Hannia called me at work yesterday morning. She was upset and worried. She said that Stephen was really sick, running a high fever, and was refusing to go to the doctor. Also? She had an important exam at 1:30. And that exam is a whole other story. To try to make a long story short, she graduated 2 years ago. She walked across the stage, got a job and everything. But she is still waiting on her diploma. There was some kind of mix up about the credit she was supposed to earn for studying abroad in France, and apparently ECU has some of the worst office personnel in the world. 2 years, 9 million phone calls, 10 million trips to the registrar's office, a billion cases of noone knowing anything, 59 million people that she needed to talk to NOT being in, and a gazillion frustration headaches later, Hannia was finally able to get them to concede that if she could pass this French exam, she could have her diploma. Of course, she has been out of school for 2 years.....and I don't think she has that much opportunity to practice her French here in G'ville, so naturally she was already anxious about the whole thing.
Anyway, I know my son, and I KNOW he can be stubborn. So, I told Hannia to go on with the exam, and try not to worry....we would intervene and make sure Stephen went to the doctor. I mean, come on, he is having flu symptoms in the midst of all of this Swine Flu hoopla. And people die from that crap. Its not something to play around with. Bruce managed to get off of work first, so he headed over to Stephen's house. He called ahead to the dr. and they told him to come in and get a mask first.
Then, they ushered Stephen directly back into an exam room so he wouldn't be in contact with anyone else in the waiting room. They kept him back there forever. When I got off work about an hour and a half later, and I still hadn't heard anything, I swung by the doctor's office on my way home. I'm sorry....this is my child. I was worried. I didn't care if I risked getting exposed.
So, it's possible that Stephen has Swine Flu. They did blood tests and we hope to have the results by tomorrow. But they really felt like it was most probably some kind of flu, even if it turns out NOT to be the H1N1 strain. They started him on Tamiflu and sent him home to wait it out. The good news is that he is already feeling better with the meds. Apparently, the earlier you can get started on them, the more effective they are. I don't think that getting a positive result of Swine Flu (or negative for that matter) will change anything as far as treatment goes. It seems to be pretty much about the same as any other flu. Its just the one going around at the moment. Flu sucks no matter what strain it is. And there have been confirmed cases here in town....so....? We will see. In the meantime, we are all on high alert to look for symptoms for the rest of us who have been exposed to whatever it is that Stephen has. At the first signs we have been instructed to head to the Doc as soon as possible. Probably for Tamiflu.
So, yeah, its been a weird week. And we are all just waiting for test results. For Stephen AND for Hannia. Hopefully everything will work out fine.
3 comments:
i'm actually beginning to wonder if it wasn't something stomach related instead, like food poisoning? then again, given that we eat practically the same things, i guess i would've gotten sick too, and i'm fine.
it's really weird how sick he got... i'm used to being the one who's sick. especially around exam time! maybe he took it on for me. that's sweet, remind me to say thank you!
They did not take blood.
Ok, I assumed it was a blood test, and you weren't in any shape to confirm or deny it at the time. Turns out its actually a swab test.
Which in my opinion is highly preferrable to needles.
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