Just Another A

Well you would never guess it by looking at this picture, taken just this morning as the girls were leaving for school, but Maija has tested positive for influenza A, which unfortunately is the strand associated with H1N1. Tuesday she was sick, really really sick, Wednesday she was on the mend and this morning she was symptom free so I sent her back to school.

Opps.

Don't worry, she's back home now and I have been on the phone all morning with her pediatrician, her school, my obstetrician and a handful of family members. Micah has also been home today after a terrible start to his morning, I'll spare you the details, as he most definitely is NOT better. Last time I checked on him, he was sprawled out half naked, fast asleep and burning up. I was torn between waking him for medicine or letting him sleep, but decided to let him sleep for as long as possible. At this point I think it is safe to assume that he has whatever Maija does and so until we know for sure WHAT that is, there is no real need to panic. My main concern right now is keeping him hydrated and comfortable.

Here's the real deal....

The timing of all of this sucks.

It just SUCKS!!!

Today is the spring music concert at school, 2 performances, both of which Maija will now miss. Tonight, her dance studio is having a dress rehearsal for the upcoming recital this weekend, 2 performances she might miss. She is definitely missing the dress rehearsal, which incidentally is when they have the professional photos taken.  And as if it couldn't get worse, Finn is scheduled to leave on that Boston trip this coming Monday, you know, the one he almost missed during the early days when H1N1 was still being referred to as the "swine flu"? So if in fact Maija does have it, things could get very complicated around here, as the implications for a family of our size are fairly serious. 

Back in the fall of 2007, Maija caught Pertussis (whooping cough) and within a matter of 24 hours the health department was calling to make sure that everyone in our family who had been exposed to her had access to antibiotics. This included our household of 7, the twins were still in utero at the time, her dad's household of 3, and both sets of grandparents. So we had 14 people on antibiotics, it was crazy, not to mention quite costly! That was around the time that I started questioning vaccinations, but we'll save that discussion for later. Our pediatrician gave me a few options to think over today, in terms of how we proceed from this point, and we'll discuss it further once we know for sure what we're up against. For now I am keeping my fingers crossed that it's just another A brought home by one of our kids and not actually H1N1, but I guess you never know what might be hiding underneath the surface and for now we'll just wait and see.