H1N1 meets the Shafers

This is a longy, but some people have asked for the scoop and here it is:

The last full day of our vacation (Friday), both Doug and I started to feel really tired and uncomfortable. I’d started losing my voice the day before (Thursday), but didn’t really start to feel crappy until that next day. We enjoyed a day at the beach with the fam, but when we went back to our room to shower the other flu symptoms hit us really suddenly. We spent that night in our room with the chills, body aches, and fevers (we didn’t have a thermometer, but I’m pretty certain we were feverish).

We’d heard that there were others in the family (including a baby niece) and the vicinity who’d been told by doctors they had swine flu, so I had a bit of a meltdown worrying what this was doing to the Mooch. But it just felt like an annoying flu, and it never did feel out of control. It wasn’t more painful, more uncomfortable, or more interesting than a flu.

I considered visiting the doctor on the ship, but I couldn’t deny that I really didn’t feel THAT bad. With the help of a priesthood blessing, we decided that if I didn’t feel better the next day, we’d visit a clinic once we were back on land just to be sure all was well.

Both of us felt better the next day (Saturday). We still had to drive 11 hours from Orlando back home (ugh), so we decided we’d get a hotel and find a clinic somewhere if we needed to. But we ended up making the whole drive that day. It was long and miserable, but we felt so much better than the night before. We knew H1N1 could be really dangerous for pregnant women, so we called a doctor back in Richmond along the way. We were told that I only needed to come in that day if I wasn’t keeping food down or if I had a long, lingering fever. They didn’t seem too worried about it, even knowing I was pregnant.

I didn’t seem to have a fever at all that day and I was keeping food and water down fine, but we saw a doctor the next day (Sunday) just to make sure I was okay. We even got to wear masks in the waiting room. They did a throat test for strep and a nasal test for the flu. The flu test came back positive, and I asked the doctor, “So that's the seasonal flu?” And she casually said, “Oh no, it’s probably the swine flu.” Oh. Good to know.

She really didn’t seem to think it was a problem. My body seemed to be handling it fine, getting rid of it on my own. The doctor’s only concern was watching for pneumonia, so she prescribed me an antiobiotic. She also said stay away from other people until it’s been 24 hours after the last fever (which had probably been Friday night, maybe early Saturday morning).

I had a regular appointment with my OB the next morning, and he wasn’t worried about it either. He told me to rest, drink fluids, and look for signs of pneumonia. He said for 99% of the population, the swine flu is just going to be a flu. The other 1% need to be alert and aware of their bodies, but there’s no reason to panic.

So in our experience? The swine flu is a flu. It’s not fun, but no flu is. Even pregnant, the medical professionals around me were not worried either. Fortunately my body was fighting it itself, and it was doing a fine job (thanks, body).

I realize we were really blessed and I’d hate to ask for some tragic twist of fate, but I think most of us need to stop letting H1N1 scare us so much. The media knows this is a great story (because a new flu is noteworthy, after all), but I think they’re abusing the system and only pointing out the worst cases out there. I seriously doubt the media is giving us a fair sampling of how most people will react to this.

So keep washing your hands, listen to your doctors, get the vaccine, and don’t freak out. That’s what we learned.