Piggy Flu & Bonks

Ace and I are quite the travelers these days. We headed to California and then back again. Two trips on the airplane and all the while in the back of my mind I was worried about little piggys coming to infect us... or something like that. I'm not typically a germ-a-phobe and in fact I think most dirt and germs are good for my little boy to be exposed to, so that he can fight of the really bad germs. We are not an antibacterial every 10 minutes household, but on the same note I don't let him lick floors in public places.

All that to say him and I came home on a plane on Tuesday night; and by Wednesday night him and I both were running fevers. All day Wednesday I was chilled and feeling blah. I cancelled a business call I was supposed to have because my brain was mush... and Ace required a dose of baby drugs to curb his fever in the middle of the night. My fever broke in the middle of the night and in the morning felt as good as new (albeit, still extremely sleep deprived) Ace's fever was gone, but he still had a cough and a few sneezes.

The cough persisted through the weekend, so I thought I'd better take him in. I wasn't in the mood for repeat of June. When we arrived they handed me a mask... to put on Ace... hahaha right. I tried and the results were expected. So we were banished outside. Seriously. So we waited for 30 minutes outside and then we were called and a room was ready. Ace was met with nurses in duck masks (or at least they looked like a duck beak) and then by one nurse in a biohazard attire. Literally. She was draped like she was prepped to perform surgery with a welding mask over her duck mask to boot. Overkill? Maybe. She positioned me on the table with my son's head in my lap, with me holding his head and the other nurse holding his arms. Then biohazard nurse swabbed with a tiny mascara brush (or so it looked) the inside of each nostrils. The tears were big for my little guy. He didn't like it one bit.

The doctor came in to see him and within 10 minutes the biohazard nurse peeked her head in to annouce that the test was positive. Ace has H1N1. Dun dun DUN!!!!!!! So while I was not tested the doctor is pretty certain I too have now had it. So what does it mean?! It means neither of us will require the vaccine for H1N1 -- well that's good since I wasn't planning on getting it or giving it to my son, so we save ourselves disapproving looks from his medical care workers.

So how has the piggy flu affected our lives? Probably the best scenario you could have during the piggy flu season. We had a fever and for the most part that was the worst of it. We didn't see anyone on Thursday and you're only contageous 24 hours after the fever breaks (or so they think) and even today Ace's cough is gone. All is well in light of our brush with the piggy flu.

Yesterday though, after my stubborn boy refused to take an afternoon nap, was running (literally) ragged and ran head first from our sunken living room into the wood landing. Needless today he has his biggest welt to date on his noggin' - poor little guy. We kept him up for a bit, and checked on him every hour after that. It was a really big bump. :( Today it is a beautiful shade of purple.

Enjoy this picture, Ace's nose looks like it has a tad side effect of the piggy flu in this picture ;-) and his bump is quite visible as well - but he's as happy as ever... piggy nose and all. hehe