It's amazing how scared I was of H1N1 before I got it myself. Last Thursday, I started feeling like I was coming down with a cold. I had a sore throat and started feeling congested. By Friday afternoon, the congestion was really bad and I had a cough. Before I left work the youngest one had a fever and was lethargic. I figured I must have caught something from work. That's typically what happens. Later that night I had a fever, but we don't own a thermometer so I don't know how high it was. I used cold wash clothes to keep it down.
Throughout the weekend, my cough got much worse and the congestion was out of control. My body ached which I attributed was just part of being pregnant. But, by Monday, I was really miserable. I still got up and went to work. I walked into work and my boss asked me if I wanted to go home because it was obvious that I didn't look so good. Two of her three kids were home sick that day as well. I stayed for an hour and a half so she could get some medicine and drop off her oldest at school.
On Monday night, I was getting cabin fever so I went out to Babies R Us with my sister to finish my registry. Ten minutes into our trip I started feeling dizzy. Here I was in Babies r Us squatting on the floor not really caring which sippy cup or bath towel to choose. My sister drove me home to my parents and we took my temp. It was 100.5. We decided it would be best to call Kaiser's advice line to see what I should do. I know any kind of fever is worrisome during pregnancy and I needed to watch it. After hearing my symptoms and telling her that I couldn't take Acedimenaphen because of an allergic reaction, she told me to come into Labor & Delivery.
It freaked me out that we were going to the hospital and of course, I worried about the baby. Ethan kept kicking all the way to the hospital so I felt positive that he was okay. They put me on a fetal monitor and Ethan's heartbeat was at its normal 140 BPM. I was given a gorgeous mask. They told me that they wanted to treat me for the flu. They stuck a nasal swab way too far up my nose to test for H1N1. Ken & I both thought this was overkill. "It's just a cold and a fever!". I started taking Tamiflu Tuesday morning and by Wednesday morning got a call from the hospital saying that I did indeed have H1N1. Luckily, they called that morning because I had planned to go back to work later that day.
Things I have learned about H1N1:
* It can be deadly, but it's very rare. Most cases are mild and very treatable.
* The symptoms are sore throat, cough, congestion, body aches, headaches, and fever.
* You are only contagious the day before you display symptoms and while you have a fever.
* 30% of pregnant women who get H1N1 are hospitalized and 90% of people with a cough or fever have H1N1.
I'm doing fine now. I have 3 more doses of the Tamiflu and I'm off work until Monday morning on quarantine. I'm very bored. There's only so much tv you can watch and sleep you can get. Ethan is doing great. He has kicked through the whole thing. He's probably better off inside me that out here with all the H1N1. Please continue to pray that we completely recover. I'm very thankful that God was watching over us. It could have been much worse.
Here's my belly button at 22 weeks and some change, which has already popped. Crazy! I had a very deep belly button before pregnancy so I'm surprised it's popped out so much. My sister told me to take a picture of it before my belly got bigger but I didn't listen. She says it never will look the same.
Ana had H1N1 at the beginning of September. It really wasn't that bad for her either. She had to stay home from school for a week or so and her dad was told to not come in to work for at least a week by his boss. She almost completely lost her voice, but she fully recovered and is her usuall teenager self now.
ReplyDeleteI hope you don't get too bored while you are recouperating.