Swine Flu Stories

[momof2little1s]

Please share your Swine Flu Stories here.

[boswellsgirl25]

First, thank you for starting this group.  Thank you also for sharing your story.  I am so amazed by it, scared by it and so glad you and your daughter came through it okay. 

I am on CafeMom right now looking for hope...I have a daughter that is 2 years old (just turned) and is now confirmed as having childhood asthma.  Basically, everytime she gets a cold, she has to go to the ER or urgent care to get a steroid injection and several breathing treatments.  This time, she was diagnosed with Croup by her pediatrician after all the panic and trip to urgent care.  It was only when I came home that I found out that 75% of cases of croup are caused by parainfluenza virus type I (aka, the flu).  The doctor didn't mention this, but by looking croup up in Wikipedia, I found the info.  I am just wondering if she had H1N1/swine flu.  This whole experience scared me, and I was terrified of losing my daughter. 

On Tuesday afternoon (after we took her to the doctor because this started earlier in the day), she seemed worse even after a breathing treatment.  Her fever didn't get above 100.8, but she didn't want to be held, and for the first time, used the word "sick" to communicate with me.  She had refused liquids since the night before and was both exhausted and trying to breathe.  We went to urgent care, where her oxygen level was at 91%.  She was diagnosed by the MD there as being in acute respiratory distress, given an immediate injection of steroids and two breathing treatments.  We worked to get her fever down (although not very high, the doctor said it would help her to breathe to be cooler) and retook her oxygen and it was 95%.  She was doing better.  I know that that leveL isn't as horridly low as 65%, but perhaps in children it may be different  levels of tolerance.  I don't know. 

Anyhow, we were released, but still no fluids.  She was still restless and fighting us holding her.  Part of my instinct said this child is probably exhausted and upset due to hardly any sleep, the other part of my brain said she hasn't had anything to eat or DRINK in 26 hours.  I called her pediatrician's office exchange and a doctor called me back.  She sat on the phone with me for about 15 minutes calming me down and said to watch her, let her sleep, and if still no fluids in the morning she would need to be brought in and evaluated for dehydration and possibly sent over to the hospital for IV fluids.  Thankfully, she had about 5 oz later that night, went to sleep, and drank more in the morning.  We went in to her pediatrician to have her eval'd after the urgent care visit and she looked much better, and that's when he diagnosed her as having croup.  She's on breathing treatments every 4 hours and oral steroids right now, but she's eating and drinking well and although coughing, is doing much better.  So, long story short, I have to wonder if it was swine flu/H1N1.  A big part of me hopes it was and that we were very fortunate, that way she'd have some immunity until we could bolster that with the vaccine.  I know it sounds un-motherly to hope it was, but I am so scared of this thing.  My father had childhood asthma (went away between ages 7-9), and also weathered the swine flu outbreak of the mid-70's.  I know how bad this can get. 

I may have no place posting here with no confirmed case, not even certain she had the flu or just a bad cold with her complications causing a problem, but wanted to reach out and share.  Thank you.

[momof2little1s]

I am glad you joined the group.  I am glad you shared your story.  You can share any swine flu related story.  No worries. That sounds terrifying!  I will pray that she stays on a path of recovery.  The fear of losing your child is AWEFUL!  Sounds like it could have been swine flu.  The symptoms much up.  Hopefully she will have some immunity if she did have it.  And I am glad you are gonna vaccinate her. 

I look foward to talking with you more! =-)

Kelly

Quoting boswellsgirl25:

First, thank you for starting this group.  Thank you also for sharing your story.  I am so amazed by it, scared by it and so glad you and your daughter came through it okay. 

I am on CafeMom right now looking for hope...I have a daughter that is 2 years old (just turned) and is now confirmed as having childhood asthma.  Basically, everytime she gets a cold, she has to go to the ER or urgent care to get a steroid injection and several breathing treatments.  This time, she was diagnosed with Croup by her pediatrician after all the panic and trip to urgent care.  It was only when I came home that I found out that 75% of cases of croup are caused by parainfluenza virus type I (aka, the flu).  The doctor didn't mention this, but by looking croup up in Wikipedia, I found the info.  I am just wondering if she had H1N1/swine flu.  This whole experience scared me, and I was terrified of losing my daughter. 

