I thought you guys might be interested in a first person account of the flu...I'm so full of bronchodilators right now I'll never sleep, so here is my account.
I'm in the Southeast, and we do have widespread flu activity, so when I got sick Friday, I thought there might be a chance it was the flu. By Saturday I had little doubt. I have a health care background, so I took all the standard procautions, keeping myself well hydrated and treating the symptoms. This morning, however, I knew things were going down hill, and I went to the minor med. Long story short, I have type A flu, and pneumonia. Before I was taken to the back, the lady next to me told me she's been there for 4 hours - I didn't have to wait that long because I was having trouble breathing, so they took me straight back. After a shot and a couple of breathing treatments, I was feeling a lot better, but I couldn't leave yet because my sats were still pretty weak...so I chatted with the staff. They are seeing a LOT of pneumonia with this flu - more than 10 cases today alone, and this was just a standard minor medical center. I know I've read that it's more prevalent, but I thought only people that were compromised were getting pneumonia, however that's not really the case. At least from what I saw today, a fair percentage are seeing respiratory involvement. Another interesting note - at one point they were discussing sending me to the hospital, as I wasn't showing much improvement, and I asked her if she could direct admit me so I wouldn't have to do the ER, and she said she didn't think they had any beds available. After what I'd seen and heard in the clinic setting, that really didn't suprise me. I finally loosened up, but they kept me there until almost 10 PM - they close at 6 on Sundays. I think under different circumstances they would have just sent me to the ER, so I think this thing certainly has the capacity to overwhelm the system if the momentum turns up. Otherwise, I'd say the flu part, aside from the respiratory involvement, is similar to other flu strains. Interesingly, the only other person I personally know who has gotten the flu was a friends 10 year old daughter, and she developed pneumonia also. Neither of us would fall into a high risk category...thankfully she recovered fully, as I expect I will. The biggest danger I see is overloading the healthcare system if the flu becomes more widespread before the vaccine is out.
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