Swine Not?

Ughh. I'm so over the flu. The media and the hype...and the frenzy about swine.

Cooper woke up on Thursday with a 101.4 temperature so no school for him. I was hoping for a quick 24 hour bug.

Then he said that his throat hurt and I couldn't get his fever to break.
We headed to the doctor.

I'm a bit of a freak in general about all things flu. So along with not getting the flu shot, I'm also not a fan of the test that they do to prove if you have the flu. You know, the giant swab jammed into your brain and rolled around up there for 4 of the longest seconds ever??? I cannot imagine anything worse (well I can, but you get the idea).

I promised Cooper that I wouldn't let them give him the flu test- but I told him that he'd probably have to get his throat swabbed (also a violent test- but one I'm ok with because a positive result brings an actual cure).

I actually wasn't sure that I could pull it off- but I figured it was worth a try. Before we got to the doctor I talked to a bunch of people, all who relayed horror stories of friends of friends or media stories about healthy children who have died from the swine flu.

I. was. a wreck.

We get to the doctor and they were having a flu shot clinic. It was a complete disaster. Oddly, the office thought that it was a good idea to give flu shots to small children in a wide open cubby with 3 walls. The 4th wall opened into the hallway that runs beside the waiting room. Any guesses what the result was?

Pandemonium.
Complete and total bedlam.
Kid screaming bloody murder.
Chaos.

They took entire families into the cubby at 1 time....and lined them up for shots. Cooper's eyes were as big as saucers and he knows that I'm against the shot so there was a pretty good chance he wasn't getting one. Every other kid in the waiting room was petrified. Mothers were frantic trying to keep the peace.

When they called us for our appointment, we walked through the flu shot carnage to a room with a door.

He got the strep test.....and it came back negative. Rats.
Which based on his other symptoms meant that what he had was probably the flu. UGH.

She said that she wouldn't test (whew) him since there wasn't anything that they could do if it was the flu (great).

So, we went home....to wait and to dose up on ibuprofen.
I went back to worrying.

He was so sad, and so pitiful....and so sick.
I'm sure the saga will continue.