We’ve all been hearing the hype about the recent Swine Flu (H1N1). What we hear most about are the deaths and hospitalizations. Yes they’re scary. I remember when I had my unplanned C-section and was given a consent form to sign listing the mortality rates, it was terrifying! Instead, I focused on all the mother’s who had given birth and NOT died. Perhaps we need to do the same for those afflicted with the H1N1 virus.
There are many people who have had the flu and survived. There are people who have been exposed and not gotten sick.
You’re probably wondering what prompted this post.
Yesterday, I received an email from the superintendent of our school district. It explained the average attendance across the school district is at 98% and if it should fall below 75%, they would consider the option of closing schools.
The Superintendent of Schools went on to say:
The H1N1 flu has received a lot of attention in the media and, therefore, we felt that it was important to tell you we are keeping track of the numbers of student absences by school and by district. We want to thank you for keeping your children home when they have flu symptoms and for reporting your child’s illness when they do stay home. We realize it is flu season and in accord with health officials, we will be reporting numbers of students with flu symptoms to the Oakland County Health Department. However, we will not be sending home a letter each time we receive notice of a confirmed case. To date, we do not have any physician-confirmed cases.
To date, we do not have any physician-confirmed cases.
This statement interested me. Why? Not two days ago I faxed in a doctor’s note to my son’s school explaining he would be missing the entire week because, in her professional opinion, he “most likely” had H1N1.
Clearly it is not a confirmed case, just a suspected one. What makes the statement interesting is that while I had my son in her office, the doctor said they do not complete diagnostic testing to determine if it’s H1N1, unless the person is hospitalized or dead. Hmmm. So what that means to me is there can’t be any truly confirmed cases unless there is a fatality or hospitalization.
So saying there aren’t any confirmed cases in our school district is a bit of a misrepresentation when the only cases that can be confirmed are the extreme ones.
Wouldn’t you also like to hear about the people who had the swine flu and recovered?
My son had a fever that fluctuated between 99 and 103.6 for nearly a week, he’s now developed a cough but according to the doctor once his fever is gone for 24 hours, he can go back to school. He’s been fever free for 3 days at this point, so he’ll be back in school on Monday. I’m keeping an eye on that cough to be sure it doesn’t develop into pneumonia.
The suspected incubation period is 1-7 days but more likely 1-4 days according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Hopefully, that means my son has not passed the flu onto any other family members – including me. Any parent who has taken care of a sick child knows it’s next to impossible not to be exposed to the illness even when precautions are taken.
Regardless, I’d rather look upon this H1N1 flu experience with positivity. My son now has the antibodies in his system to fight any future viruses – perhaps ones in which there won’t be a helpful vaccine available. There’s a saying that could apply to this situation:
“That which doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”
If your children – or you – come down with the flu, keep a watchful eye, drink lots of fluids, and be on the look out for the emergency warning signs. Most of all, understand that most people are recovering just as they have from any other types of flu.
I started a conversation about vaccinations for H1N1 on my facebook page the other day. The responses were amazing as they were all over the map. What I found interesting is that the people who I believe are the smartest, were the ones most likely to say no to it.
Last night I was at tieconmidwest's big dinner at the Ritz. A gentleman at our table had a very dry sense of humor and at one point mentioned he wasn't eating because of getting over the H1N1. I assumed he was being polite and not wanting to say “I don't like Indian food” (I don't either for the record). I asked him if he was serious about the flu. He said yes, he had it a little less than a month ago.
Color me old fashioned but I would have rather he not shaken my hand 5 times over the course of the day. I mean, if you can't eat because of a disease you had a month ago, why the heck are you touching others? It was interesting to watch the faces of the other guests at the table. We were all a little miffed.
I do agree that none of us seem to know enough about this flu and the media appears to be blowing it out of proportion (It's what they do best).
Thanks for the insightful post, Pat.
Be Connected-
Terry Bean
http://www.networkedinc.com – my blog/website
http://www.xeesm.com/terrybean- my digital footprint
Terry, I went and looked for the comments on your facebook profile and they were all over the map! Choosing to give your children the vaccine is such a tough call. My instinct is to avoid all of the newer vaccines. There isn't enough time on them to know if there are any long term side effects. But when it comes to my children, it's a much harder decision. Again my instinct is to not get the vaccine but what if something does happen? How would I live with that guilt knowing the vaccine could possibly have prevented a serious illness or death? What if I give them the vaccine and there are side effects? I don't trust all the information in the media, nor do I trust there isn't a monetary angle to this. I just try to read everything and make the best decision I can with the information I've acquired. As parents, that's the best we can do.
Pat –
you raise an interesting point – there is risk everywhere we turn. As a mom, I want to minimize obvious risks for my son – hence, he rides in a booster seat with a seatbelt. He brushes his teeth for 2 minutes each time, twice a day. I don't feed him HFCS and potato chips all day long.
But there are subtle risks we cannot avoid. H1N1 is hyped up, big time. Have people died from it? Absolutely. Does the seasonal flu kill people (young and old)? Absolutely. We can attempt to remove all risk from our lives and our children's lives, but ultimately, we will fail. And sometimes, it will be the non-risky things that cause accidents, or worse, even death. Did my son puncture his bottom lip with all four bottom teeth when he was 18 months old? Yup – he did. Was it neglect? No – he was pushing a push toy and tumbled head over feet, hitting his head on the sofa. I couldn't blame anyone or anything – and there was nothing I could have done to reduce the risk.
