On that very same Tuesday I went to my previously scheduled pregnancy appointment to check on the baby. I told the nurse that I had been feeling sick with a sore throat, coughing, and sneezing with a very low grade fever.
She backed her chair up from me and said "Did they give you a mask at the front desk?" I clearly had no mask on my face, and said, "No." She said, "I'll be right back" and almost ran out of the room. Only to return with a mask for me. She kind of threw the mask at me from a distance and said, "You need to wear this since you have the symptoms of swine flu. I would help you put it on but I don't want to mess up your hair."
What? Really? I saw the swine flu fear in her eyes.
Then my doctor came in to tell me that my primary clinic was totally booked checking people for the swine flu so I needed to go straight to the ER. What? Seriously? No, I just came in to hear the baby's heart beat. I asked her if I really had to go to the ER and she said I did. I asked her again just to make sure she wasn't confused.
Fine. Lilly and I walked over to the ER only to be taken to a special room for suspicious swine flu victims. Then over the next three hours I talked to various medical professionals who all had the same question. "Why are you here? Did someone tell you to come here?" I explained that my OB made me come and that I would NEVER go to the ER in the middle of the day because I had a cold. As I got crankier and hungrier waiting for the stupid swine flu test, Lilly asked more and more questions. "Why is there a bed in here? Why are the outlets red? Why does that man have to come here? Why do you have to wear that mask? Why do you take the mask off every time they shut the door? Why do they have a sink in here? Is this a kitchen?" You get the point.
They finally did the horrible swine flu culture tube-down-the-nose and released me home with a discharge summary for the common cold and a promise of lab results in 24 hours. Even they knew it wasn't swine flu. Although they could have had the decency to print out information on the swine flu since I had just wasted the last three hours of my life wearing a mask to keep my filthy swine germs to myself.
We had to wait all day today for the test results to come in. All of us had to stay home so we didn't infect anyone with our possible swine flu virus.
In the end, shocking to all, I tested negative for any flu virus whatsoever (even swine). I am still sick with my common cold, Jim and Lilly are sick, and we are a house full of germs. However, we no longer need to worry that we infected our entire church congregation and the shoppers at Babies R Us with our swine flu last weekend.
After all was said and done, I would have preferred to have the swine flu. Would have made for a much better ending to my story.
9 comments:
ya too bad! The ending was kinda boring haha! No but i am glad you dont have it cuz i hear its pretty scary for pregnant women! My sis-inlaw is pregnant and her OB told her to pull all 3 of her kids out of school until december just so they dont get sick with the swine flu and so she wont get infected! crazy
What a drag! I'm sorry you had to endure all that for the common cold.
they could have at least done a fun surprise ultrasound if they were going to make you go through all that! Sorry you still have a house of sickies!
Liz that was the FUNNIEST thing i have EVER read!!! Ha ha I laughed my head off...then I read it to Josh and we laughed again! Thank you for a good laugh. I do not mean to laugh at your pain, but it is so funny! :) I hope you are feeling better soon and you family is too! If you need some chicken noodle soup let me know!
Im sorry you feel sick! I hope you feel better and I am so happy to hear that you did not bring the swine flu into my house ha!
get better !
I am debating on what to do. I am going to get the regular flu vaccine this next week. I am going to ask my OB what to do about having one in school, and such. I am getting the boys their flu shots ASAP...they will be mad at me for it, but I would rather be safe than sorry. My boys were born late winter/end of flu season so I never worried about it. I have never had flu shots, but my kids pediatrician kind of freaked me out a little bit saying preggos are more at risk than any other groups. Hand washing and who you let breathe on/touch your newborn in the end is the best. I have already started warning people--if you are sick you cannot come and see my baby!! ;( Lame I know, but I would rather be safe than sorry.
PS Hope you feel better soon!!!
seroiusly Lz, that is craziness. we're having similar "swine flu" phobia around here. sheesh, glad you don't live close or we could have been infected too! :)
maybe its called swine flu because the word swine is used to describe anyone exhibiting pig like qualities and this type of flu comes from pigs... but its still a filthy name
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