Why all the fuss? Influenza.

allnurses Guide · Dec 14, 2003

This is an interesting thread . . . I was watching the news earlier and there was a story about whole families camping out waiting to get flu shots. My kids asked me what the deal was. I told them not to worry, there is flu every year and it seemed hyped to me.

I'm not being callous . . . I just think that we scare the public out of all proportion. But I would never give a mom a hard time for bringing her child into the ER because of a fever and her fears.

I unintentionally missed my flu shot this year for the first time in 8 years. None of my kids have ever gotten one. Nor my husband. I always just figured as a health care worker, I was exposed more.

I am all for education . . . but the fear factor can be overdone.

steph

Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN · Dec 14, 2003

"This years' flu is no different that any other years' flu."

If i'm not mistaken, the strain changes over time.

Long Term Care Columnist / Guide · Dec 14, 2003

I'm just surprised the OP isn't blaming the outbreak on us fatties. :mad:

OK, meow. ^..^ Just give me my milk in a saucer and I'll shut up now.

Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN · Dec 14, 2003

Originally posted by mjlrn97
I'm just surprised the OP isn't blaming the outbreak on us fatties.

OK, meow. ^..^ Just give me my milk in a saucer and I'll shut up now.

I saw that one comin', lol

allnurses Guide · Dec 14, 2003

Originally posted by mjlrn97
I'm just surprised the OP isn't blaming the outbreak on us fatties.

OK, meow. ^..^ Just give me my milk in a saucer and I'll shut up now.

Marla . . . . you just made me spit out my sip of wine . . . .:chuckle :roll

steph

p.s. for snacking tonight while watching SNL, ate cheese and salami . . . DID YOU SEE THE SKIT about Al Gore and Howard Dean? Oh my gosh, it was hilarious.

Long Term Care Columnist / Guide · Dec 14, 2003

Sorry about the wine, steph!

Nope, didn't have a chance to watch any TV tonight......I just got home from work, where the flu and its cousin, pneumonia, have made inroads on even the young people. I admitted a 25-year-old tonight who barks like a seal when she coughs.....lungs sounded like a rusty bellows, sats were in the 80s on room air, and this kid was telling me she'd never been sick like this before in her life. This is NOT good. So far, every member of my family, except for the 12-year-old and myself, have been sick with some respiratory illness or another.......my 15-year-old son just came down with it today, and HIS lungs sound like crap too. He's an asthmatic like his father, brother and me, and everything the boy gets goes straight to his chest.

Danged kid........he just got suspended from school for 3 days because he allowed his pelican mouth to overload his jaybird butt and lipped off to a teacher, and here I was all set to stay mad at him and force him to write essays and do nothing but homework for those 3 days, and NOW he's sick. :rolleyes: Oh well, he's getting a break from school whether he really wanted one or not, because as tight as he sounds tonight, I'll probably have him in the doctor's office Monday morning. Damn, I hate the flu!!

allnurses Guide · Dec 14, 2003

Sorry your family has been sick. So far, so good here. My older boys have asthmatic bronchitis usually once a year. No asthma in either side of the family but my mom lived with us for 5 years when they boys were born and she smoked like a chimney.

My daughter and so far the 2 year old have no symptoms of asthma. Or allergies.

No problem about the wine . .. it didn't hit the keyboard.

What is this post about? Oh ya, the flu.

We watched "Minority Report" tonight . . good movie. Then SNL. It was fun to have the whole family here as my eldest drove up from So. Cal from college a day ago. My 2 year old has been following him around ever since . . . "Bi-da, come play with me". Brian loves the attention from little bro.

Take care - know about teenage boys and their mouths. Actually, teenage girls aren't far behind.

The flu . . the flu . . .just keeping this thread on target.

steph

Long Term Care Columnist / Guide · Dec 14, 2003

Yep, I know what you mean about teenage girls having mouths. Both of mine, now grown, used to use language that would've made a case-hardened cop blush! They rarely did it around me, of course, because they knew I didn't approve of it, but they sure let it fly around school, although neither of them was ever reckless enough to invite a teacher to perform an anatomically improbable act upon himself.

Chris is a good kid at heart. He's just at this painfully clumsy part of his life, where the street smarts and general sensibilities of the average 7-year-old are trapped inside a 6-foot-2-inch, 170lb. body. He can't make up his mind from week to week whether he wants to be a Goth, a punk, a skater, a hard rocker, or any one of a million other things he's not. As the saying goes, he's so confused he doesn't know whether to scratch his watch or wind his butt.

Oops......hijacked the thread again. Oh yeah, the flu, the miserable flu. Our hospital is loaded to the roof with patients of all ages who are in various stages of hypoxia. I've already put in almost 10 hours of overtime just this week because of the volume of admissions, and there's no end in sight. I'm starting to wonder if this isn't going to be like the Hong Kong flu epidemic of the late 1960s, which killed millions of people all over the world. I remember even the schools were closed in my hometown....no one was available to teach the few kids who weren't sick. Our entire family was ill---my mother worst of all. She didn't get out of bed for almost 2 weeks. My dad was only slightly less ill than she was, and he'd stagger out to the chicken houses and do what he could before the fatigue got him, then do it all over again after he'd napped for a while. I was only about nine years old, and all I wanted was for my Nana (who'd been a nurse during the first World War) to come and take care of us all. But my father wouldn't hear of it, and since I was the least affected by the flu, I had to take care of the household as best I could. And with a raging fever and hacking cough, I didn't do a very good job!

We got through it somehow, though, and very few in our town died in the epidemic, probably because we were a farming community and most everyone was from hardy pioneer stock. I'm hoping this early outbreak of flu doesn't portend anything more sinister down the road, though........it's been a long time since the last really severe pandemic, and we may be overdue. Let's just hope and pray that it ends soon!

angelbear · Dec 14, 2003

I dont think it is hype as a matter of fact it may even be being downplayed. Flu has killed in my family and that was last yr. This yr it seems to be worse than last. I personally think the more info the better. JMHO

SmilingBluEyes · Dec 14, 2003

Originally posted by passing thru
....
Cut the poster a break...

Sorry no can do. If MY kid died---it wouldnot be good to trivialize it near me...and 11 people have died in nearby Portland, ORE already in one month. Try trivializing that to THEM.

It's visited my house twice now, both kids so sick I took one to the ER to rule out meningitis. He screamed in pain for 3 hours that day...and he is nearly 12 and never cries out in trivial matters. IT WAS SERIOUS TO HIM....and to me. He dehydrated and was miserable for 2 weeks. A lesser immune system may not have seen my son thru safely.

The intent of the post MAY have been good, but it was callous in delivery in my opinion. Sorry.

:confused:

BRANDY LPN · Dec 14, 2003

literally half the pts in my small hosp. are in with the flu or pneumonia, my labor pt last nite coughed all nite and i think they probably swabbed her todaycan you imagine being pp with he flu thank god shes breastfeeding, well maybe not for her but maybe baby wont be as affected (praying)

**canoehead, BSN, RN** · Dec 14, 2003

An observation folks;

If we stayed sober and serious about all the serious topics on this board we would all be admitted for depression within a month. Let's loosen up a little, huh?