la gripe porcina

On Wednesday, during the peak of panic about Swine Flu, my mother emailed me, worried about Lucy, and recommended that I call Dr. Borin (aka The Good Doctor) to make sure that he had flu supplies on hand. On Thursday, Richard did one better, calling the Cardiac Center at Nemours to see if there were any special precautions we should take, in light of her heart stuff -- the answer was a resounding "No" -- and that if Lucy did display any signs of flu, to visit the pediatrician.

Lo and behold, at 5:30 Friday morning, Lucy came into our bedroom complaining of headache and sore throat. Now Lucy is the queen of the late night and early morning stomach ache...but she rarely varies her symptoms. I groggily instructed her to climb into bed with me (Richard was already up, getting ready to head to Dover for Quality Examiner Training), and as soon as she curled up next to me, I could tell she had a fever. Miraculously, I was able to find both the children's Tylenol and the thermometer, so I dosed her up, and took her temp -- about 101. Lucy and I are dedicated viewers of the Today Show, so we were on Swine Flu overload this past week -- and while it seems like the cases in the US have been mild, all I could think was that Lucy was going to be Delaware's Elementary School Patient Zero, and bring the Brandywine School District to its knees. And poor Lucy herself was convinced that she had the Swine Flu -- I had to talk her down.

We called Dr. Borin's on-call service (Nemours), and after an interminable wait (during which, I am sure, hundreds of other nervous parents were running Swine Flu scenarios with the service), we finally spoke to a Triage Technician (they are no longer called nurses, I noticed -- I am sure technicians are cheaper). The Triage Tech had all sorts of info about Lucy at her fingertips, and given Lucy's history, recommended that we head to the ER. This put me in a quandary -- the Nemours Cardiac Center had told us NOT to go to the ER, but the Nemours On-Call Service told us that we should. Luckily, cooler heads prevailed, and we decided to wait until Borin's office opened at 8 for our next set of instructions. So Lucy and I got up for our morning dose of the Today Show (Swine Flu confirmed in Delaware! Joe Biden tells people not to use public transportation! No Doubt to perform in the 8:30 half hour!) and Richard headed to Dover.

I finally got through to Borin's office at around 8:15 AM, and they told me that they could see Lucy at 9:30, but that I needed to call the office from the parking lot and someone would come out to the car with a mask for her to wear as a precaution. The good news about the 9:30 appt. was that Lucy and I were able to watch No Doubt perform on the Today Show summer stage -- they rocked, and Gwen looked adorable, as always. (During the commercial break between songs I bought us tickets for their show at the Tweeter in June. Wanna come? Lawn seats were only $10!) Then Richard called me to tell me he was having psychosomatic flu symptoms, and was going to come home, not wanting to infect the other loyal state employees pursuing their Quality Examiners Certification with psychosomatic flu.

We headed to Borin's at 9:30, and Richard met us in the parking lot with Lucy's mask, which she donned without complaint (the poor thing looked like Michael Jackson on a trip to the mall), and we headed straight back to an exam room. After another long wait, we were seen by Dr. Goldberg, who was perfectly nice, but was most decidedly NOT Dr. Borin (I am not sure she was actually old enough to have a driver's license, let alone prescriptive authority). She said that Lucy's symptoms were not really indicative of flu, but could be strep, so she did a rapid strep test. The strep test was negative, so Dr. Goldberg wrote us a scrip for a flu test, just in case.....

Headed to Nemours, with Lucy in her mask, and were sent straight back to the lab. Lucy was whisked into the lab hallway to wait for someone from Respiratory to come do the flu test. While we waited, a teenager in a mask joined us in the hall -- I got the impression that the lab was doing a pretty brisk trade in flu tests. (While we waited, Richard visited the Cardiac Center to let them know Lucy was in the hospital lab getting a flu test, and they thanked him for his call the day before which had prompted them to establish a Swine Flu protocol....yay Richard!) The flu test itself was pretty straightforward -- the tech squirted saline up Lucy's nose, and then sucked the saline and some boogers (her word) up with a tiny catheter. Took all of 30 seconds, and we were on our way, with results promised within a few hours.

Lucy and I went home to hang out and wait, while Richard shopped for popsicles and other important provisions (like a cheesesteak for me for lunch). Dr. Goldberg called mid-afternoon to let us know that Lucy did NOT have the flu. Lucy and I were so relieved that we each took a long nap (mine 2 hours, hers 3).

So that was our brush with the Swine Flu. It is now Sunday, and Lucy is still feverish (and a little obsessed with taking her own temperature -- you'd think she was charting her basal temp for her fertility chart). Other symptoms are minimal -- a slight sore throat, and general malaise. Hopefully, she will be back to normal by tomorrow. We're having homemade chicken noodle soup for dinner tonight, so that should help.