Where do All the Sick People Go?

Flu Season-Round 2

Seems the flu has returned for an encore…a slightly meaner version than we saw during the holidays.  I received an email from a friend this week I wanted to share with you.  I post this with her permission; she hopes informing others will help keep them healthy.

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2-4-09

Well, I was definitely looking forward to MOPS tomorrow, and had even notified several of you that I would be there, when around 2:00 this afternoon, my two year-old suddenly said, 'Mommy---sick!' and promptly threw up all over the floor.  Normally, I would just stay home tomorrow and not think any more about it, but let me share this story with you, and encourage everyone to PLEASE follow the sick policy each and every time you take your child to any gathering.

I took my two year old to our church nursery Sunday morning, and there were eight other children in there with him.  Although no one knew this at the time, a child in the nursery had been throwing up both Friday and Saturday.  The child's mother mistakenly thought the vomiting was because her child was teething, as he has vomited while teething before.   Every child that was in the toddler nursery at my church on Sunday, except (Lord-willing) for one, is currently sick with vomiting and/or diarrhea.  I have never seen something spread so fast and so completely as to affect nearly every child in the ill child's vicinity.  According to several area pediatricians, there is a horrible stomach bug going around (Cardinal Newman High School was even closed last Wednesday because more than 100 students were affected with the flu and/or this stomach bug).

So, please, please, PLEASE play it safe rather than sorry as far as your child and other children's health is concerned.  I am a mom just like the rest of you and always feel frustrated when my children are sick, and often contemplate taking them somewhere, thinking, 'Oh, they're not really THAT sick.'  I won't be doing that again after seeing what has just happened at our church.  And please keep in mind the email we received about children who are immune-compromised and are much more susceptible than the general public to catching illnesses.

I hope you and your families stay happy and HEALTHY!!

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After I secured permission to post this, she sent a follow-up email:

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2-6-09

BTW, if you want to update it...we ended up at Urgent Care today because my two year old has been vomiting non-stop for the past two days and couldn't even keep ice chips down!!  :(  They gave him Phenergan and IV fluids and he seems a little better, albeit exhausted.  It just goes to show that bugs can hit some kids worse than others...

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I have another friend I’ve been chatting with on Facebook whose two children continued to vomit for 5-6 days, sometimes with an entire day symptom-free.  They also had to take Phenergan to get the vomiting to stop.  My son woke up Thursday morning with vomiting and diarrhea.  Seemed fine Thursday night, and hadn’t vomited since that morning…but woke up Friday complaining of tummy ache and by noon he had thrown up again—more than 24 hours elapsed between episodes of vomiting.  Unfortunately, you can’t even use the “No contact until symptom- free for 24 hours” rule with this bug.  

Because you can be symptomatic before you show signs, our rule is when one person has the stomach bug, none of the children can play with friends until they’re past the incubation period.  We also limit outings to public places (grocery, WalMart, restaurants, church).  Because we had many activities coming up, I called the doctor to see what we were looking at.  Here is what the nurse said:

*This flu that’s circulating is lasting anywhere from 48-72 hours, on average.

*The incubation period within families is 24 hours from their exposure.  Generally speaking, if they aren’t sick in that time frame, they can go to gatherings without the risk of getting others sick.

*The good news:  those who are exposed but don’t get sick, should still have carryover immunity when exposed to the same flu virus from other sources.  

Wishing you and your family a healthy February!

Well said, stay home.  

But economically it may not be feasible for everyone.  If I call in sick I may be fired, co-workers will have to pick up the slack and be mad for weeks.  Is it worth it?

Not every job has the cushion of sick pay or paid time off.  

My friend is experiencing this issue from a different perspective.  Her children are perfectly healthy.  And her finances are unaffected.  But her life is forever changed.  Her father caught pneumonia just after Thanksgiving.  After a two week fight, he passed away.  Today, she is spending her first Christmas without her father; her children have spent their last Christmas with their grandpa.  Our germs can have devastating consequences for people that we never see.

You think doctor office co-pays and prescriptions are expensive?  I have friends who have kids with immune deficiency disorders.  A cold can end these kids up in the hospital.  How long would it take you to pay off a hospital bill running in the thousands of dollars?  This is something I guess most people don’t think about because it doesn’t affect them.  But there are families out there who have to deal with this reality every time cold and flu season comes around.

Ruth,

You are absolutely right.  There are individuals who are in dire circumstances where staying home with a sick child (or when sick themselves) could mean a day without pay and that day's wage could mean a bill doesn't get paid.  That is a horrible position to be in.  Especially when you have little ones depending on you, and especially this time of year.  

It is also another excellent example of the financial ramifications our sickness could have for another family.  And one more reason for us to keep our sick children and our sick selves home.  

We don't get sick out of nowhere.  We catch the flu from someone...someone who was out and about while they were sick and contagious.  That single mom who is sick or has a sick child--who may not be able to pay all her bills if she stays home--she is in that predicament because someone else chose to go out while they were sick.

As you go about the business of life, you never know who you are exposing to your sickness.  We tend to think of life in terms of our own family, our own circle of influence.  But our world is so much bigger than that.  Our life affects others in ways we can't see--positively and negatively.  

My hope for this post was simply to give people a perspective they may have never thought about before.  To inject some balance into the decision-making process of whether or not to go out when we are sick.

Thanks for a good reminder. It's a tough decision for working single Moms.   Hope all your family remain well in the coming year.

Ruth