Academic

Last one standing?

By Tung Yin

I'm the last one standing in the house. . . .

Last Friday, my older son woke up with a fever and threw up four times that morning by the time he saw the doctor.  He had pneumonia in one lung, a severe asthma attack, and what we later learned was type A influenza (which means it's almost certainly H1N1 "swine" flu).  He spent three nights in the hospital with an IV drip and an oxygen feed.  My wife stayed with him the whole time, while I stayed at home with our younger son -- though we did go visit twice daily.

By Monday, when he was released from the hospital, he was doing much better, though not cleared to return to school.  Of course, my wife had a fever and headache and other flu symptoms by then(!).  I did my best to keep our younger son away, but by Wednesday night, he too developed a fever, and last night he ended up in the emergency room with croup, probably brought on by the flu.

I feel kind of silly wearing a hospital mask when I'm around them, sleeping in a different room, and so on.  I haven't really felt any different, so I'm hoping it's not inevitable that I'll get sick too. . . .

Full post as published by The Yin Blog on October 02, 2009 (boomark / email).