My Possible H1N1 Flu – Day 5

15 11 2009

It’s 8:00 pm and I’ve been up since 4:00 am because when I cough it hurts. Now I can breath and it doesn’t hurt to breath, but boy does it hurt to cough. I was planning to get the H1N1 vaccine as soon as it became available to the general, but obviously the virus beat the Ministry of Health’s very, very late vaccine to me. It hasn’t been to bad, kind of the run of the mill flu, the only difference before today was I was extremely tired. Always exhausted. I’ve barely had a fever and in the three days I’ve noticed it three times. Yesterday morning I felt better and the boom!  My lymphnodes started to hurt and swell up. I could feel them in my underarms even. A few hours later a very dry cough developed and by that evening it hurt to cough in my chest and between my shoulder blades. Some friends suffering along with me have been sick as long as two weeks. One friend has damaged her vocal cords due to constant coughing. All these women caught the virus from their children who had much milder symptoms than their mothers.

Right now do I ever wish I got the vaccine. Cough, cough…ouch, ouch!!


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My Possible H1N1 Timeline – Day 1

9 11 2009

I felt a slight tickle in my throat at 3:15 pm. That turned into a sore throat by 3:30 pm. Around 5:30 pm I stood up and felt incredibly dizzy and very hot. I took my temperature its 99.8 degrees. I have a huge headache. Its currently 6:23 pm. Dont know if this is a flu or H1N1 and probably will never know for sure. I feel really tired all of a sudden, no aches yet. 

 

 


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H1N1 and Senior’s Moments

2 11 2009

I’ve decided I’m getting my kids vaccinated against H1N1. Well my father who is 78 has an opinion (or a few) on my decision.

My six-year-old daughter developed H1N1 symptoms almost two days ago. My father is concerned about his granddaughter. I can’t blame him but the lectures I’m getting are ridiculous.

For example, “Don’t bathe her when she’s sick because she might die.” This stems from the report of a thirteen-year-old boy who died from H1N1 and collapsed as he was getting out of his bath. What my father doesn’t see is that it was H1N1 that killed the boy, not the bath.

“Did you know they put Mercury is the H1N1 vaccine. That’s poisonous!”  Dad didn’t realize that mercury has been in all the vaccines that I was given. When I explained this and that there’s more mercury in a can of tuna than in the vaccine, he changed the subject.

“Don’t give the kids the H1N1 vaccine it’s not safe. Our government told us Thalidomide was safe and look what that did to us!” First of all, Thalidomide (the drug pregnant women used in th sixties that cause severe birth defects) didn’t do anything to us all,  (meaning my family) I wasn’t even born when that was taken off the shelf. Second of all he’s a man and has always been one, he’s never been a woman who gave birth to a child missing limbs to my knowledge. My third and last point, that was over 40 years ago. Countless medications have been approved and used since then.

“A man in the line up at Tim Horton’s told me that the vaccine causes neurological problems”. With all due respect to the stranger my father talked to at Timmy’s while waiting for his coffee, I really wish my father would talk his doctor about his health concerns. Perhaps the next time my dad needs surgery, he will let that same man in line operate on him.

My father thinks all medications are poisonous and anyone who takes then is an idiot, unless it’s him taking the medication, then it’s alright. I don’t know how to argue with his logic but I guess I should go an tend to my sick and unbathed daughter.

 


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My Little H1N1-er

1 11 2009

Here we go again, another H1N1 post. My six-year-old daughter came home from trick-or-treating and suddenly just like that felt ill and had a fever of 100 degrees. Hopefully I won’t ever know if she has H1N1 for sure because that would mean she would have complications. The only way to be tested is to have severe complications. Let’s face it, the regular flu season doesn’t start until December and about 1 in every 3 people in my neighbourhood have the flu. I don’t think assuming my daughter has H1N1 is much of a stretch here.

