Is IT just outside your door?

H1N1 has come knocking, and someone let it in!

We took Mary Claire yesterday to the doctor, and she tested positive for the h1n1 flue virus. It was like my biggest fear of the fall had come to fruition. We were taking precautions, avoiding taking the kids anywhere, and knock, knock, it came in the back door. We found out that there is a lot of it in the second grade at her school! We didn't stand a chance. We've been hunting down the vaccine, but we just didn't reach it in time. I guess we should be thankful that she has antibodies for it now, but I didn't want them to come THIS way. I'm trying to keep the rest of us rested and fed well, so that maybe it doesn't spread.

Mary Claire is quarantined in her room (with a tv/dvd player, toys, drinks/food, etc. so as not to make her feel Too Bad), but we can't have her sneezing and breathing all over our house! She sneezed yesterday morning on her nightgown sleeve, and got it all wet (iccckkk). I just took it off, and threw it in the washer. That was before I even knew what she had.

I think the first sign was the high blood sugars that have been coming over the past five days. She always runs high, then something shows up. Well, it's here! Monday morning when I checked her blood with our new head-scanning thermometer it read 104.1. I thought it was wrong, and rechecked under her arm. It was only 101.9-what a difference!

She seems to be fine as long as I have her on ibuprofen. There is some runny nose, achiness, sore throat, fever, and of course high blood sugars. That's been the hardest to conquer. She was over 300 from last night until this morning. We checked her until midnight last night, I got up and checked her at 4am, and then at 7. I told her is was dangerous, and that if I couldn't get her down, we'd have to go to the doctor or hospital. She was begging to eat, but I just can't feed her over 240, it makes it so much worse when she's over ketone level. I made her a big plate of scrambled eggs, and she ate half of them. I gave her tons of insulin, then gave her more, just for good measure, then reset her basal to 200% (at Ches' recommendation-it seemed too scary for me, but 160% was cutting it).

Finally, right before lunch, she came down to 57. Isn't that how it always is, too high or too low. (but at least she could eat!) I could finally give her the Tamiflu dose (long story, you can see below), since I had to mix it with pudding (which has carbs...). This would be the big fat reason that people at risk need the vaccine!!

Tamiflu: Apparently it is rationed right now (just see if you get it if you are sick-lots of people aren't getting it!). Anyway, we got it (just for her, not for us!). When we went to pick it up, the liquid ($100) wasn't covered by our pharmacy insurance (did I tell you last week's story?), so we had to choose the $35 capsules (and my daughter does NOT take pills-even with bribing!). We had to break them open and mix the powder with a teaspoon of "chocolate syrup" (um..remember diabetes, Pharmacist?) or pudding (ditto, but maybe when her blood sugar comes down). We did do this yesterday, but she hated it! Even after the whole pudding cup, she said she still had that taste in her mouth! And we do this twice daily for five days. If it lessens her pain, it'll be worth it.

So, if the opportunity presents itself for you to be vaccinated against the H1N1 flu virus, you should yell, "Yes!" all the way there! Especially if you have other health complications that make it difficult for you to take the medicine and maintain your health. I can't believe that some people are treating it as optional! It is HERE, is HIGHLY contagious, and can cause cerebral seizures and lung collapse (I learned from the person at our insurance company! and yes, comfirmed at cdc.gov).