Monday, October 26, 2009

H1N1...WHAT???????

H1N1...WHAT?????????

Have you ever made the statement "it won't happen to us"? Well so have I. I was wrong. Dead wrong. Over the past two weeks I have been sick. Very sick. The kind of sick that renders a person unable to talk, walk, stand or take care of my own kids sick. It was the worst I have ever felt. It started out as what I thought was a sinus infection. Stuffy head, congestion and all the classic signs of a fall cold. Than it took a dangerous turn. About a week into my illness I realized I wasn't getting better. In fact I was getting worse. My muscles where fatigued, my extremities swollen, my chest congested and a raging fever. I was unable to stand for more than a few seconds and the coughing was...unbearable. The doctor sent me in for tests thinking it was a respiratory infection that manifested into pneumonia. Nope, no such luck. in the mean time the children, who have been on antibiotics for ear infections, began falling ill. First Emerson. His fever, like mine rose above 104. He was lethargic and groggy. Several times I had to put him in a cool bath to lower his body temperature. We where both just so sick.

I came to the realization that we had contracted the flu while at the hospital. You see Emerson was playing in my room a few days prior to getting sick. He was on my bed while I was putting away laundry. He started throwing pillows off my bed, which only meant one thing. He was going to jump on them. This is standard practice in my house. They all do it. After throwing most of the pillows off my bed he jumped, and missed! He landed on his ankle and immediately began screaming. I thought for sure he broke it. Within a few hours I took him to the ER. They where wonderful. They saw to him rather quickly and we where out of their with a diagnosis of a sprained ankle. Although I was sick at the time. I had no idea what was in store for my little family.

Within a few days we would come to realize, we had the flu....THE SWINE FLU! We all tested positive! Not us! Not my little family!

Within days of this visit we all started falling ill. First me, than Emerson, Max and Alex followed quickly as did Austin, Griffin and David. The pain was horrible. Muscle aches like I have never had and lets face it, my pain tolerance is HUGE! I did carry 3 human beings inside of me after all! I knew the flu was terrible but I never imagined it being this terrible. The doctors started my family on Tamiflu. This is really the only flu treatment out there. Within a few days my family was feeling better. Thank God. I on the other hand am still under the weather. I was unable to take the Tamiflu because it was not discovered I had the flu right away. Now here we are over a week since our flu symptoms started and we are on the mend. The fevers have all broke and the body aches have started to subside. There is still evidence of sickness through the debilitating coughing and congestion but we seem to be healing slowly and surely!

I know we contracted it while in the hospital. Our immune systems where compromised due to sinus and ear infections. It's a scary thought since we have read the papers and seen the news like everyone else. It's a horrible flu. The worst in history and we survived. We owe it all to our wonderful doctors and the good Lord above that saw to it that we survived. Thanks to all our friends and family who where concerned and who prayed for us. We will be back to our normal crazy Stinner Family antics in no time! Remember, don't say it can't happen to you. It can, and it might. Take all the precautions you can. YOU DO NOT WANT THIS FLU! We where lucky. None of us where hospitalized, none of us died. That doesn't mean you can't get it worse than we did. Stay safe everyone and be proactive!