it's all in how you look at it...

Yesterday our oldest son, Zachary, was sick...running fever and coughing. Come to find out, there were 10 out of his class of 24 either sick at home, went home during school, or were in the nurse's office. Zachary was much better this morning and even went to school today. Early this morning our youngest, Tyler (a.k.a. Biscuit) began running fever and coughing. Of course, he stayed home from school and rested most all of the day even slept over three hours.

Late this afternoon, Tyler's fever shot up to 103.8, so I gave him ibuprofen and immediately called the pediatrician's office because they were getting ready to close. The nurse said to take him to the emergency room, which is an hour away from our small town. There are some closer, but it's where our four children were born and where their doctor is located. When we got there, we could tell the fever had gone down some, but they got us right in quickly. Tyler really acted sick, which is very unusual for him.

The doctor couldn't find anything wrong on examination, but tested him for strep throat and swine flu. The strep was negative, but the flu was positive. That means that Tyler is 92% postive for swine flu. This information didn't surprise my husband and I. In fact, we kind of suspected it because the way it had begun so quickly with Tyler and with Zachary the day before, but also because of so many being sick in our middle school yesterday and the symptoms they all had - fever and cough.

The ER doctor prescribed Tamiflu and said we should call to see if our other children (and us, too) needed to be on it. We'll do that in the morning. Because of the results, the information will be passed on to the State of Oklahoma. The test will be confirmed, as well. By the time we got back home, our other two children who were feeling fine when we left, were coughing and were also running fever....now I'm coughing and feeling a little "yuck", but not too bad. My husband usually never gets what the rest of us do, so prayerfully that will be the case with this thing.

We're not worriers or panicers (is that a word???) by nature, so we're calm about the whole thing. God is always in control so there's no need to worry. Because the boys and I have asthma, I do want us to be extra cautious and watch for complications because of that. The doctor did say that most cases of swine flu are mild and most never go to the doctor or know they have it. Tyler's fever just happened to get high, where Zachary's didn't do that yesterday....and then today Zachary was also better.

We told Tyler that he was the first person we knew that had swine flu in our small town. He now thinks he's famous. He's excited and thinks people might want his autograph! He thinks this because a few of the Texas Rangers baseball players had swine flu several weeks ago and in his "make-believe" life he is a pro baseball player. My husband ran into Tyler's teacher today down town and she asked, "Are you all flying to Georgia?" Joe said, "No." She said that Tyler has said that he is in class. Joe explained to her that in his make-believe pro baseball life, he plays for the Ranger's but he's being traded to the Atlanta Braves!

So, you see - it's all in how you look at it!

Please pray for our family and for others who have it - that they will get well quickly and without complications. Also pray for those who have been exposed that they may not develop the full-blown flu. In advance, thank you for your prayers.