With a Grateful Heart

My boy is has turned the corner and is doing much better.

Things I am thankful for today:

• God, in so many ways, but especially for answer to prayer
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• The improved health of my son
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• Continued health of my family and myself
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• Support and prayers of my family
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• Support and prays of my blog friends and friends in real life :)
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• Excellent, responsive medical professionals
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• Tamiflu-I attribute the significant decrease in his symptom so quickly to getting this in his system about 12 hours after the onset of his symptoms. (He went from seemingly well to very ill within 7 hours)
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• Flu.gov in helping me manage my boy’s illness at home

Here is how I managed his flu at home, we are an at-risk (asthmatic) family, so it was important that we took good flu precautions:

First of all this link helped me tremendously:

http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/guidance_homecare.htm

He was in his bedroom for 2 days with me (either 6 feet away or with a mask) as his only caregiver, in order to prevent flu transmission to the rest of the family.

I am allowing him free range of the house again as his fever has been below 100.7 for 24 hours. He will have significant reduction in his viral shed now.

“CDC recommends that you stay home for at least 24 hours after your fever (100°F or 37.8°C) is gone except to get medical care or for other things you have to do and no one else can do for you. (Your fever should be gone without the use of a fever-reducing medicine, such as Tylenol®.) You should stay home from work, school, travel, shopping, social events, and public gatherings.”

He will still need to cough and sneeze into tissues, have good hand hygeine, and stay out of my kitchen (my rule) until he has full resolution of symptoms.

*Although my son did have a flu, it is not certain that it was H1N1. He was treated as if he had H1N1, but individual confirmations are not being done. I will be getting my son the H1N1 vaccine as soon as he is well and it is available. My family is in the high risk group for complications for H1N1. We will all be vaccinated.

Here is a link to help you know if it is a cold or a flu:

http://flu.gov/individualfamily/about/symptoms/index.html

Because I am a heath care provider I received my H1N1 vaccine yesterday- It will help me to protect my vulnerable family and my pregnant patients by helping me to avoid the H1N1 flu, once my H1N1 immunity is established (2 weeks according to flu.gov)

Are you at risk?

People at High Risk for Developing Flu-Related Complications

• Children younger than 5, but especially children younger than 2 years old
• Adults 65 years of age and older
• Pregnant women

People who have medical conditions including:

• Asthma
• Neurological and neurodevelopmental conditions [including disorders of the brain, spinal cord, peripheral nerve, and muscle such as cerebral palsy, epilepsy (seizure disorders), stroke, intellectual disability (mental retardation), moderate to severe developmental delay, muscular dystrophy, or spinal cord injury].
• Chronic lung disease (such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease [COPD] and cystic fibrosis)
• Heart disease (such as congenital heart disease, congestive heart failure and coronary artery disease)
• Blood disorders (such as sickle cell disease)
• Endocrine disorders (such as diabetes mellitus)
• Kidney disorders
• Liver disorders
• Metabolic disorders (such as inherited metabolic disorders and mitochondrial disorders)
• Weakened immune system due to disease or medication (such as people with HIV or AIDS, or cancer, or those on chronic steroids)