This means no vaccination next week for here. The city I live in starts vaccinations this coming Monday and they advice sick people don’t get the vaccine and wait until they have recovered. It wouldn’t matter, my city has a population of 200,000 people and two H1N1 vaccination locations, the hours are from 12pm until 7pm closed on Sundays. I can’t imagine what it would be like standing in line with three kids and a husband, alright, let’s make it four kids for approximately 8 hours. 

Or am I looking at this all wrong, maybe this will be a bonding experience for my family. “Remember when we stood in line for all that time to get a flu shot we didn’t want?” My sarcastic teen would announce. I will say I will be glad when this flu has made it’s way through here and it is on it’s way.

Wait, all my kids have had it, soon it’ll be my turn.


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Yet Another Hitch in the Canadian H1N1 Immunization Campaign

30 10 2009

H1N1 mass immunization starts next Monday in some parts of  the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).  This week the ‘high-risk’ group stood in long lines to get be vaccinated against the H1N1 virus.  H1N1 clinics were set-up all over the GTA the results were having people lined up for hours. Some as long as eight. The clinics hours run from noon until 7 pm. People have been lining up infront of clinics as early at 3 am. One woman yesterday got to the clinic at 9 am and had been given the number 275, that was the amount of people ahead of her. The clinic still had three hours before opening.

These are the wait times for high risk people including, healthcare workers, pregnant women, people with asthma, etc. Imagine what the clinic waits are going to be next week when the mass immunizations begin. I live in a city with a population of around 200,000. We have one location open as a clinic on Monday, two on Tuesday and beyond. It will be crazy without a doubt and of course being Canadian I have to hope when I stand there for 6 hours or more with my children it isn’t raining, or God forbid snowing!

Telehealth Ontario, the call-in health service provided by the Ministry of Health has been deemed useless currently due to an extremely high volume of calls. The average wait to get a human voice on Telehealth Ontario is now approximately 11 hours. No that is not an error, 11 hours.

This whole immunization clinic mess reminds me of waiting for concert tickets. Helpful hint, bring your lawn chairs and a book while you wait.  I plan on getting my family immunized next week and I know I will have a lot to say about that subject. I can’t imagine my kids waiting that long, I already have a headache thinking about it!


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The H1N1 Vaccine – My Research

29 10 2009

Last week I was dead set against it. Now in light of a 13-year-old dying suddenly of H1N1 made me research properly and rationally about the H1N1 vaccine.

Many of us have seen the so-called banned video from 60 Minutes about the 1976 Swine Flu vaccination screw up.  I watched and re-watched that video and along with other research that I’ve done, this is what I’ve learned…

Mercury in Vaccines – the amount of mercury contained in a vaccine is less than if you ate a can of tuna.

1976 Controversy was caused by in some cases administering the wrong vaccine to people (the untested vaccine). Govermental propaganda out and out lied about celebrities who got the vaccine. Some Americans were affected with Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS) a neurological disorder due to the swine-flu vaccination, while some died.

Many more people acquire GBS from complications from any flu than that have ever acquired it from a vaccine.

It takes two weeks to see symptoms of a vaccine complication. The current H1N1 vaccine has been around longer than two weeks and there hasn’t been any reported confirmed complications (that I’ve heard of) since the release of the vaccine.

The vaccine is made just like any other flu vaccine. We don’t seem to worry too  much about those ones.

The teenage cheerleader video of the poor girl who developed a neurological problem due to a vaccine has been recently blamed to the H1N1 vaccine. I believe she developed this as a result of the HPV vaccine, not the H1N1 vaccine.

Make up your own minds and do what you feel is the right thing to do with regard to the H1N1 vaccine. All I ask is to keep an open mind and please research from quality, proven imformation sources and not some YouTube video that’s being passed around. Even if you watch the 60 Minutes video, you can notice that it’s not the same circumstance with the vaccine testing procedures in 1976 and the testing thirty-three years later.

You trust your doctor with your health, what is his/her opinion about the vaccine. Ask a qualified professional instead of listening to a person your chatting with at the checkout.


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