A whole lot of flu going on

Posted in Julie's columns, Mom Stuff
by Julie Wallace

We’ve had a rough couple weeks in our household.

Week 1: The common flu fells the 6-year-old and Daddy. And as anyone can tell you, Daddies do worse at being sick  than the little ones. Three days off  of school, a trip to the emergency room (for Daddy, not for the little one) and work for me all week and we were all worn out.

Week 2: Yeah, you know that swine flu everyone is talking about? Well, it sucks. That’s as diplomatic as I can say it. My daughter who managed to fight off the common flu without becoming too miserable was running a 104 degree fever, listless, and totally not herself.  Another three days off of school (and work — no sick Daddy this week to stay home with her) and one trip to a doc in Parma (we’ll get into insurance debacles on another day) and we were back in action.

Should I mention that one very protective Daddy begged me to call her school and tell them she would not be allowed to return until they sent all the sick kids home. Yeah…I didn’t do that — but I think he might of. That’s probably why when I called the school during one of the ill days, the very nice secretary said, “Oh, you are Mallory’s mother.”  Yikes…

Anyhow, my medical oriented friends tell me my daughter’s bout with the swine flu actually isn’t a bad thing. (Easy for them to say — they weren’t here!) She’ll now have some immunity, although I’d still like to get her vaccinated if the darn vaccine ever becomes available. But I  guess I need to dig into some research first to determine if she actually needs it now since she’s already had it.

So how about it … have any of you gotten the vaccination yet or worse, suffered a bout of the swine flu?

–Julie Wallace