It has been a long day! Last night I moved myself onto the floor of my son's room about 2 o'clock in the morning because he was runnin hot and cold and was having severe coughing fits. I was beside myself with worry that he had contracted the swine flu and I wanted to be right there in case something happened or his condition got worse.
I was such a silly worried mother. I set my alarm to go off every 15 minutes just so I could turn on the light and make sure his coloring looked right and to give him water. Number one rule of baby illness... keep them hydrated.
So this morning, I called into work and Jack's daycare. I always have to be careful with what I say to Jack's daycare because they have a rule about certain symptons and how long the child can return back after said symptoms. For example, if your child runs over a 100 temperature you have to wait 24 hours after the fever has subsided to return them to school. So I am always very careful not to throw the f word out there too liberally. Like what if he had really bad allergies and he wasn't running a fever, but in my haste to explain that he was sick I just threw fever out there. In that instance I have just earned myself an automatic dr's. note.
So, I took him over to the Walgreen's take care clinic, because that was the most convienient place I knew of that would see him right away. I got there at 8 and was still expecting a hacking, coughing, sneezing line around the block, but we were the only ones there. some pandemic this is....
So I sign him in and the nurse practioner is ready for him almost immediately.
She writes down his symptoms and checks his ears and throat, and takes his temperature. And annouces proudly "Yep he's got the flu." I aksed nervously "Does he have the Swine flu?" To which she answers "Well, that's the one that's going around. You see Swine flu is at pandemic levels...." and more medical jargon nonsense, blah, blah, blah. I quit listening. Then she hands me some influenza literature and gives me directions to the pharmacy that is compounding Tamiflu for children's doses.
"It will cost you roughly $55 for the children's dose." she says, but I really quit listening or focusing after she vaguely accused my son of having H1N1.
So I get to the pharmacy and they tell me it's going to be $94 instead of the original $55. Which is annoying but what am I going to do? Not give my son medicine. So I let her know of my digust of having to pay, but say I will pay anyway because I have to.
She tells me the medicine will be ready in several hours and I can pay then. So I head over to the grocery store to keep with popsicle and orange juice and all the various home remedies I remember my mom giving me as a kid, and trying to keep it together.
So I call my aunt and tell her about Jack because at this point the media hype has gotten to me and the fact that this thing has a body count and I start to get a little emotional. Part from lack of sleep, part from worrying that I will be able to do enough for my sick little guy.
"Did you get the nasal swab?" I say no, but in my head I am thinking that I didn't need it because the CDC's website had all the symptoms that my son had as swine flu. "Well, you need to get up there and get it confirmed, that's important."
So I have gone from tired and worried and now I am starting to get annoyed. I go back to Walgreen's and now they have a huge coughing and sneezing line. I cut to the front and wheel Jack into the nurse's office in a shopping cart . "Does my son have Swine flu?" "Yes, he has all the symptoms that are associated with the H1N1 virus" "Ok, well I would like to get a swab done just in case to confirm because as soon as I call his school and tell them that it's swine flu they will freak." and they will. I was imagining it being on the 5o'clock news and the entire school closing down. Then I imagined them using Jack's name on TV as the root of it all and that was too much.
I was such a silly worried mother. I set my alarm to go off every 15 minutes just so I could turn on the light and make sure his coloring looked right and to give him water. Number one rule of baby illness... keep them hydrated.
So this morning, I called into work and Jack's daycare. I always have to be careful with what I say to Jack's daycare because they have a rule about certain symptons and how long the child can return back after said symptoms. For example, if your child runs over a 100 temperature you have to wait 24 hours after the fever has subsided to return them to school. So I am always very careful not to throw the f word out there too liberally. Like what if he had really bad allergies and he wasn't running a fever, but in my haste to explain that he was sick I just threw fever out there. In that instance I have just earned myself an automatic dr's. note.
So, I took him over to the Walgreen's take care clinic, because that was the most convienient place I knew of that would see him right away. I got there at 8 and was still expecting a hacking, coughing, sneezing line around the block, but we were the only ones there. some pandemic this is....
So I sign him in and the nurse practioner is ready for him almost immediately.
She writes down his symptoms and checks his ears and throat, and takes his temperature. And annouces proudly "Yep he's got the flu." I aksed nervously "Does he have the Swine flu?" To which she answers "Well, that's the one that's going around. You see Swine flu is at pandemic levels...." and more medical jargon nonsense, blah, blah, blah. I quit listening. Then she hands me some influenza literature and gives me directions to the pharmacy that is compounding Tamiflu for children's doses.
"It will cost you roughly $55 for the children's dose." she says, but I really quit listening or focusing after she vaguely accused my son of having H1N1.
So I get to the pharmacy and they tell me it's going to be $94 instead of the original $55. Which is annoying but what am I going to do? Not give my son medicine. So I let her know of my digust of having to pay, but say I will pay anyway because I have to.
She tells me the medicine will be ready in several hours and I can pay then. So I head over to the grocery store to keep with popsicle and orange juice and all the various home remedies I remember my mom giving me as a kid, and trying to keep it together.
So I call my aunt and tell her about Jack because at this point the media hype has gotten to me and the fact that this thing has a body count and I start to get a little emotional. Part from lack of sleep, part from worrying that I will be able to do enough for my sick little guy.
"Did you get the nasal swab?" I say no, but in my head I am thinking that I didn't need it because the CDC's website had all the symptoms that my son had as swine flu. "Well, you need to get up there and get it confirmed, that's important."
So I have gone from tired and worried and now I am starting to get annoyed. I go back to Walgreen's and now they have a huge coughing and sneezing line. I cut to the front and wheel Jack into the nurse's office in a shopping cart . "Does my son have Swine flu?" "Yes, he has all the symptoms that are associated with the H1N1 virus" "Ok, well I would like to get a swab done just in case to confirm because as soon as I call his school and tell them that it's swine flu they will freak." and they will. I was imagining it being on the 5o'clock news and the entire school closing down. Then I imagined them using Jack's name on TV as the root of it all and that was too much.
So she did the nasal swab and 10 minutes later my son had a cold. No flu, no H1N1 ( which if you replace the "1"s with "i"s, that spells hini , pronounced hiney. as in ass.) which is what I felt like for driving all over town because I blindly trusted this woman's at face diagnosis.
But I was SO RELIEVED. All this hype that has been built up in the media about this virus and it has definitely taken it's toll on my psyche.
To hear my dad tell it.. ( And I did, because I called him shortly there after to share in my outrage) It's a government conspiracy to get Obama's healthcare passed and the CDC's is a croc that was bought out by lobbyists and I should use some common sense and figure out what a cold is... thanks dad. Very uplifting convo today. ;)
I am glad that my sweet little angel is feeling better. Hell, after the coughing fit last night you would've never known he was sick today. Running around like a deliriously happy little elf.
So hindsight being what it is. I am so over the pandemic ala swine and I could of saved myself the money and effort and bought a gallon of orange juice instead.
I'm so glad little Jack is doing better! Shame on that quack at Walgreens for telling you that! Thank goodness you didn't pay the $100 for the medicine to find out he has the cold. I agree with your dad it is a consipiracy, darn democrats I know they would ruin everything once they got in office!!
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