Posted on 10/12/2009 7:11:44 AM PDT by Scythian
Golly gee, I recall several seasons when it seemed like everyone I knew had the flu. Don’t remember the dogs and cats living together hysteria in those times.
“Since everybody is “on the lookout”, people are reporting to their doctors for every little sniffle. Thus, we are finding a lot more “flu” cases than usual, when most people just stayed home for a day or so and never told anybody what they had.”
Last year I had a flu bug that knocked my on my arse for three days. I just holed up and slept the whole time. All my friends were telling me “You’d better go to the doctor”. I didn’t and it got better. Imagine that.
H1N1 Already Taking Its Toll In Metro Atlanta
One of the area’s foremost infectious disease doctors says what he has already seen of h-1-n-1, tells him this is a dangerous and deadly disease.
He also says we will need every weapon at our disposal to fight it.
John Boudrot has a new nickname.
“Ten percent!”
That’s what the doctors at Dekalb Medical Center called him as they treated him for H1N1 flu in early September.
“They had given me a ten percent chance of survival” Boudrot recalled, “one night in the I.C.U. when things weren’t looking very good.”
That Boudrot is alive today is the result of intensive care...intangibles...and infectious disease expert doctor Robin Dretler.
“He was as sick as you can get and survive” said Dr. Dretler.
Dretler was able to get government permission to use an experimental drug to treat John Boudrot....extraordinary measures for an extraordinary time.
“We have seen illness” Dr. Dretler, “like I’ve never seen in my thirty years of medicine.”
Dretler says flu just doesn’t appear this time of year.
But it has already...and ferociously.
“We’ve had five pregnant women that we’ve hospitalized” Dr. Dretler said.” Three who went on ventilators...two who came in so late that they died very promptly.”
Doctor Dretler says that unless Americans embrace the idea of getting the H1N1 vaccine, there could be a million and a half deaths in the U.S. by the time the H1N1 flu has run its course.
The H1N1 shots should arrive in metro Atlanta next week.
John Boudrot waited a week before he went to the hospital.
Another day and he would’ve died.
That’s why doctor Robin Dretler is adamant about getting the vaccine.
“The risk of not getting the vaccine in this situation” said Dr. Dretler, “is a thousand times greater than the risk of getting the vaccine.”
After a month in an induced coma John Boudrot is home...just barely able to do things for himself.
He is grateful for his doctors and the support of his friends and family.
He is just beginning to understand what he’s been through.
“I’m just happy to be here” said John Boudrot.”
http://www.11alive.com/news/national/story.aspx?storyid=136259&catid=13
I wonder if they flu shots?
Thankfully for most of us, there is still free will and some element of self-determination.
The only flu that is out there (in the U.S.) is the swine flu. If you have the flu - it is the swine flu.
One thing that makes it more worrisome is that it has a higher rate of infection. Even though the death rate is the same as the regular flu - a higher percentage of the population will be infected - so more deaths.
Also, the fact that young adults and children have a higher death rate than the normal flu which kills off the aged. At the risk of sounding like a Obama Health Guidance Counselor - it is somehow easier to take the death of an elderly parent than it is an active 16 year old kid. Although I think that 3/4 of the deaths have been in kids with some other problem - asthma, diabetes, etc.
Still not convinced of the vaccination - sounds like it was hurried up and bypassed many of the safety standards. But, you can bet that they will use this flu to promote more gov’t involvement in healthcare, etc.
“...done tests of all the germs that are present on shopping carts and the results have been astounding.”
I almost can’t stand to go to Costco anymore and see folks pushing their carts, eating the taste samples, licking their fingers, and then looking at the label of the can of soup I was going to buy.
I never stop at those samples anyways - or let my kids (My wife does though). They block the aisles, the eaters block the rest of the aisle - the whole thing just really makes me mad. (Hmmm - perhaps if I could make up a fake letter from the CDC banning all tasting tables....)
What kind of response was that? It's obvious you missed the point being made. I was AFFIRMING your method, i.e. that we need to get dosed to stay healthy.
Sorry about that, my brain must have been working a little slow last night.
Lots of kids are sick at my kids school. The school sent out a letter saying that there were confirmed cases of H1N1.
One of my daughter’s friends has had a fever of 104 for about 4 days. Another friend was out of school for 2 weeks.
In the high school last week, 200 out of 1200 kids were out sick.
I’ve never seen so many kids out of school at one time.
My daughters have always gotten lots of colds. They almost died of a respiratory virus when they were babies.
One of my daughters has bad asthma with colds/flu. She’s out for about 2 weeks with a cold due to the asthma. She is a hand-sanitizer advocate. Last year, she was getting teased about washing her hands so much. She’d put up with the teasing, and still washed her hands.
I think the ones that do get sick a lot are the ones that wash their hands a lot. They know they are susceptible, so they are doing what they can to avoid getting sick.
We have an athlete in the house too, and I don’t think the reason it goes through teams is because parents take sick kids to practice. I am thinking it spreads more because kids at play actually TOUCH each other and breathe on each other, share the same ball, equipment.
The same thing is happening here in SoCal as well. I know so many people who have it, and possibly someone in my house coming down with it tonight. It’s not fun but it’s not that bad.
With about 1000 mg of Vitamic C and 2000 units of Vitamin D a day, plus some zinc lozenges daily, the flu’s duration will be shortened, without the nausea of Tamiflu.
There can be a couple of bad nights with coughing and breathing plagued, and fever is not fun, but during the day, rest mixed with TV watching gets them through.
Everyone I talk to all day long either just had it, has a kid who has it, or is talking about someone else who has it. It’s ALL OVER here. No one is deathly ill. Most people seem well but weak after 3 days.
My daughters have one friend who has missed 2 weeks of school, and another friend who has had 104 fever for about 5 days. That doesn’t sound so mild to me. Others have had it worse.
My son is in a play this week and next week. So many kids have been sick. If he can hold out another week, I’ll be happy.
He says he has a habit of putting hand sanitizer on before he gets on stage, and when he comes off stage.
I also carry hand sanitizer in the car. When the get in, it goes on their hands.
We’ve been on several cruise ships, and I told them we are in cruise ship mode using lots of hand sanitizer.
In any event, the combination of it being "widespread" and the little we've seen of serious complications means that within a month or so most people will have been exposed to it and we'll move on.
It sucked.
It's gone now.
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