Flu symptoms and it is FINALS week

[golfgal]

I took the boys to get hair cuts last night and DS16 is sitting next to me waiting shivering and covered in goosebumps. I ask if he is ok and he said he was in the nurses office earlier in the day because his arms and body hurt and he felt really cold. He had a 99.5° fever in school. When we got back from the hairstylist his temp was 102.5°. It got up to 103°. He stayed home this morning and about 10:00 I got a call from the nurse-he has to stay home for 7 days because of state health guidelines for H1N1 . IT IS FINALS WEEK next week. She said to take him in and get him tested, as long as it isn't H1N1 he can go to school on Monday so off we go to the dr. It is NOT H1N1, just the 'regular' flu, but since DS16 has asthma isn't a good thing either. Hopefully he gets better fast because he REALLY needs to do well on his finals

 

[JessicaR]

I hope your son feels better. Poor guy. My son is asthmatic also. It's so much worse for them.

Just yesterday we got notice that H1N1 is confirmed in our middle school. Friends of ours are just getting over it, 10 days later he got the call yesterday. His 3 month old was in the hospital.

 

[java]

How do they know so quickly it's not H1N1- It takes a couple days to get the results back since they are centrally tested. (or at least that's what they are saying here in the tri state area)

I hope he's feeling better soon and can get some study time in. The timing stinks for him. I'm sorry. My oldest has finals starting wed.

 

[golfgal]

How do they know so quickly it's not H1N1- It takes a couple days to get the results back since they are centrally tested. (or at least that's what they are saying here in the tri state area)

I hope he's feeling better soon and can get some study time in. The timing stinks for him. I'm sorry. My oldest has finals starting wed.

I think it takes that long to be "officially confirmed" as H1N1, they tested the swab in the clinic lab which pretty much means they have to look at it under a microscope from the way it sounds but I don't know for sure.

 

[CookieDiva]

Hopefully he has been prescribed an anti-viral (maybe Theraflu?) If he takes this within the first 48 hours of starting symptoms, it should really decrease the length and intensity of the symptoms.

Hope that he feels better very soon and that it doesn't spread throughout your household.

 

[Pennykay]

How do you know it's not H1N1? It is really going around now and the regular flu has pretty much gone for the season.

 

[golfgal]

How do you know it's not H1N1? It is really going around now and the regular flu has pretty much gone for the season.

Because we had him tested for H1N1 and it was negative. The regular flu is not gone for the season, it is still alive and kicking which is adding to the confusion with H1N1

 

[JessicaR]

How do you know it's not H1N1? It is really going around now and the regular flu has pretty much gone for the season.

CDC seeing more regular flu cases now.
U.S. health officials are seeing a surprisingly high number of cases of ordinary, seasonal flu at a time when the flu season typically peters out.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090516/ap_on_he_me/us_med_swine_flu_us

This is from May 16th, so three weeks ago. We are still having many cases of flu being dx'd.

 

[Disneylover79]

Make sure he drinks lots of fluids and rests as much as possible... he will be fine.... Good luck to your son and I hope he feels better...

 

[Wonderlandmom]

Hopefully he has been prescribed an anti-viral (maybe Theraflu?) If he takes this within the first 48 hours of starting symptoms, it should really decrease the length and intensity of the symptoms.

Hope that he feels better very soon and that it doesn't spread throughout your household.

Tamiflu is working against H1N1 and the B strains this season. It is NOT working against other A strains that made the rounds this year. I think Flumadine is helpful for the other A strains.
A nasal swab will quickly tell whether is is an A or B strain. Should not take more than a couple hours.
I hope he feels better soon OP!

 

[tinkamom]

Tamiflu is working against H1N1 and the B strains this season. It is NOT working against other A strains that made the rounds this year. I think Flumadine is helpful for the other A strains.
A nasal swab will quickly tell whether is is an A or B strain. Should not take more than a couple hours.
I hope he feels better soon OP!

They probably ruled out H1N1 for your son because he tested negative for A and positive for B. Since he tested negative for A, further tests were not needed to rule out H1N1.

We just went through this last week. My daughter tested positive for A but they did not do any further testing. There was 2 confirmed cases of H1N1 in her school. She missed a whole week of reviews for her finals and three days of her art final.

I hope your son feels better quickly and does OK on his finals. I would think (and hope!) that the school and the teachers will allow him to make up the tests if he has to miss them.