On Tuesday afternoon (after we took her to the doctor because this started earlier in the day), she seemed worse even after a breathing treatment.  Her fever didn't get above 100.8, but she didn't want to be held, and for the first time, used the word "sick" to communicate with me.  She had refused liquids since the night before and was both exhausted and trying to breathe.  We went to urgent care, where her oxygen level was at 91%.  She was diagnosed by the MD there as being in acute respiratory distress, given an immediate injection of steroids and two breathing treatments.  We worked to get her fever down (although not very high, the doctor said it would help her to breathe to be cooler) and retook her oxygen and it was 95%.  She was doing better.  I know that that leveL isn't as horridly low as 65%, but perhaps in children it may be different  levels of tolerance.  I don't know. 

Anyhow, we were released, but still no fluids.  She was still restless and fighting us holding her.  Part of my instinct said this child is probably exhausted and upset due to hardly any sleep, the other part of my brain said she hasn't had anything to eat or DRINK in 26 hours.  I called her pediatrician's office exchange and a doctor called me back.  She sat on the phone with me for about 15 minutes calming me down and said to watch her, let her sleep, and if still no fluids in the morning she would need to be brought in and evaluated for dehydration and possibly sent over to the hospital for IV fluids.  Thankfully, she had about 5 oz later that night, went to sleep, and drank more in the morning.  We went in to her pediatrician to have her eval'd after the urgent care visit and she looked much better, and that's when he diagnosed her as having croup.  She's on breathing treatments every 4 hours and oral steroids right now, but she's eating and drinking well and although coughing, is doing much better.  So, long story short, I have to wonder if it was swine flu/H1N1.  A big part of me hopes it was and that we were very fortunate, that way she'd have some immunity until we could bolster that with the vaccine.  I know it sounds un-motherly to hope it was, but I am so scared of this thing.  My father had childhood asthma (went away between ages 7-9), and also weathered the swine flu outbreak of the mid-70's.  I know how bad this can get. 

I may have no place posting here with no confirmed case, not even certain she had the flu or just a bad cold with her complications causing a problem, but wanted to reach out and share.  Thank you.

[boswellsgirl25]

Hi again Kelly, and thanks!  Your girls are beautiful by the way...so precious and such gifts.  I am so glad you are all well. 

My husband, my daughter and I are recovering, but even this morning she was begging to go back to bed and saying "sick."  We left early to go to a drive thru swine flu vax clinic several cities away and I hated taking her out...but the doc said it would be okay as long as it was the injection.  Unfortunately, the line of cars (it was a drive through version) was miles upon miles long and you can't exactly go to the bathroom or change a diaper....it was a complete nightmare, so we had to come home without getting it.  There are more planned, but people are in a all-out panic about it based on what I saw today  Even when the doctors get it in, I doubt we'll have a chance at it.  Interesting thing is that this clinic today was for those who are high risk and do not have health insurance or its cost prohibitive.  We have an extremely high deductible, and already have an urgent care bill, Rx bill, and two doc office bills to pay out of pocket, yet in line today you wouldn't believe the amount of Cadillac's, Mercedes, and luxury cars I saw.  Sorry, you can't tell me that you don't have health insurance or can't afford it if you are driving around in those cars with DVD's playing for your kids while you wait.  Grrr....it was so upsetting.

Our pediatrician described it as "open season" once the vaccine gets into the office, so it will be interesting to see if we can ever get it. 

Hopefully we're immune if we just had it.  That would be a true miracle!

Thanks again Kelly! 

Lara

[Mom2Jack04]

Hi, I'm Melissa, I'm 31 years old, I have a 5 year old son and I am almost 8 months pregnant with a little girl we are naming Katelyn.

I wanted to join this group because I have been worried about the Swine Flu in my area, Buffalo, NY.  I'm thankful that my OB is a large practice and somehow managed to receive H1N1 flu shots last week, I was the second person to receive it through them.

From what I can tell they are one of the few to got the shots and mostly hospitals have received the mist.

Now I'm worried sick about my son.  He is very prone to getting colds, as most 4-5 year olds starting school are, but he also doesn't take medicine very well.  He is a very stubborn child and the ONLY medicine I am able to get in him when he is sick are the Strips for cold and cough....and even then I have to put it on a piece of candy and cover it with peanut butter, OR put it in his peanut butter sandwiches.

My son goes to school from my parents house and the bus drops him off there, it was a miracle I was able to get this arrangement....Buffalo City schools are a disaster and my parents live in a suburb with a much better school system, we hope to buy a house in a similiar suburb next year, but for now live in the city.  So, even though I am a SAHM/WAHM he goes to Nana's and Poppy's house everyday after school until about 7:30-8pm when my dad gets home from work.

