Well, the flu has caught up with
our family. My husband, Tom, has been
sick with a cough for a while now, but nothing too bad and he was able to take
part in all of his usual activities.
That all changed this past weekend when it hit him hard and with a high
fever. Yes, these things always happen on
the weekend when your family doctor is not available. I took him to an emergency walk in clinic
where they promptly did a flu test on him.
Influenza Type A was the result. This
is not something that can be treated with antibiotics since the flu is a virus. We can treat the symptoms such as the cough
and otherwise the usual rest and lots of liquids.
I am staying busy taking care of
him. First thing on my agenda was to get
him comfortable and then make some home-made chicken soup. We all know that is the best medicine
anyway! I’ve been cleaning and
disinfecting everything I can around the house to keep those nasty flu germs down. The doctor even told us to buy a pack of
inexpensive toothbrushes and have him switch out his toothbrush every couple of
days and throw out the used ones.
Otherwise he could keep re-infecting himself. This is the first time I’ve been told to do
that when you have the flu. I’ve always
cleaned my toothbrush and I’ve heard of even putting them in the dishwasher to disinfect
after being sick but this was new to me.
It makes sense because he certainly wants to get over this nasty bug. This Thursday is our 40th anniversary so it looks like we will be celebrating it late this year. In sickness and in health, right!
I was sick over Christmas but it
was Christmas – I simply did not have the time to go to the doctors or to rest,
so I did not have a flu test. It is the
time we have everyone over to our house to celebrate the holiday and our
busiest time of the year. I rested up
the week after but now I wonder if I had the flu and gave it to him. Of course, you can catch the flu anywhere and
we have been many places so it is impossible to know where you might come in
contact with it.
If any of you are feeling a
little under the weather please take care of yourselves and if possible, avoid
crowds. The doctor said if you have a minor
illness, such as Tom’s cough, you should be very careful since your resistance
is down and you are more likely to catch something like the flu.
When I started this blog I had hoped to keep
up with it a little better than I have recently, but as I said in my first post “Life
Happens”. I have not even had a chance
to read the blogs I follow today yet but I hope to get to them soon.
Stay well everyone!