 

[golfgal]

They probably ruled out H1N1 for your son because he tested negative for A and positive for B. Since he tested negative for A, further tests were not needed to rule out H1N1.

We just went through this last week. My daughter tested positive for A but they did not do any further testing. There was 2 confirmed cases of H1N1 in her school. She missed a whole week of reviews for her finals and three days of her art final.

I hope your son feels better quickly and does OK on his finals. I would think (and hope!) that the school and the teachers will allow him to make up the tests if he has to miss them.

They said they would make accommodations if need be. The problem is that school gets out on the 11th and summer school starts on the 15th and we don't know yet if he will need to go to summer school which is why he needs to do well on his finals -or he could just turn in his missing assignments and be fine .

He sounds worse this morning. He woke up briefly and said his ear was plugged up and his cough is getting worse, very juicy sounding. He went back to sleep so we will see how he is later today.

 

[Pennykay]

As of 5/28 from a CDC update on Swine Flu:

Anne Schuchat:

"But there are some aspects of what we're seeing that are very different from seasonal patterns. And of course, there's much that does remain of concern. This virus is circulating much later than the annual flu viruses. We're really not seeing much of any other seasonal flu viruses any more. But we are continuing to see this strain circulate, even though of course we're almost at June. This is a novel virus. And much of the population, we don't think, has immunity to it. So that's again different from the seasonal strain."

5/26 CDC update on Swine Flu:

Anne Schuchat:

A few weeks ago, there was a bit more of the seasonal flu still circulating, but right now,almost all the positives we have is this novel H1N1 virus. When we look more broadly at the influenza-like illness trends, while almost all of the influenza-like illnesses this new virus, the actual percent of visits that are influenza-like visit are going down in most regions of the country.

 

[golfgal]

As of 5/28 from a CDC update on Swine Flu:

Anne Schuchat:

"But there are some aspects of what we're seeing that are very different from seasonal patterns. And of course, there's much that does remain of concern. This virus is circulating much later than the annual flu viruses. We're really not seeing much of any other seasonal flu viruses any more. But we are continuing to see this strain circulate, even though of course we're almost at June. This is a novel virus. And much of the population, we don't think, has immunity to it. So that's again different from the seasonal strain."

5/26 CDC update on Swine Flu:

Anne Schuchat:

A few weeks ago, there was a bit more of the seasonal flu still circulating, but right now,almost all the positives we have is this novel H1N1 virus. When we look more broadly at the influenza-like illness trends, while almost all of the influenza-like illnesses this new virus, the actual percent of visits that are influenza-like visit are going down in most regions of the country.

Um, ok, but he still has a negative test for H1N1....

He has been asleep for 14 hours now-he typically sleeps about 10 hours/night. He got up to use the bathroom around 6:30 this morning, crawled into my bed and has been asleep ever since. The rest of the family is in the sitting room off our bedroom (where I am with the computer) and everyone else is watching TV and DS is oblivious to the going's on. He has always been a very sound sleeper though.

 

[Nickimouse]

I hope he feels better soon! What rotten timing! Nothing like adding the flu to the stress of finals.

Take care!

 

[Pennykay]

Unfortunately, the rapid test for influenza A can produce a false negative up to 40% of the time. "Novel H1N1 flu virus infection cannot be excluded when a patient tests negative for influenza A by rapid antigen test." Was he positive for type B?? Or just negative for A & B?

The only reason that I am trying to make the point here is that if he does have H1N1 it is important for him to get Tamiflu right away.

 

[golfgal]

Unfortunately, the rapid test for influenza A can produce a false negative up to 40% of the time. "Novel H1N1 flu virus infection cannot be excluded when a patient tests negative for influenza A by rapid antigen test." Was he positive for type B?? Or just negative for A & B?

The only reason that I am trying to make the point here is that if he does have H1N1 it is important for him to get Tamiflu right away.

Honestly I have no idea. He was negative for H1N1 and that was all I really asked about. Today, given his symptoms I think he really just has a bad cold with a bad cough and now has an ear infection-I have an ear scope from when he was small and got a lot of ear infections so I know he has one. Normally I would not have even brought him to the dr yesterday and would have given it more time to see what was going on so I will have to get him back in for an antibiotic for the ear.

 

[Pennykay]

I'm glad he is feeling better.