This post could alternately be titled, “Why I’m first in line to get a flu shot next year.” No craft or recipe today, I’m just going to tell you about the doozy of a week, my family had last week. I’ll try not to sound too whiny, but it was rough.

My daughter has asthma and this time of year is always rough on her. So when she started coughing on Valentine’s Day it was unfortunate but not unexpected. We started her with breathing treatments and figured everything would be all good. Then Saturday night she got a fever(102-ish). She was just miserable but we were treating her with ibuprofen and trying to keep her as comfortable as possible.

Sunday night rolled around and all of a sudden, my husband and I started coughing. It was a really painful cough too. Thankfully, Monday was President’s Day and the kids and my husband had the day off. Our pediatrician was open, so I took my 6 year old off to the Dr where they gave her antibiotics for an ear infection and some meds that would hopefully help her get over her cough faster. Three of the four family members were a hot mess. My husband and I started getting fevers sometime Monday evening/Tuesday morning and I honestly can’t remember the last time I felt so terrible.
Tuesday rolled around and my son, who was symptom free up to this point, went to school. I think he only made it about an hour before we got a call from the school nurse that he had a fever and wasn’t feeling well at all. By this point the fatigue was the worst. I could hardly get out of bed and when I did I couldn’t concentrate and any task took herculean effort. It was early Tuesday afternoon when I was moaning in bed, trying to figure out what kind of plague had befallen us. We had:

• Cough
• Fever
• Fatigue
• No runny nose or congestion

It was about this time I remembered that my sister is a pharmacist and so I texted her, “Hey what are the symptoms of influenza?” Her response, “cough, fever, and fatigue.” Oh, crud. That’s what we have. She also encouraged me to get someone from the family to a Dr and get tested right away. I dragged my son to the Urgent Care with me so we could both be seen. The second he walked in, he collapsed on the chairs in the waiting room and went right to sleep.

The Doctor tested us, although results weren’t available for 5 days, and wrote us about 3-4 prescriptions each. One of the prescriptions was for Tamiflu, an antiviral. Imagine my sticker shock when they told me the pharmacy co-pay was $230 for my sons Tamiflu, and mine was $120. Say what? The real kicker with Tamiflu is that you have to start taking it within 24 hours* of symptoms or it won’t help. (*One medical professional told me 72 hours, but 3 others said 24 hours) I bought it for my son, but refused for me.

That visit to the urgent care was 8 days ago and I am slowly crawling my way back. I had asthma as a child and so any sort of cough lingers a long time. I still get fatigued easily but I’m finally starting to feel like a human being again.
Combined, my kids missed 6.5 days of school, my husband missed 2 days of work, and between Doctor visits and prescriptions we spent about $455. Next year, we will be getting flu shots! I think at Costco without insurance they are about $15. I finally got the official results back and I tested positive for Influenza A and H1N1 more commonly known as swine flu.

Stay healthy out there! This is something you don’t want to get for sure. I’ve missed creating and blogging and I hope to be back in the saddle now that I’m getting better.

Have you had influenza before? Feel free to commiserate in the comments.