H1N1 Reactions in New England

[Niels Bohr 72]

[NickD 203]

As a child of a doctor, I NEVER go to the doctor. (You know what they say about the cobler's children . . .) And I've only had one case of the flu in my life, and that was a "new" strain they called the "Italian flu" and it was an epidemic in Europe while I was there.

But I'm very nervous about the H1N1. My daughter has pretty severe asthma,. The older I get, the more morbid I get, and since having a child, this has become even more pronounced. Every time I feel complaisant about the flu (the sort of thing I would normally think was just a normal, immune-building experience that every child has to go through) I imagine the parents of all those children who have died (in this epidemic and the previous epidemics) who I'm sure never thought it would happen to their child. It scares the sh*t out of me!!!!!!. The vaccine scare the sh*t out of me too, but just a little bit less.

By the way, they aren't doing tests for the H1N1. They are testing for type A. If you test positive for type A, they are assuming it is H1N1, so people who have "had" H1N1, may have only had another type A flu. If it is serious, they might test for H1N1.

At our clinic, doing a nose swab to get the sample, they say it's for H1N1, but what do I know, but I trust them. Peds has been way overcrowded with kids, they gave my wife the H1N1 shot, but after she had H1N1, healthcare workers plus kids are the first ones to get it.