Illness abounds

Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Everywhere I turn, I am surrounded by stories of sickness. Stories of kids coughing throughout the night, hugging toilets in the wee hours of the morning, running fevers that barely register on thermometers. It's scary. Frightening.

I have to admit that the seasonal flu, and worse yet, H1N1 absolutely terrify me. I am ultra paranoid, demanding that my kids wash their hands every 30 minutes. Their skin is about to peel off, but I don't care. I don't want a house full of germs. More importantly, I don't want my children to be sick. Down and out for days. That's no fun.

This week at Emma's school, they've had the highest absenteeism rate in at least 10 years. I overheard this today while dropping something off in the main office at her school. So, yes, it's coming straight from the source. I'm on high alert. I have anti-bacterial soap dispensers placed strategically around the house. You can't be too vigilant. Every so often I'll holler, "Have you washed your hands lately?"

I heard yesterday on the nightly news that 30% of Americans will become infected with H1N1 this season. I'll be washing my hands every 5 minutes if it guarantees that I'll be in the other 70%.

Note: When I performed spell check on this post, I was sure that H1N1 would be highlighted. It wasn't. Scary that it's in the Blogger dictionary.

1 comment

Pootsie said...

Wow....it IS all over! We've had some schools closed for a week because kids and staff were sick! You just have to do what you can to avoid it! xo