My family had the swine flu last May.  It was not pretty and it was not fun, but, luckily we survived and now, even though I am a major germophobe, I am not particularly worried about flu season, unlike all of my friends, some of whom are really stressing over it.

By the time we found out that Sabrina had H1N1, we were all healthy! Crazy, right? 

We knew we were sick, but my kids are generally sick from September thru March and they stay that way to some degree throughout the entire cold season.  So we never really worried that this particular illness was H1N1.

Sabrina was swabbed at the hospital, where I took her because of her crazy high fever that wouldn’t go down, even with meds.  I was feeling ill too, and we sat together in a room at the hospital for 4 hours until we finally were told to leave, after a fully garbed nurse jammed a 20 cm long cotton swab all the way up my baby girl’s nose.  I have never held Sabrina in a head lock as tightly as I did for those 30 seconds.  I will tell you, that kid IS STRONG, and man, can she scream!  I guess having a 20cm long cotton swab jammed up your nose until it STOPS must hurt somewhat.  My eyes are watering in sympathy at the memory of it.

FYI- Sabrina’s symptoms in summary: high fever, extreme lethargy, slight congestion, eye pain, vomited once.  She said, ‘mama, my eyes hurt when I move them.’  Mine did too.  Little did we know that that was one of the signs of H1N1 infection.

Sabrina was completely recovered in 4 days.   Each of my kids got sick with similar symptoms, so although I didn’t take anyone else to be tested, I assume they all had it.  Being the old lady of the group, I had it the worst.  Hubby NEVER gets sick, so of course, didn’t catch it.

For 5 days, I didn’t eat a single thing.  I lay on one couch, Sabrina on the other, while Gregory watched a tv that decided at the peak of the illness that it was no longer going to babysit, and stopped showing moving pictures.  We took turns moaning and shivered endlessly under our piles of blankets, and from time to time Gregory got bored and climbed, rolled, sat and bounced on my semi-comatose body, while I wished over and over again for a cage to lock him in.  Occasionally I had to get up and feed him, or unlock the door for the kids to come in from school but other than that, hell was spent on the couch in the living room. 

I weighed myself at day 7 and had lost 10 pounds.  (The only good thing about the illness).  I don’t recommend this diet though.  For another two full weeks I felt exactly like that old expression ‘hit by a truck’.  Every single part of my body ached, even my teeth (I swear).  I drove to the kids’ school to drop off and pick up without changing out my pajamas or brushing my aching teeth, and yes, I was seen by people.  I hadn’t looked in a mirror in days and I didn’t care. (I’m really surprised I didn’t run into Brad Pitt during this time, or at the very least, an old boyfriend, because that’s the kind of luck I tend to have).  By the third week I thought I had developed a terrible disease, because I still felt so bad and couldn’t believe that it was viral.  Finally at the end of the third week, I began feeling a little better.

Once we were all recovered, the call came from the health department confirming Sabrina’s positive test result. Apparently there was a backlog of swabs, so it took a lot longer than expected for us to receive it.  Interestingly, we had been sent home from a walk-in clinic the day before our trip to hospital, and told there was no way we had H1N1.

I recently participated in a research project through a local hospital, and answered some questions about Sabrina’s general health.  Although she is a healthy girl, she does have infection induced asthma, and requires inhalers whenever she has a cold, also, she has a ‘louder than normal’ heart murmur.  All of the kids have asthma, as do I, but luckily we did not suffer any complications. 

My hands are cracked and bleeding from so much washing, and rubbing in hand sanitizer when they are like this is like a torture session, but I’m still doing it.  There are so many other illnesses just waiting for me to breathe them in, like I do every year.  A plastic bubble is starting to sound like a great invention right about now, isn’t it?  Kind of like a hamster ball, but not just rodent free, germ free too!

I hope this post helps ease your worries in some small way.  I wanted to share our experience, since the media only shares the stories with the sad outcomes.  Take care everyone, stay well.