Terrific Tuesday: Flu is in Botetourt at least at my house
Flu view of the USA week ending September 26
Hello! It’s another Terrific Tuesday: How’s everything in your neck of the woods?
Flu is in the air! What type of flu? No one wants to talk about it though one local doc did tell me H1N1 is out there, but would not go on record. Matter fact it seems nobody but me and other Moms want to talk about it.
Botetourt County Public Schools said today they have no definitive numbers on how many students have been out for the past week, but if you read the Facebook and talk to the parents of middle and high school students you will hear there have been many cases. In my home all four of my children aged 12-22 have been sick with it since Thursday. After speaking with Autumn at the Alleghany Regional Health District, she only had statistics current through September 26, and said there isn’t an immediate sense of a flu outbreak though in the same breath, she reported the CDC had Virginia listed a s a state with widespread outbreak. Plus in the most Karl Rove of ways she stated, “Well you never know what makes kids absent from school.” Well, yeah. Like if normal is 15 kids and 78 miss school and another 38 go home that day, you might figure something isn’t normal.
She said that Botetourt County Schools have been keeping the health district updated on absences, but we would have to get the figures from them.
I tried. It’s like the elephant in the room when talking about the flu outbreak. H1N1? Now I”ve said it but I can’t prove it, ’cause we didn’t go to the doctor. Perhaps all involved feel the potential for panic or they are feeling fearful of being blamed. Good grief. What ever it is there are many people sick here and now.
We had one confirmed report called to our house by a parent but the Health department said that doesn’t count. A fellow school bus rider, the day before my youngest one, the middle schooler, came down with the flu. The CDC website stated not to take children to the doctor unless they have been fever free and get sick again, so I don’t know if it is H1N1 or not. We didn’t go to the doctor.
But it was about as typical influenza as it could be. As a mother of four, I have seen plenty of it in the past 22 years. Medical authority or not–I calls ‘em as I sees ‘em. I can tell you we treated it like the regular flu. That’s how the CDC specs on treatment go for H1N1 or “oink, oink” the Swine Flu.
My baby did run a really high fever of 103.9 on Saturday night. Momma was worried indeed.
She is back to her usual middle school self, but did say that lots of her friends were out of school today. Matter fact I just ran into one of them a few minutes ago and she said the school band at Central Academy only had 7 kids present at the PTA meeting last night. Though it is a small school band, it is normally bursting at the seams down there especially with sixth graders.
“This Wednesday when the report cards come out,” said Julie Baker who is Special Education Supervisor in the Central Office, “division wide all report cards will have brochures on flu shots and H1N1and recommended preventions.” That is the noticification from the Botetourt Public Schools that flu season is coming even though it is upon many now.
Here are the symptoms that manifested at my house. The flu started with a bad head ache, then the tummy hurt on two of four, one had a bit of nausea, another loose bowels. One became very grumpy, all four sneezed, coughed and ran fevers ranging from 99.8 all the way up to 103.9. At one time or another all four had chills. I guess what that tells you is it will effect each person similarly and differently. It lasted about three days on all four. Three of the four now have a cough, too. So far, we two old coots, my husband and I, who were around for Swine Flu back in the 70s, have remained symptom free and have high hopes to remain that way.
If you or your child are sick, stay home!
So here is my “Mom for 22 plus years” advice. Make sure your children use hand sanitizer or soap and water, cover the cough or sneeze in the elbow like the CDC recommends. Get Advil, Clorox wipes, tissues and have orange juice and chicken soup on hand. Fruity popsicles were a big hit at home, too. Get some Lysol. A spray of Lysol at least makes a mom feel like she is fighting the germs! Run that dishwasher and dry heat those dishes. Warm the blanket for a few minutes in the clothes drier and your children will think you are an angel of mercy.
When and if they or you get the flu, get plenty of rest, drink lots of fluids and take the CDC schedule of recommended treatment. If you or your child gets worse, call the doctor and make an appointment.
Good Luck!
October 6, 2009 - 6:11 PM
Good advice. There’s really no reason for all this panic. If your child is otherwise healthy, this seems to run shorter than the typical influenza – by a few days – more like 5-7 days instead of 7-10 days. But, boy, that cough can hang on – from what “barking” I heard around the middle school out of children who indicated they were cleared by the doctor to return.