERCEPTION of threat, H1N1 is really not substantially different from “regular” flu. It’s just that people have a heightened awareness of the difference in the strain this year. Statistically, 80% of what we worry about never comes to pass. So relax, eat some Halloween chocolate, and think about how a year or two from now, this will be a distant memory (like the Y2K “scare” is now).
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We’re not especially worried about it over here — we’ve got a bit of cold thing going on in our household, baby is up coughing at night, but we’ve been to our dr. and no one is worried.
We’ll all make it!
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a matter to concern, alright. but doesn’t mean anyway that we should sit and wait. we have got lives and it’s our right to live it to the fullest.
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Love the costume! Go for it.
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Flu is really alarming and as a parent it is also one of my concern.
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That was priceless!!!
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My 3yo, M, was tested for H1N1 last week and he was positive. The doc prescribed him with an anti-viral med (that does not taste good-at all. It is like pulling to teeth to get M to take it) that really helped reduce the symptoms.
We have spent the last week watching P, my 2yo, like a hawk waiting for symptoms to show and just last night the cough started.
If you think your kids has H1N1 I strongly suggest getting into the pediatricians office. The anti-viral doesn’t get rid of the flu but it does lighten the symptoms and makes it more manageable. Even if you can relieve the cough enough so your child and YOU and sleep through the night it makes everything so much easier.
You are right to be scared and over protective. This is a serious and very contagious infection.
My story is here: http://www.thoughtsnstuff.com/?p=573
We are skipping the trick or treating this year (my boys are not old enough to know what they are missing) we are eating candy in our costumes from the safety and comfort of our home while watching Clifford’s Halloween movie for the 100th time.
One suggestion for your costume. Surgical gloves!
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Well, just to update you all, David came down with the flu on Thursday. I don’t know if it’s Swine, but he was completely miserable for two days. I don’t have to worry about Trick-or-Treating now, since he’s still not well enough to go out. I’m sure he’ll come through it just fine, but it is a nasty bug. I’d still recommend doing anything you can to avoid catching it.
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I thought I may try to reassure you a bit. In Australia they have their flu season in June, July. They had the swine flu then. Usually in Australia over 2,000 people die a year from regular flu. This past flu season less than 200 people died from the swine flu. So, unless you are someone with underlying health problems already it actually seems to be much milder than usual flu. Any kind of flu is not nice, but maybe these statistics will make you feel a bit better.
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I’m so glad you brought that up, Nina. We are totally freaked out by the H1N1, yet we never talk about the thousands in America who die from the regular flu every year. The deaths from the H1N1 are significantly less.
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I haven’t decided whether or not I’ll stand in line for 5 hours on the promise of a flu shot and a flu free winter. Don’t get me wrong, I firmly believe in prevention – I always get the flu shot, a quick trip to the doctor’s office, a moment of discomfort and viola! I’ve avoided the yuckiness sure to accompany the flu bug. But this year is different. Everytime I open Facebook, or my email or pick up the phone I hear another story of a friend or entire family sidelined by the H1N1 virus. It’s definitely prevalent but with a little planning they are emerging flu free in a few days. So, while I ponder the loss of a morning to standing in line with my two sweet boys I am going to continue downing Emergen-C, take my multi-vitamin, overdose on hand santizer and good old fashioned hand washing. I am also going to stock up on Chuck the Yuck barf bags in case all my planning isn’t enough and I have to endure the yuckiness. Yet another reason to love summertime…
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