I'm treating it like I do the normal seasonal flu. I used to catch the flu every year, sometimes twice, but now that I really am a grownup it doesn't happen. My doctor demands a flu shot every year but I don't think I have ever gotten one. I haven't had the flu since high school and that was over 35 years ago.

But then I am not raising children, nor do I participate in anything that involves large groups of people on a daily basis (my job puts me in a building with only 6-8 people) so I rarely catch a cold. Now most of my co-workers do have houses filled with kids and they do bring stuff to work. The owner of the company will catch anything so he has a verbal smack down for anyone coming to work with a cough or the sniffles. And this company is very good about letting people work from home.

I remember as a child staying home all summer during the major polio outbreak: no swimming, no movies, no visiting friends. Lucky I had two older sisters to annoy, I mean play with! Seriously, people should plan to curtail activities (if they can) should the flu become a pandemic. I, as an older person, do get the flu shots each year but not too early, as they wear off, and the usual worse time here is in February. I try to keep my pantry stocked with a few things so that if we cannot go to the store we can survive for a week or so. Having said that, I am not prepared for a major stay-at-home.

Hubbie was big in Boy Scouts as an adult leader, so we have things that will help in case of a power outage, too, but we have never been marooned more than five days. I guess I should buy some more canned soups as our veggie garden will be finished by the time flu season rolls around. We do keep lots of food in the freezer, but even tho' I lived through the fallout shelter time, I was not thinking along those lines with this flu. I will have to think about it more and perhaps get more "supplies" in.

Thanks for the expressed concern.

I'll get the flu shot when it comes out. Always do, as i have athsma. We keep a pretty well stocked pantry as well as a standalone freezer stocked, so if worst came to worst we could survive for a week or 2. If the electric goes off we're in trouble, though, not only because of the freezers but also because we are on a well and have no water if there's no electric. My kids have been in school 2 weeks already and i haven't heard much news about how they would handle it if it came to pass. Today on the news they are saying not to shut schools too soon. As long as the strain stays mild that seems prudent to me. Certainly if it gets more virulent, they need to quarantine, etc, and we'll be in for a rough ride. Here's hoping it stays mild so that most folks can gain immunity via shots or getting it so that if it does intensify later people will be somewhat more resistant.

TV reported tonight that Graham Elemen. School (between Greensboro and Durham/Chapel Hill) will be closed for two days for a clean up. Children have been falling ill, but they don't know if it is the swine flu or not, just taking precautions.

I remember as a kid people's homes being quarantined, but I don't remember for what. I also remember my mother taking us kids to peoples's homes where a kid was sick to expose us to the "kid's" diseases, as they believed it was safer to get them as children. I know I had every one of them, both kinds of measles, mumps on both sides, etc... lol

Last time I got the flu it turned into pneumonia (a couple years ago). Hadn't had the flu in a LOT of years, but that one kicked my butt! It's not the flu that gets us it's those secondary infections. Having studied some of the pan/epidemics as a part of my genealogy research it was always the secondary infections that got people too. It would wipe out whole families. The thing with this flu is it's actually harder on young healthy adults (read about cytokine storms - I think that's at least close on the spelling). With that a healthy immune system is actually a part of the problem.

My son ask me what I thought about it all with his air travels and such and I told him to just use good sense. Keep your hands away from your face, wash your hands and by all means carry a mask and if things were get bad use it! He's already been in airports were people were using them last winter. We also step up a multi vitamin and vitamin 'C' in the winter. Use to step it up the 1st day of school and my kids were rarely sick, but when they were I had no qualms about keeping them home! Use to drive me nuts for the schools to have those "no days missed attendance awards" which just caused a lot of kids and their parents to send kids no matter how sick they were and then we wonder why kids are always sick?!

So yeah, I take it serious, but I'm an old Scout mom and I always believe in a certain amount of being prepared for the what ifs and the rest is in God's hands. I look to my grandparent's generation. They were always prepared for hard times, lost jobs, bad weather, bad growing season, an injury that put you down for a time, etc... Things just happen! Even with all our modern technology that hasn't changed.

Unfortunately, it's already been confirmed in my daughter's school. There have been at least 6 cases. She's been in about a month already becaus ethey are modified year round. I was hoping that we could get the vaccine before it made the rounds, but it looks like it might get to us before then. So far, no signs, but at least one of her friends has had it.