Yesturday my son had to sleep over at their house because Poppy worked late (and my husband works untl 9-9:30 every night as well) and when Poppy did finaly get home my mom called me.  He was burning up from a fever, felt achy and is coughing.

So, I'm freaked out.  I know they are pretty much not even bothering to test for Swine Flu because Seasonal Flu is almost non-existant right now.  I'm scared my son will catch it from him.  I'm having my husband drop me off at their house in an hour and I'm bringing our son home as soon as he steps off the school bus.  I don't even want him in their house right now.  No one in the area has any H1N1 flu shots to give him, I've been on the phone all day, and with the 7-10days before it's even effective at this point it may be too late, he may get it from his grandpa (aka Poppy).

I'm thankful I got the H1N1 flu shot 10 days ago today so myself and my unborn baby will be protected, most likely, but it still worries me about my son.  If he gets the Swine Flu I would NEVER EVER be able to get anything like Tamiflu in him.  Whenever I try to get him to take any other medicine besides those strips he has a huge fit and usualy spits or throws it all up on me....it gets to the point where we try to hold him down and force medicine in him and I hate that.

I'm disinfecting our house from top to bottom, we've been using hand sanitizer and I just hope he didn't catch it from my dad. 

Is someone contagious before they show symptoms?  I've kept up with reading the CDC's site and their weekly FluView and such, I can't stand the misinformation out there about it.  I just want my family to be safe. 

[3greatkids751]

Hey ladies my name is Emily and I joined the group because I have so many concerns about the Swine Flu I don't know where to start.. First off I THINK my dd just had this junk.. She was visiting w/ her grandmother for the weekend and she came home on Sunday, she got out of her Grandmas car and looked HORRIBLE.. I'm serious, she looked like some Zombie child, I rushed her inside and took her temp because she felt soooo warm to the touch. It was 103 and rising..I immediately gave her Motrin and Tylenol together to bring it down. She had a HORRID headache and a really bad cough.. But the thing about it is she had been coughing previously because she's had a bit of a lingering cold going on for 3 weeks..

After we get her fever back to norm she starts acting like her old self again so I didn't think anything of it. Until nightfall came, I made dinner and she ate fine, then went to bed..slept 10 min maybe and woke up SCREAMING, I ran in there and she looked horrible once again.. I took her out of bed and got her in the car and rushed her to the ER.. We sat there maybe 6 hrs before being seen..it was a nightmare to say the least, All they did was look her over, took a few x-rays and send her on her way and told me to keep Motrin and Tylenol in her if need be.. This went on for 3 whole days, we saw 2 doctors and went through 3 bottles of Motrin.. she has a low grade fever now..its been down to 99 at night and 98.6 in the daytime.. She feels fine to go back to school..It was really strange though because she had a BIT of nausea but the doc's think it was just from post nasal drip and making her queasy then she had such migraines w/ this junk.. But the thing that scared me is the fever.. As soon as I would give her Motrin she would be fine..

It was the oddest thing.. It all started on Sunday and no one else in the house has gotten anything yet and I'm hoping it stays that way.. I go get my H1N1 shot tommorow at my OB dept.. I REALLY want my other kiddos to get it but I know its in short supply at the time.. I need to call my clinic and see if the have any of the reg avalible yet.. UGH this is the WORST I'm telling ya..   I really have no clue if she HAD it or not, I'm just at a loss..I have been dissinfecting the WHOLE house for the past week in hopes this doesn't spread if it IS it.. Plz pray for us.. =)  thnx mamas and take care and be safe and healthy!!

[briawnasmommy]

I wanted to reply because my cousin and her whole family just went through the swine flu. They actually diagnosed her son with croup and his first H1N1 test came back negative. Here's the thing the test is only %5o accurate so if it says negative you can still have it  and it's just not showing a positive yet. He was having a lot of trouble very high fevers 104.7 (he's 4 ys ) and his feet turned blue. They called 911 the hospital got his fever down and sent him home. She had to take him back to emergemcy 2 other times. At the same time she thought that she was getting a cold along w/ her 8 month old which it was h1n1 that her 4 yr old already had but they said it was croup. The baby had to be admitted for 2 days to be on fluids and they had to call an ambulance again for their 4 yr. old because his temperature went down to 93 degrees which is hypothermia. The whols family got hypothermia and stay in bed. I now some cases are very mild but it is possible she could have had h1n1 because a lot of the doctors actually aren't even testing they are just going by what they think and my cousin had to demand they be tested again. So you never know and Good luck. I myself are very confused about the vaccine I have a daughter who turns 3  December 22nd and I am 14 weeks pregnant. Although I am a stay at home mom it is still a concern because my husband is in sales and talks to a lot of people everyday. I think that it is very new and we don't know the long term effect or the effects it may have on the baby. It is also said that pregnant women have 6 times more the complications. My aunt is an infection specialist in LA and she really is encouraging me to get vaccinated but I am still so confused.

