A Victim of the Swine Flu?

This might be a bit premature. What if I eat my words? What if it turns out to be really bad? This is a bit how I felt when I doubted the horror of Y2K. My husband and I were the only ones not storing water, rice, and gold. In fact, I was hoping that the computers would crash and erase our student loans. (No such luck.)

My husband got sick on Tuesday. (10 plus days ago now.) Normally I might have typed something on my FB status about him not feeling well, but with all the fear around Swine Flu I decided not to. I did warn my college girlfriends, since we had a beach trip planned. He seemed so sick that I thought I might need to stay home to take care of him. Little did I know I would be voted off the beach-weekend-island. Oh they had every right. One of them was pregnant. Most have young kids at home. It was assumed I was a carrier and was shedding the virus. But was it even Swine Flu?

After some e-mail correspondence and a couple of phone calls, I decided to vote myself out. Besides, I do like my boys, and I do like my husband. We'd have our own fun. By Thursday night he was feeling better, all symptoms of flu were gone. I figured that we were good to live life if all was still well by Saturday, a full 48 hours of good health.

So we did. Our chickens came. We enjoyed them. We went shopping. We enjoyed a birthday party. The boys (dad included) played soccer in our yard amongst the fallen oak leaves. Church. Pizza. It was a good weekend.

Still, when my girlfriends called me to say they missed me, I felt a little cheated. My annual trip had been ripped from me. They asked how I was. "Fine. We are all fine. We've been fine since Thursday." What I wanted to say was, "I totally could have come! Boohoo! I now know what my ancestor Rebecca Nurse felt like when she was hung as a witch in the Salem Witch Trials." (Hyperbole.)

Oh well. There will be another one. I'll look forward to Girls Weekend 2010. I'll insist we gather before the beginning of October to make sure no one misses out due to sickness.

I'm also hoping this is the only disappointment I experience surrounding the Swine Flu. I do read the statistics in the paper, that @80 have died in the last two months; that last year total flu related deaths were @40. I think the Swine Flu is more real than Y2K.

What do you think?

Update: My husband actually relapsed and was super weak. I was single mom for too many days in a row. He was no longer showing flu symptoms, but was just super weak. He finally went in and the doctor confirmed that it was most likely Swine Flu, and that he was experiencing a secondary infection. It was not fun. I'm not sure how none of us got it. Does this mean we are safe? Vaccinated by our daddy? I'm sort of glad to have gotten it over with in October. But maybe we could still get it? I really hope not. It is a bad one. He was wiped out! I can't imagine my 9 month old getting that sick....so sad.

I think my friends had every right to be nervous around me, but I was a bit afraid to post this...afraid that I would be treated like a leper. So, for anyone who is going to see me, be with me, or has been with me...we are totally not contagious. It has been nearly 2 plus weeks since the flu symptoms occurred. Please be our friends. Please play with us.