I'm worried because although i'm a healthy adult, i have athsma and allergies- which means i'm prone to respiratory stuff anyhow, and my immune system is already on high alert and overreacts. I don't know what that means for the cytokine storms, but it doesn't seem good to me. So i am definitely worried, but not going nuts.

My son is still recovering from a cold that was odd- pretty sure it wasn't flu- there was no fever, for example, but he did have a lot of coughing and he was wheezing. One bad day on the 3rd day he was sick, and it settled down after that. Judicious use of my inhaler helped tremendously that day and he hasn't needed it since. He's had it about a week & 1/2 now with some residual deep cough (he was hacking last night). I can't recall him ever having a cold or virus that caused wheezing before, but it showed symptoms of cold, not flu, so i guess it was just a nasty cold. He really wasn't that sick other than the one day. He's still a bit worn out though. He's been taking extra vit c. He caught it at school (of course).

My daughter is recovering from something similar Tammy and what's surprising is her husband didn't catch it and he catches EVERYTHING and also has asthma. I think it was hitting her last Sunday night as we were returning from Baltimore and by Monday she was really sick with the nasty cold. When it headed for her chest I got her on some mucinex and that really helped to break it up before it got a deep hold in there.

We were all (Don, Eric and myself) in an enclosed vehicle with her for over 12 hours (minus the breakdown time) and in a hotel room for several days before that, so I'm really surprised that none of the rest of us have come down with it. That's just too weird.

After that last round of flu/pneumonia I'm very wary of colds never mind this flu. Just a FYI for ya,,, there was a facebook friend from Australia that had a son come down with it and she has asthma and allergies too and what they did was she quarantined herself in her bedroom (with the laptop, lol) and the son had to stay in his for the duration. Last I heard she never got it and he's ok now. There have been a couple others on there with family members get it, but they are all ok. I think diagnosing it early on is going to be one of the key ways to fight it.

That cytokine storm (others refer to the effects as a cascade) Tam refers to relate to the overreaction of ones immune system to the adjuvant added to the vaccine. The overreaction causes your immune defenses to not be able to differentiate between flu virus and the surrounding cells.

Another note...there is a marked percentage of children who are infected with H1N1 but exhibit NO FEVER so that doesn't define what is flu and what is a common cold.

That's a scary aspect of this flu in kids and why it will spread so widely because we rely on fever to decide when to keep our kids out of school.
Then there are the adenoviruses that persist not for days but for weeks on surfaces kids have touched.
Suffice, our kids are our superspreaders and that's why WHO wants them immunized ASAP with the two-part 2 weeks apart vaccine. Trouble is, will there be a sufficiency of vaccine so the second shot is available on time? If you even want to risk the vaccine. The Feds are pushing the vaccine makers to rush the process and bypass some of the normal test procedures that would determine exact dosages.
That's pretty scary too.
Our local TV program put a streaming message across the top of the screen night before last supposedly as a test required by law. I suspect that will be used for emergency epidemic announcements because it was different than the normal streaming announcements at the bottom of the screen for weather issues,Amber alerts etc..

Speaking of Amber alerts, am I the only one who thinks they COULD use a person who speaks clear,unaccented English?? It always sounds like a pOliceman from Gastonia who barely got his GED before he decided to become a patrolman. I hope that doesn't offend anyone here but these
announcements need to be understood. I have a good ear for any accented English but this guy just mumbles. Just a rant.

And when we get past this flu nightmare, think maybe the scientists and virologists can maybe work on a cure for adenoviruses 36 and 37 ??? The Obesity Viruses that actually cause pre-fat adult stem cells to absorb more fat than a standard fat cell.

See, for some people there is a medical basis for otherwise unexplained obesity.

