H1N1.. a personal perspective

Last week we were on vacation to Williamsburg Va. The morning after we arrived Elizabeth woke with a fever of approx. 102. She was acting fine, so we opted to 'wait and watch'. We did all the usual things like offer plenty of fluids, alternate tylenol and motrin, etc.. As the afternoon progressed, she fell asleep on my lap and when she woke she felt VERY hot. After taking her temp. again, we realized it had escalated to an alarming almost 105. We immediately took her to a walk in clinic and there they did the nose swab test and it came back positive for the flu.

Tamiflu was given and by the next morning her fever was normal and you would have never known she had been ill. She continued on a 5 day course of Tamiflu but her actual symptoms only lasted about 24 to 36 hours. Perhaps the quick recovery was in part due to the anti viral drug being given so soon after the onset of symptoms, I don't know, but the severity (or I should say lack there of thankfully!!) of our bout was nothing like I would have expected based on all the media reports we have been hearing.

We opted not to vaccinate our children for the Swine Flu out of concerns for the vaccine safety and I was especially concerned when we first got the results last week - but no one else came down with it, and Elizabeth made a complete recovery within a very few days.

Just thought I would pass on our experience so all you Mom's out there won't freak when your children aren't as diligent about washing their hands as you might like for them to be during this "germ" season! I'm resting a bit easier now!! (Still diligent about the germs and washing hands but at least not *quite* as obsessed :)