When I was pregnant in 2008 I had the flu. I think wrote about it here. I'm too sick and tired to dig through archives to find it, but I remember I wrote about how I watched people on television and woefully thought to myself how badly I wanted to be them, because they did not have the flu. I went to the OB's office and cried and pleaded for some cough syrup stronger than the over the counter mix so I could please get some rest. (I was denied) I was coughing so much and my abdomen muscles were already so strained that I was afraid I would herniate myself. THAT, my friends, was the flu. Not only did I have it and survive, but I did so without a single perscprition drug. Pregnant too! Whoo am I tough.
So as news/hysteria/hype circled about H1N1 I balked. No vaccinations for us. Why? It's the flu. I have HAD the flu. I kept going back to 2008. THAT was rough. It couldn't possibly be as bad as that.
I'm writing this waiting for the cough medicine to slowly calm my lungs. My husband got it and now he has bronchitis. My youngest had it. I couldn't put him down for two days. My oldest boy has it now. His fever has lasted for five days, longer than any fever he's ever had, longer than I thought one could have a fever.
On day two or three of the illness I thought I am fit, healthy, I'll be over this soon. I haven't been to work in over a week. I can function but I'm not well. I can't wait for this to be over.
I couldn't have gotten a vaccine even if I had wanted one. They haven't been available. If I could have had one I probably wouldn't have.
Knowing what I know now, I absolutely would. My concerns over a new vaccine are not worth two weeks of my whole family being this sick. There's nothing left for me to do except pour two teaspoons of nasty medicine down my throat each night and hope I wake up feeling even a teensy bit better than I do right now.