Our family also has survived the worst kind of trauma – the unexpected death of a child. A healthy 2.5 y/o girl goes to bed and doesn't wake up the next morning. Preventable? No – not even if she had been in the same bed with her parents. Blame? None – there was no cause of death ever discovered.
Sometimes bad things happen and sometimes, as much as we dislike it, someone's “time is up.” I don't mean to sound callous, but risk is everywhere. If we are alive, we face risk & peril. The fact that we try to eliminate more and more of it (e.g., the H1N1 vaccine) shows us how very safe we consider ourselves and how much we want to continue on in our perception of safety. Risk is unacceptable to us – especially when we see ourselves as powerful enough to reduce or remove it. Tragedy shows us how very powerless we really are. :
Sue – I'm sorry to hear of the loss of a child in your family. I can't imagine the pain and heartache that would encompass a parent in that situation.
I don't think you sound callous about “time being up”, you're spot on. Do I want my children to be a tragedy? No, but being an active participant by wading through the information, allows me to make the decision I think is best and live with it. In many ways it would be easier to just blindly trust “professionals” and innoculate, then if anything happens, we could claim ignorance, point our finger and blame them. Instead I choose to be an active participant, responsible for the health of my family.
Along with risk being unacceptable, I think the issue is also about control.
Thanks so much for your thought provoking comments.
I started a conversation about vaccinations for H1N1 on my facebook page the other day. The responses were amazing as they were all over the map. What I found interesting is that the people who I believe are the smartest, were the ones most likely to say no to it.
Last night I was at tieconmidwest's big dinner at the Ritz. A gentleman at our table had a very dry sense of humor and at one point mentioned he wasn't eating because of getting over the H1N1. I assumed he was being polite and not wanting to say “I don't like Indian food” (I don't either for the record). I asked him if he was serious about the flu. He said yes, he had it a little less than a month ago.
Color me old fashioned but I would have rather he not shaken my hand 5 times over the course of the day. I mean, if you can't eat because of a disease you had a month ago, why the heck are you touching others? It was interesting to watch the faces of the other guests at the table. We were all a little miffed.
I do agree that none of us seem to know enough about this flu and the media appears to be blowing it out of proportion (It's what they do best).
Thanks for the insightful post, Pat.
Be Connected-
Terry Bean
http://www.networkedinc.com – my blog/website
http://www.xeesm.com/terrybean- my digital footprint
Terry, I went and looked for the comments on your facebook profile and they were all over the map! Choosing to give your children the vaccine is such a tough call. My instinct is to avoid all of the newer vaccines. There isn't enough time on them to know if there are any long term side effects. But when it comes to my children, it's a much harder decision. Again my instinct is to not get the vaccine but what if something does happen? How would I live with that guilt knowing the vaccine could possibly have prevented a serious illness or death? What if I give them the vaccine and there are side effects? I don't trust all the information in the media, nor do I trust there isn't a monetary angle to this. I just try to read everything and make the best decision I can with the information I've acquired. As parents, that's the best we can do.
Pat –
you raise an interesting point – there is risk everywhere we turn. As a mom, I want to minimize obvious risks for my son – hence, he rides in a booster seat with a seatbelt. He brushes his teeth for 2 minutes each time, twice a day. I don't feed him HFCS and potato chips all day long.
But there are subtle risks we cannot avoid. H1N1 is hyped up, big time. Have people died from it? Absolutely. Does the seasonal flu kill people (young and old)? Absolutely. We can attempt to remove all risk from our lives and our children's lives, but ultimately, we will fail. And sometimes, it will be the non-risky things that cause accidents, or worse, even death. Did my son puncture his bottom lip with all four bottom teeth when he was 18 months old? Yup – he did. Was it neglect? No – he was pushing a push toy and tumbled head over feet, hitting his head on the sofa. I couldn't blame anyone or anything – and there was nothing I could have done to reduce the risk.
Our family also has survived the worst kind of trauma – the unexpected death of a child. A healthy 2.5 y/o girl goes to bed and doesn't wake up the next morning. Preventable? No – not even if she had been in the same bed with her parents. Blame? None – there was no cause of death ever discovered.
Sometimes bad things happen and sometimes, as much as we dislike it, someone's “time is up.” I don't mean to sound callous, but risk is everywhere. If we are alive, we face risk & peril. The fact that we try to eliminate more and more of it (e.g., the H1N1 vaccine) shows us how very safe we consider ourselves and how much we want to continue on in our perception of safety. Risk is unacceptable to us – especially when we see ourselves as powerful enough to reduce or remove it. Tragedy shows us how very powerless we really are. :
Sue – I'm sorry to hear of the loss of a child in your family. I can't imagine the pain and heartache that would encompass a parent in that situation.
I don't think you sound callous about “time being up”, you're spot on. Do I want my children to be a tragedy? No, but being an active participant by wading through the information, allows me to make the decision I think is best and live with it. In many ways it would be easier to just blindly trust “professionals” and innoculate, then if anything happens, we could claim ignorance, point our finger and blame them. Instead I choose to be an active participant, responsible for the health of my family.
Along with risk being unacceptable, I think the issue is also about control.
Thanks so much for your thought provoking comments.