Yeah, unfortunately after i took him to the doc's today, my son does have some form of flu, but i don't know if it's swine. They tested with a swab (quick test) but not the blood test. The reason i took him was yesterday he ran a fever suddenly in the afternoon and said his stomach was hurting. Then is morn he complained about sore throat, so i figured it could be a) strep, b) a secondary infection getting going and causing the fever (he was coughing a lot again), or c) flu. The doc wasn't very helpful as to whether he'd had flu all along and it had gotten worse or he'd managed to pick up a flu on top of a cold. Frankly, the doc had terrible bedside manner overall and i hope we don't have to see him again. He just recommended tamiflu, which i'd read really hasn't helped that much, and when i called around, found out was $100. No way we can afford that right now. So he'll have to let it run its course. He was feverish again in afternoon, but by eve it was gone again. So we'll just wait and see how he's doing. He definitely felt better today with the extra rest until the fever kicked in again, and even then was better than yest. I hate him missing school- because of the block schedule he's on every day he misses is like missing 2 days. Real good way to get behind very fast. To make matters worse, he has some poison ivy from when he felt better the other day & was out weed whacking. Part of it's on his neck because he was scratching skeeter bites. So he looks a fright, poor kid. And tomorrow's our anniversary, which we had planned to spend together, alone, but looks like that's not happening. Oh well. I just want him to get better. So far (KNOCK ON WOOD) nobody else has shown any signs/symptoms at all.

Dottie- i would love to see them do some research on those adenoviruses. i remember reading about that but for some reason no one else did. I was beginning to think i'd made it up. people look at you like you're crazy when you tell them they discovered that a virus can make you fat.

How is his appetite,Tam? Think you get get him to take some probiotics like Culturelle? It's a capsule. Failing that, even a good yogurt will help beef up the gut flora.
I've read that a good part of our immune system occurs in the GI tract. Probiotics plus Vitamin D supplements (might check mercola.com (Dr.Mercola's website) for other suggestions.

Thanks for the tips! Both my kids eat scads of yogurt, so we're probably ok there. His appetite has remained fairly good. He only at e a little yest when he was hottest, but ate well at the other meals. Today his fever stayed very low- under 100, so i think he's on the mend. He's still coughing and sniffling, and the ivy rash looks dreadful, but he's getting better. We have prescript cream for the ivy rash and it is bypassing the weeping stage to dry up, so it's working even though it's swollen now. He was aghast when i said it'd still be on his neck a week or so, and look red longer, but that's the reality. He looks like he had an intensive makeout session!! :) Maybe next time he'll be more careful.

Everyone will eventually get H1N1. It is the flu this year. We will get a new flu next year. Every year it mutates and rearranges a little. This time is bad, becasue current flu vaccine (every year a guess at next year's flu compostion) has zero coverage for H1N1 and also no one has prior year partial coverage. Quarantine is not practical, and probably only delays eventuality. Stay otherwise healthy. Treat symptoms appropriately. It's not as lethal as they first suspected it might be.

Keegan's feeling so much better now! And the ivy has faded considerably. Thanks for all the advice, etc, guys!

Two little ones from a nbrhood family were (supposedly) confirmed by rapid id test but I have serious doubts. The kids bounced back after 18 hours and resumed play with their friends (how stupid..H1N1 virus..esp in kids who tend toward pneumo and intestinal symptoms..sheds for at least 10 days.
Anyway, no one else in the nbrhood has come down with it so I don't think it was H1N1.

Was just talking to a friend of mine who's daughter and granddaughter have the flu. The school sent the child home, the mom called the doc but the doc refused to see the child. So how are they supposed to know which flu it is?

Dottie, I did hear that some kids are bouncing back within 3 days of it and then returning to school, thereby spreading it, but the docs are saying to keep them home for the entire week even if they feel fine.

....and an article I ran across.
Swine flu victim's muscles 'melted'

Adam Cresswell, Health editor
Article from: The Australian
October 23, 2009

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...4-2702,00.html

Adam wasn't the only one but the one who survived and bounced back without damage to his heart muscles. Apparently it's an odd autoimmune response but one that ought to be added to the list of possible symptoms..

The Aussies are just beginning to get the seasonal flu but it is predominant now in Africa (according to a post and tracking map in flutrackers.com) Only a few cases cultured and typed here in the USA of seasonal H3 flu so it's likely your friend's family either has H1N1 or some other influenza-like illness(ILI). There's all sorts of respiratory viruses out there but with H1N1, it starts being contagious a day before you feel the symptoms and for several days after the end of the symptoms. Kids seem to be mostly bouncing back after a couple of days but they are still contagious and , unfortunately, parents have to get back to work.

digger, I think you hit on the Catch-22 that might be preventing MSM and the CDC from broadcasting that kids are still contagious a week after the end of symptoms.
Nobody wants to upset the fragile upturn of business recovery by making parents stay home with essentially well (although still contagious) children for another week.

So, the virus continues onward.