Picket Fence Post

This is the second go-round for swine flu in the Picket Fence Post household this year. Yes, you read that correctly. Second.

Last spring, The Girl was diagnosed with swine flu and the whole family went on Tamiflu. A few days after we started taking the medicine, I may or may not have come down with a mild version of swine flu on the afternoon when Michael Jackson died. I remember the whole thing vividly because I was listening to news coverage while lying in bed with the blankets pulled over my head because I had a massive headache, body aches and the chills. But I only felt lousy for about a day, so I’m not sure if what I had was the vaunted swine flu or not.

Flash-forward several months to yesterday morning: The Eldest Boy was diagnosed with swine flu and the Picket Fence Post family was again prescribed Tamiflu. As soon as word reached our neighbors that we once again have swine flu germs swirling around our house and in the air above our yard when we bring the Picket Fence Post puppy outside, I’m sure they started wishing we’d just deposit a giant orange Haz-Mat tent over our property, complete with images of skull and crossbones. And if we started wearing those silver spacesuit thingies you see on TV, all the better.

The Eldest Boy — who’s feeling much better today than he was yesterday when his temp was 103+ and he had severe body aches and lethargy — has to remain at home for the week. As for the rest of us, we’re keeping our fingers crossed that the Tamiflu wards off any would-be infections. (We’re uncertain as to whether The Girl has any kind of immunity due to her springtime tangle with the bovine illness.)

To complicate things, at the recommendation of my kids’ pediatrician, I went to see a doctor about my lingering cough and on-again/off-again low-grade fever, and was diagnosed with a bronchial infection. I even got the privilege of wearing one of those fashionable face masks while I walked around the medical center.

I can hardly believe there has been so much general illness, plus TWO rounds of swine flu, in our house. And I consider us lucky to be a healthy family. What’s going on here? Is this just what it’s like when you have school-aged kids?

I think I can count on one hand the number of weeks during the current school year when all three of my kids have been free from illness and IN SCHOOL. (Last Friday, for example, The Youngest Boy had some kind of weird allergic reaction to something that must’ve bitten his left ear because it swelled up exponentially, so much so that a few ear folds disappeared. While I was on a walk with some friends, I got a call from the school nurse on my cell phone asking me to come pick him up because the swelling was so bad.)

Has anyone else’s kids seemed perpetually sick this fall? 

Image credit: CDC.