H1N1 is not fun...

The following post has been sitting in draft for quite awhile but it took awhile to get over it.  I post it now as I reflect over the past winter, which I hoping will be over soon.

Well, I've had my first run-in with H1N1.  For all the people out there thinking that all the H1N1 hype is part of an elaborate agenda and that they're are to smart for that, all I can say is those people are full of sh*t.  H1N1 is real and it does kill.  Of course, so does the regular flu but my experience shows (as well as the prevalent evidence) that H1N1 differs since it goes after otherwise healthy young people.  I count my lucky stars that I made it through, but I definitely can see if I was in a slightly different situation I wouldn't be here to talk about it.

My story starts off with my family just getting over a bout of nasty colds, delaying us in getting the flu shot.  Approximately 7 days passed after we get our H1N1 vaccinations, my oldest daughter Madeleine gets a cough and fever.  Visiting the family doctor, she is told that it is flu-like symptoms so she was put on Tamiflu and she should rest, drink plenty of liquids, etc..  So being the worried but otherwise healthy father, I get her medications, bottled water, and reassure her that it's not H1N1, just a bad cold.  Next morning I wake up with a cough, I've had worse, but I dismiss it as proof that it's just a cold.  Boy was I wrong!  By late afternoon/early evening I was in bed with cold shivers so violent that I was shaking the bed.  My fever was hitting 105.5 F (according to our digital/electronic hospital grade thermometer) and was completely delirious.  And that was after taking rapid release extra-strength Tylenol.  If wasn't for my oldest brother telling me to go to the hospital, the outcome might have been different noting that death usually occurs at 107 F without treatment.  To make a long story short, the resident doctor at the hospital confirmed H1N1.  He of course gave me Tamiflu, since I was presenting within 24 hours, but mentioned that there is no direct evidence that it does anything.  The treatment is province mandated, free, and it couldn't hurt.  He did mention, however, that I did fall into the high risk category for respiratory distress.  For that, the doctor gave me Ventolin to help my lungs.  Since I wasn't coughing that much, I didn't think it mattered but since it was free, no problem.  I was sent home finally since there was nothing else to be done.  The following day, my fever was like a roller coaster, going up 102-104 and back down.  I'd be in a flop sweat one hour, cold shivers in the next.  And my body hurt.  Not just sore muscles hurt but cannot move even my hair hurt.  Thursday night my fever roller coaster finally broke and I started to feel better.  By Friday afternoon, however, my almost non-existant cough got worse and my lungs hurt.  The pain was deep in my lungs.  I was sucking on Ventolin like crazy.  It finally settled down but the cough remained... FOR THREE MONTHS I was coughing, like a bronchitis.  Finally as mid-Feburary rolled around, I now feel like I was before this whole episode occurred.  Total time:  mid-November to mid-Feburary.

Now I consider myself lucky.  My cousin in St. John's, Newfoundland was not so lucky.  Younger than me with a young family, he got H1N1 as fast as I did but he didn't get the vaccine.  He died... Then resuitated and kept in a coma not knowing if he suffered brain damage.  His lung surface tissues died, his kidneys failed, and his feet and hands were turning black.  He had several operations including scraping his lungs and to save his extremities.  Because his body was no longer processing oxygen so his blood had to oxygenated artifically.  I can officially say that though he is still in hosiptal, he is on the mend though his life will be completely different now.  For Christmas, the entire Daigle clan pitched in to provide some money to help in the recovery.

So, I now have a different view about H1N1.  It's not hype.  It's real, it's deadly, and it can happen to anyone.

Food for thought,
Kaoru