Swine Flu...anybody else concerned?

Okay, so I've never worried about flu ever. Not during my pregnancies, and not for my little ones... I've never gotten the flu shot, and I've never gotten them for my kids. But for some reason I'm feeling parinoid about this swine flu. Everytime I look at the news they have some big headline on how pregnant women are dying from this flu at higher than normal rates. So it doesn't help that my 4 year old ds started up with a fever this morning. He complained of a headache, and has now started coughing this afternoon with his temp going up to 103.3 before I dosed him with motrin. Ugh! So I'm currently waiting for a call back from my ped to find out what to do next.

Anyone else concerned or are the statistics still so rare on this thing being deadly that it's just parinoia on my part?? Anyone else ready to line up to get the swine flu vaccine when it comes out? or holding off because it's such a new (and rushed through!) vaccine?? I know for me this is the first time I'm putting serious consideration into lining up for this shot.

 

I am not concerned about it right now but I am scheduled with a c-section a week after my kids return to school. What I am worried about is that they will contract it at school and bring it home to a new baby. I am also concerned because my two girls have asthma so that is just another factor in my worrying.

I get my kids the flu shot every year because of my kids asthma. I am hoping they get the flu shots in order and I can get them for my kids again this year.

 

I've had the flu once and was so miserable that I've gotten a flu shot ever since. The NICU all but demanded that we get ours as well as anyone babysitting the girls, so we all got the shots for the twins last year.

I was advised to get the girls the flu shot as soon as it's available, in late August. The H1N1/swine vaccine won't be out until later and to get that when it is available, probably December. The same goes for me, DH and our sitters. I saw that headline today about pregnant women dying at a higher rate from H1N1 and it was scary. I check www.cdc.gov/swineflu about once a week for updates, and they have a section for pregnant women. It made me feel better to read that you can take Tamiflu while pregnant, which really lessens the symptoms of any flu, including H1N1.

A pediatric nurse I talk to said that they've seen H1N1/swine flu in babies this summer and it's been milder than a lot of regular flus, which made me feel better.

 

I am concerned. My bestfriend sent me a text this morning that said, "hey, um, don't get the swine flu, preggers." LOL...but I really am concerned about it, and like some of you, I don't get overly worked up about the regular flu each year. I fully intend to have a nice lengthy discussion with my doc when I go back in two weeks.

 

I'm going to talk to the nurse I see next week about it too. I'll probably be switching to a midwife in september, but I'd like to get the ob/gyn take on this issue since I'm pretty sure the midwife will be more laid back about it.

 

I read the big difference with this one is that it's more dangerous to people with really strong immune systems, so the people who are 15 to 25 or so will get hit harder. Regular flu tends to kill more of the very young and the very old. (People with asthma or immune problems are in trouble with either type of flu.) The reason is (and this is what happened in 1918) that the strong immune system goes into overdrive and ends up killing the person from overreacting to the flu.

So I'm most worried about my boys, and DH, who has asthma.

 

The regular flu kills a lot more people yearly. I think the shots are pointless, because most of the time they don't work. I'm not getting the swine flu vaccine for myself or my family. The shot is to new and not enough studies and it's exempt so if anything happens thier not liable. Do a lot of research on this, because I have but I'm not going to preach.

 

I am concerned but I'm not going to worry myself sick over it. I do my best to prevent getting sick by washing my hands frequently and avoiding contact with sick people but other than that there really isn't much else I can do so why worry about what could happen? I think I'd be a lot more worried if I lived in a more heavily populated area though. This year was the first year our family all had the flu shot because we were going to Walt Disney World and didn't want to end up sick, none of us got the flu. I know a lot of times they don't work, but for our family we will be getting the shot every year. I'm not sure about the swine flu shot yet because I think I'd want to wait until it's been out a while to see if there were any adverse reactions.

 

On the news last night, they were saying the reason that pregnant women (late stages of pregnancy, mostly) are more likely to die is that they just can't get enough oxygen for their bodies to fight it properly. They also said that if you're pregnant and show any signs of flu, go to the hospital right away, don't wait. Personally, I'd be very leary of the vaccine for the swine flu. I've heard that there were more problems from the vaccine than from the epidemic, in the 70s.

 

Strong immune systems...that scares me more. My kids NEVER get sick...haven't been to the doc other than checkups in two years! AND...I usually don't either, but I'm a chronic, chronic nailbiter! I know its a nasty habit, but its a habit...gotta work on that. I'm really getting more and more anxious to talk to my doc about this now!

 

My OB told me yesterday that they haven't received much information on this yet, but if they decide that pregnant women will get some of the first vaccines available, he'll get it and contact everyone. He also said he doesn't get overly excited about studies done abroad and he wants to hear from the studies done in the US. He recommends all his patients get the flu shot every year and take the normal precautions of washing hands frequently, etc. He didn't seem too worried about it, which calmed me down.

 

Yup, this and reports about pg women dying are the only reason I've thought about it at all.

Honestly, I get where you are coming from. If I weren't pg I wouldn't be considering the shot at all. And I hate the idea of getting it while pg...it's an ironic twist. I think the only reason I would consider it is that I have 4 little kids at home who need their mommy to be around.

We still don't know what my ds had/has. He had a high temp for 2 days with a dry cough. Then his symptoms seemed to go away, but they came back 2 days later, no fever, but a nasty sore throat/post-nasal drip/cough. He had a low-grade fever yesterday for a few hours, but then it was gone. So I'm keeping an eye on him.