[boswellsgirl25]

In reply regarding croup, I have no doubt that the boy had H1N1 flu, as 75% of cases of croup are caused by flu virus (whether it be seasonal or H1N1).  My daughter had croup about 2 weeks ago.  Her pediatrician said "croup" I think because it was accurate, and I think he also didn't want to scare me by saying "oh yeah, she has the swine flu."  In her case, other than the asthma complications, she had it fairly mild.  Not a real high fever, but she was miserable for a few days and the breathing treatments had to be done along with steroids.  Thats never fun, since it lowers their immune protection.

[we2angels]

I'm Brandy, I was diagnosed with swine flu (though not from the nasal swab because they just don't do it anymore here) on october 23rd.  I am still dealing with the fall out from it!

I work at a hospital daycare and I know a few people were getting the flu because they were having to miss 7 days of work or more.  But the shots were MIA and though I have concerns about the safety of the vaccinations for the kids I knew I would get it.

Then I got the swine flu!  It started as a terrible cough and body aches.  It took 2 days for my fever to go above 100.4 and stay up so I technically had the flu the 21st.  Went to the doc on the 23rd and he sent me home with codeine cough syrup and that was it- despite me having asthma!

I felt horrible!  Breathing got worse and worse- went back to the doc on the week following and got Predinisone and then back again this past Saturday where he gave me antibiotics and told me if my breathing didn't improve it was to the hospital for me!  I felt like I was standing on a mountain top without an oxygen mask.  I scared people I talked to on the phone from the wheezing, woke up gasping for air, all of that!  typically I have very well controlled asthma but this stuff just seeps into your lungs and takes its toll!

My 2 yr old got the fever and I got her Tamiflu (no screwing around with that!) and withiin a day she was okay though she did get a random fever halloween night.  Husband stayed healthy.

I still have a sinus infection, chest pain, tiredness.... but my body hasn't recovered from what it went through yet!  Trying to rebuild my immune system via rest, vitamins, etc.  Was just told I have to get my swine flu shot for work (ugh!) but I will get the shot not the nasal after having the flu already.

I hope people can avoid this flu.  I wash my hands, keep myself healthy... but man did it take a toll!

[2girlsMom.MN]

Warning very long post:

First of all when people say swine flu is no big deal I find it very very insulting. It is  a big deal.

Here's my story with pictures:

Day1: My 8yr.old went to school was fine, came home from school had a playmate over was fine. At dinner time she complained her tummy hurt. After dinner I found her laying in bed, odd behavior I took her temp 102. She had a slight cough so I watched her carefully after giving her motrin. Cough got worse. Because she has been borderline asthmatic and needed a nebulizer in the past I called the 24/hour nurse line. Nurse said with her history they would like my daughter seen first thing in the morning.

Day 2: I bring her in, Dr. says h1n1, doesn't bother to actually test her. Because of daughter's wheezing history prescribes tamiflu. I bring daughter home she spikes 104 fever that won't break. Stays like that for hours. I give her  a bath it went up. Weird. I keep using our nebulizer and forcing her to drink. I had to at one point tell her you can end up hospitalized and even die if you won't drink. She just wouldn't drink. Tamiflu starts to have side effects. She has wild crazy nightmares, she's agitated, angry, and keeps giving me dirty looks whatever the side effects are better than h1n1 complications so I continue to give her tamiflu as directed.

Day 3: She wakes up with lowgrade fever.. it's Halloween she wants to trick or treat. How do you tell your kid no? We lay low all day... Fever never came back cough did remain and she's fine. I would call her case of h1n1 very mild and lucky

Day3: into Day:4 Baby wakes up at 2am with 102 fever. My baby is 13mos. and was also a preemie with borderline asthma. I call nurse line they get us a appt. on a Sunday never heard of that but AWESOME. We see pediatrician who says h1n1. Baby get's tamiflu. Later in day baby's temp spikes to 104.5 and wont' come down, I give her a bath she's shivering it dropped 1 degree. Her cough is pretty rough and dry.

