Swine Flu ....should we panic ..

[Iworryalot]

Another GP and a child i just heard on the radio have died from swine flu ....should we be worried ....

I am , i suffer with Anxiety at best of times now this is sending me crazy.....

anyone els ?

Tdiddy - hope your dc6 is feeling better.

I think you are so right about the prefix...where I am they stopped calling it swine flu ages ago. It's now called Flu A, or H1N1.

Swine flu seems more dirty or something, don't know why the British are still calling it that.

Thanks momonthenet- first they sent her home with antibiotics for chest infection. Then call 4am from diff doctor saying that it is probably H1N1 and that I should call GP in the morning to arrange anti-viral. I am a bit cross with first doctor but DW says they were under much pressure last night.

They just opened and I am now waiting on GP call back to arrange AV pick up. I think they have now been swamped because of news in Britain of two deaths yesterday. They are very hassled.

Just had call from GP: said they want to know early for those with chest symptoms/asthma which is her so going to pick up now.

I am stressing out completely about this,as my twins are vunerable as they have an immune issue, and are hospitalised for simply illnesses.

One of my daughters over this weekend had a horrid cough on friday, we took her to the doctors and the doctors said it was a virus, give her plenty to drink. By Saturday, she had a high temperature and could not swallow due to throat pain and actually screamed when she swallowed (she is 6). We ended up trying to control this all of saturday until sunday morning, when we took her early hours to see the emergency doctor, who said it was tonsillitis and she is on antibotics, however still coughing (she is asthmatic too) but the temperature has gone down and she is eating again...when I heard about this latests little girls I panicked badly!!

Dd1 and 2, then dh and then me were ill over the last 10 days, nhsdirect said probably swine flu.

We had

vomiting
cough
runny nose
lethargy
temperature

when we saw the doctor yesterday (12 days after dd's symptoms started, 3 days after mine, and doctor was adamant we came in, rather than be visited), to have dd1's chest listened to - she has asthma, and has still got cough and wheeze, the doctor said that we sounded like we had been too ill for it to have been swine flu, apparantly most cases have been quite mild. Dd's would have been eligible for tamiflu, but when we rang nhs direct it was over 48 hours, so too late for tamiflu, which the doctor said she wouldn't have recommended anyway as it only shortens the illness by 1 day, and can have nasty side effects.

My mum has it and has been given tamiflu (she is over 65, and has lots of underlying health issues) and says she feels like she has got a cold.

Read this for nhs info on swine flu, and stock up on longlife milk, juice, tins, toilet rolls, so that if you are all poorly for a week you won't have to go to shops and spread it around.

The main thing the nurse on nhs direct said was to treat it as you would normal flu, rest, drink plenty of fluids, keep temp down with paracetemol, and phone gp if you have underlying health concerns (list of these on the link above), if symptoms don't lift after a few days, or if temp won't come down with medicine.

twinsnikki- i know what u mean about immune issues.

hazyjane- yes, the thought and the fear is the worst part. Interesting as they gave us tamiflu even though I reckon she is into her third or fourth day now. The GP who called me back was head of the practice and we chatted a little and he told me that they are obviously still learning about it (the flu).

Most of us shouldn't worry at all, as it is just another flu. I must have been exposed already as I tend to eat my daughter's left overs. Waste not, want not

DD2 is a lot better today 5 days after first getting ill. She still has tamiflu to take until tomorrow evening and we wont be going out until thurs. The only reason she was diagnosed is because I couldnt get her temp down so phoned GP. They said they suspect ds had it aswell and both dh and I have had bad colds but thats it. We are not 100% sure if any of us have had it but we can only hope!!

Nemo- That is good news. I know what you mean, we are hoping that cold and night sweats and pains that DS4 felt a couple of weeks ago was the SF box ticked.

The media needs to keep us all calm.

twinsnikki- worth finding out about the vaccine- when it is ready!- yours should be eligible for inoculation?

Funnily enough I was reading in the Independent today that mumps is on the rise and the symptoms initially are quite similar to swine flu. Wonder how many illnesses are being put down as 'swine flu' when they are actually something else (obviously in grown men the swollen bollocks might tip the GP off but you know what men are for not mentioning significant symptoms yet whining about a splinter like it's a severed limb ).

in march dd, dh and i all had an awful dose of flu which kept us all in bed for a week each. It was one of those ones where you can barely move and just want to sleep constantly. dd's asthma flared up pretty badly as it always does with these things. Anyway, i'm hoping against hope that this means we've already had it.

This was about a month before the news broke in Mexico, so i don't think it's impossible that it just happened to be under the radar before that time - after all, people come and go from mexico a lot these days and could easily have brought it back before it made the headlines.

totalmisfit - normal flu will lay you out for a week easily. I had it two years ago. I have never been as sick as I was then, I actually thought I was dying.