H1N1 or any flu: Surviving it

September 7, 2:43 AMAnchorage Family ExaminerKellie Davis

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Feeling sick is easier when the littlest are sick and want to sleep, too!

The combination of back-to-school and my eldest son bringing the flu home was almost lethal to the Anchorage Family Examiner's writing.  Fortunately, I am back after battling the flu and back-to-school. While the Davis family takes a few monts to recover from back-to-school, the flu fortunately only lasts a few days. In our case, it's been seven days. Each person in our family has had it from anywhere from 5 days (my teenaged daughter, Cloud) to just one day (10 year old Basil.) How long anyone has te flu is anyone's guess. I'd expected Cloud, the perennial atlete, to be over hers overnight, but she was sleeping solid for several days, getting up like a windering over bear, waking to feed (and growl) and go to the bathroom (come out to growl,) growl some more, then return to her cave to sleep again. Basil stayed home one day, prepared and served himself container after container of orange juice, washed his own dishes and slept and went to school the next day.  

What has been unusual about this illness for us has been the sudden onset and the fact that when a person has it, they are tired. All of my kids were sleepy. For two solid days I had five kids sitting in my living room not arguing. Calamity Jane went to school one morning feeling fine, then she told her teacher that she was cold and needed her jacket and her teacher realized that she had a fever of 103. I got called and of course that was the day my vehicle was in the shop and I was sick. None of my friends could help me as they were all busy. Fortunately I had older kids home that day to watch the littlest onesand I was able to walk the two miles to the school to get her and another mom drove us home.

My husband works for the healt depatment and while I was wanting to get everyone tested for swine flu, he didn't want to test because, "It doesn't matter what you have, it's the symptoms we have to watch out for. You aren't in the clear because it's not swine flu, but there is no promise you will die if it is swine flu."

I got scared on Saturday night when I read the article about the healthy young man (10 year old boy) who was downed by swine flu. He was fine, then felt sick, was sent home from school on Thursday and died at the hospital on Friday. I had three coughing kids and I didn't sleep, preferring to walk from room to room and make certain they were breathing, or, when my husand told me to come to bed beause I was still sick,  I made him go listen to them breathe! One can only imagine the grief of his family. What plans were made for this weekend that they had no reason to expect would be changed that didn't happen? Certainly only a week ago, he was happy and playing, getting scolded, harassing a sibling or two, laughing and playing, and now he is gone. What shock his parents must be in.

For my family's comfort, I made batch after batch of Jewish Penicillin, or better known to many, "Chicken Soup." By the grace of God, we would be all right. It was a joke with my older kids that I made nothing that was hard to clean up and everything was white if it wasn't chicken soup. (Creamed tuna, pasta with alfredo sauce, etc.) My husband came home on Tuesday evening craving lasagna, but I was starting to feel sick and knew that I'd not be interested in wiping up vomitted tomato sauce. 

A recipe that is similar to my own can be found here. It's important to cook the bones in with this, but if you only have bags of chicken pieces (like deboned thighs or breasts,) do what you can. Sitting and relaxing and enjoying a moment is good for you and will also aid in your recovery.

I also found that when almost four year old Starshine was sleepy, it was best for me to sleep, too, just like when she was a tiny baby. She got sick when I got sick and it was nice that we were able to sleep at the same time.