Day5:  Same stuff fevers from 103-100 not much had changed

Day6: She seems fine, no fever bouncing off the walls running around

Day7: Her cough got aggressively bad overnight into the morning, She's hacking a lung, coughing, crying, vomitting, screaming. BAD I take her back to pediatrician.She now has pnumonia and is put on a antibiotic.////As the day goes on she get's worse and worse. She is having coughing fits and gasping for air. I take her to the ER..They were concerned enough to rush us into a exam room and skipped the waiting room. Her oxygen is great. Dr. orders a xray, it comes back with inflammation he says it's not pnumonia it's bronchitis and she's having asthma attacks. He prescribes a steroid predinsolone or something. We go home steroid is working her cough is looser and she sleeps much better.

Day8: That's today... She's happier, her cough is 10x better, she's on tamiflu, antibiotic, nebulizer with albuterol 4x a day and this steroid predisolone or whatever I can't spell. She is now refusing to open her mouth for meds. I am getting them in with a fight however. She has been sleepy the entire day. She has never slept like this before. She has only been awake today maybe 3-4 hours total. All she wants to do is sleep. She is still fever free and happy so not to concerned. She is drinking fine but has no appetite.  I guess we'll see where we go from here.

My fiance and I have had the sore throat, cough, icky feeling slight low grade fevers but that's it so far.

Here's some pics of my girls. Bryana is 8 and Savannah is 13mos. Both were premature and both are "wheezers" never been officially diagnosed with asthma. I wanted the h1n1 vaccine for both my girls but never got it. Swine flu hit my girls before they could hit it.  While in the pediatrician's office yesterday the mom in front of me was whining to the receptionist about when can she bring her 3 kids back for their SECOND swine flu vax. I wanted to snap. Are you kidding me some of us never even got the chance for a first vax. I donot think this is a government conspiracy but I am outraged that this could have been prevented more and how the President's dear daughter's got vaxed but mine couldn't. Thank GOD I have good insurance too.

My kids before Swine Flu:

Here is Bryana sick. The worst part for her was the embarassment of wearing a mask.

Here is Big Sister feeling better holding the baby (104 fever) so mom can cook dinner

Here's my baby 13mos.she apparently hated the mask as much as her sister

Same day later in the ER

Sorry if that's alot of pictures. I tend to document and take pictures of everything my kids do. I was very very curious in the past weeks about swine flu, what to look for, how would I know if my kids had it, what was it like for most people. I knew it was a matter of time before we caught it so I tried to be cautious and prepared. I bought thermometor's, motrin, tylenol, vicks vapor rub you name it. So if my post helps or gives someone worried out there a visual then it's worth it. Honestly the swine flu was not that horrible but could have been with my older child not life threatening atleast. She did have the flu at age2 and was way worse. Since then we are religious about flu shots. Now my baby she is scaring me has had it way worse yet I understand there are kids alot worse than her and are admidted to the hospital on oxygen or have even die and my heart goes out to those families. For those you dont' want to vaccinate why would you put your children through what my children have been put through why?

I think Tamiflu, quick action by myself, and good dr.'s had a big part of my kids not ending up in the hospital or worse.

[stardreamerrita]

my 5 year old could not get the flu shot cause its made of eggs and she is allergic  well now she has the h1n1 flu and on top of that she has pneumonia and temp 3 days of 103.9 and 1 night od 104.6  vomiting can not eat  sick sick sick    i need prayers  and on top of that 2 times while at the er her oxygen level went down  they sent us home after they get her temp to 102.5 ans oxygen level to normal  its only been sence wed  nov. 4  and was told she might get worse if she does she will be admitted  the 1st night on tamiflu she had a bad dream  and came downstairs  and looked at me said mommy you ok you all blood  her temop was 104.8  back to the er  we went  she was seeing things not there screaming crying told the nurse its getting her the nurse said whats getting you she pointed to the pic on the wall  that  go away screaming   they calmed her down temp went down 103.8  it stays at that  

now my dad got sick from driving us to the hospital 3 times but they told him cause he waited 48 hours he is to late for the meds and he has heart problems so in the next few days they told him if he is worse he will be admitted  cause he has heart problems

 there is alot more but i made it short