What a weekend we have had. It was not the Thanksgiving we were anticipating, nor the way we planned to celebrate our son’s 18 month birthday.
On Friday, my son came down with a fever. He has had a bad cough and cold for about a week, so I was thinking that he was just entering a new phase of his cold. I started dosing him with Motrin and Tylenol which was bringing down the fever. On Sunday, he became lethargic: was not speaking, was not able to stand or walk and was not eating. We were at a Thanksgiving celebration when he started sleeping non stop. Off we went to the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) where he was checked for pneumonia and swabbed for H1N1. Within hours, the lab called back with positive results for Flu A (potential H1N1). Still lethargic and on his 3rd day of not eating, off I went to pick up his Tamiflu prescription from the pharmacy. Today is his second day on the medication and he is perking up. He wants to play for short spurts, is trying to walk and nibbling here and there.
This being said, can I just say that H1N1 is JUST a flu. It is this year’s flu WITH a name- That is all! I am quite sure that my son would have needed medical help with any other flu as well. I can speak from experience that this thing is being blown out of proportion. I found that the doctor that we saw and the pharmacist were both realistic about the flu and its properties, but the support staff, such as the intake people were overly dramatic, which was causing me to start worrying more than I should have been. I understand that it is a pandemic and that there are people that will not be able to tolerate H1N1 well, but this is the case with most other flues as well.
Fever along with coughing are the symptom giveaways for H1N1- Check the Health Canada website out for more information including symptoms, when to call the doctor, and myths and truths about H1N1.
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