Swine Flu Anxiety

My son is just getting over the swine flu. He had a real nasty case of it, turned in to pneumonia. It was all quite scary, but thankfully he's almost 100% better now. They had us all on Tamiflu, to treat him, and to prevent it in my husband and I. We thankfully didn't catch it (although I admit my anxiety about still getting it is there, even though it's been a week and half).

Before he came down with it, I was doing really well with my health anxiety. Had a "what will be will be" and knowing to just wash hands ect... But now after seeing how bad it was with him, and because I'm at high risk because of my Crohn's, my health anxiety is saying a big "hello"! So much so that I don't even want to go to the grocery store (I did today, only because I felt safer on Tamiflu still). I'm thinking ahead that maybe I'll get up and go shopping very early in the morning so the store will be more empty. Now I know I can't live in a bubble, so this is all irrational thinking again. Didn't help that our doctor told us on Thursday that he saw 3 flu patients that day, and 2 the day before. So it's going around. Then our local news will talk about all the cases at the local college, and some not so nice worst case senario stories from around the world. Kinda hard to control anxiety in the face of something bad ya know? Guess I'm just venting, but not sure how I go about this. Do I go back to telling myself to live in the moment? To just becareful as I can, but that I can't just stay home for the winter! Health anxiety really stinks! 

Jenn,

Just want to add, get your seasonal flu shot and know that will help protect you from the regular flu.  They are giving that shot now as I got mine at the State Fair.

I am a school nurse so waiting for the H1N1 has caused me some concern as school nurses are often the first to see the children with flu as they come in with their sx. As you said, we cannot worry about it and hibernate..........just keep on washing your hands well and cover your cough or others should cover their coughs......which ever way works best.

If you choose to stay away from large groups, I say that is fine.  Whatever helps you deal with the Health Anxiety.

I wish you happiness,

Kitt

Thanks everyone, and thanks Fritzy for making me feel better about having this anxiety. Stinks when it's a real fear, and trying to not over do it with the anxiety. I think I'm gonna try to still be cautious, and I'm glad not going in to big crowds doesn't seem to far fetched there! Gonna be a rough winter I think!

Hi there,

I'm an RN and some information about H1N1 might make you feel better.
It's likely that if you're over the age of 50, you've already built an immunity to the virus. Secondly, the CDC estimates that in the WORST CASE SENARIO less than 10% of those hospitalized with swine flu will die from it. I'm guessing the actually number of fatalities will be much less. Also, the main reasons people die from H1N1 are: dehydration, fluid and electrolyte imbalance, or aspiration pneumonia. There fore, it's easy to not die from swine flu. All you have to do is take tylenol, drink pedialyte, and not breathe in sputum or vomit.

Granted, it's certainly unpleasant to have, but not worth panicking over (easier said than done though, right?)

Hope that makes you a little calmer.
Britt

I can relate to that condition. My father was in the worst hit territory a couple of months back and because of my insistence, he moved to another city and is currently having a tough time to handle everything from a remote point. Everything for family I guess!

Good Morning,

Without the news media the public would be dangerously unaware of the swine flu outbreak and how to protect ourselves.  I do believe that one needs to be presented with the facts and then make up their own mind on how they want to deal with the information they have read.

Sometimes talking with your physician re this type of issue is one way to go.

My best advices for members that are finding the news to be upsetting is to take a break. Don't saturate yourself with stressful information. Stay informed, but take a news break.

 

I wish you all good health.

 

Gentle Hugs,

Kitt

 

i wish the best for you....


my personal belives of the swine flu..........
anyone else notice last year the US rushed out a crapload of vax's and shot's well well
h1n1 is a manmade virus =p

Edit: The forums are intended for offering mutual personal support.  Debating controversial subjects should be taken elsewhere. 

 

Post Edited By Moderator (stkitt) : 9/23/2009 5:16:50 AM (GMT-6)

There are no new situations that can't be handled by an old saying:  plan for the worst, hope for the best.

To the OP,

Your son certainly wasn't lucky, but in a sense you may be because of him. You've been exposed to the virus but did not get sick, so you probably have antibodies which would make it less likely for you to catch it.

Generally about the topic:

I've got health anxiety, sort of. I'm terrified of three things: food poisoning, vomiting, and influenza. I'm not really afraid of injury or anything else.

So, yeah, this flu has me concerned but for some reason I'm less concerned about it this year than I have been in the past. I don't know why that is, but so far that's the case. Anyway, it's not all media hype. In the beginning I think they got a little carried away, but from what I've read and seen/heard in the rest of the media they don't seem to be going overboard on it now. One thing that's unusual about this flu is that it never went away over the summer. In that regard the media under reported it. Either way, I think it's important to know where outbreaks are so people can take heightened precautions.

There is one thing to keep in mind in the coming months, though. It's very likely to appear worse than it is, and that applies to the flu never going away over the summer. It very well could be that the flu never goes away during the summer, but this year the surveillance network didn't shut down like it normally does. Therefore it caught things we wouldn't have caught in the past. Similarly, as H1N1 is on the minds of people and the government is taking this more seriously than ever, when things really do get cooking they're going to catch more cases that in past flu seasons would have gone unreported. I have very little doubt that this will happen, which is not to say the data is unimportant. It's very important.

I have a question about the vaccine that Kitt will probably be able to answer. I read several months ago that the H1N1 vaccination wouldn't be available until October at the earliest, and a news report I just read said it had FDA approval but was still a month away from distribution. I've heard nothing about the H1N1 vaccine being available in my area. The normal flu vaccine just came out...that I do know. I figured I would just wait and get them all at the same time. Question: is that a good idea or should they be spaced apart? Secondly, I read early on that the H1N1 vaccine would require two doses a week apart. I've read nothing about that since but was wondering if that were true or not. I suspect it's a single dose.

Lastly, and Kitt should correct me on this if I'm wrong, but reports about H1N1 transmission I've read say that hand washing and hygiene are by far the most important ways to prevent the illness (secondary maybe to vaccination, anyway). It's airborne but can live on surfaces for a while, so that's why the hand washing is so important. Otherwise you can be right next to someone who has it and not get it. Just be careful when people sneeze or cough. Yesterday I was in the elevator and it stopped on the third floor and when the doors opened some guy coughed right inside before he even saw me. People like that are who will spread this thing.

I'm not sure whether I'm at moderate or high risk (I don't think anyone is low risk this time around). I work with the public a lot. All day, everyday. However I don't ever have any direct contact with children and I do not work in an office with others. Not sure what to make of it. I do know that if I were to get this flu it would likely mean the end of my business. In this economic climate I cannot afford to take a week off.

Another random thing just popped into my head. I read a month or so ago that in the southern hemisphere the H1N1 seemed to overwhelm the regular seasonal flu, so it's unlikely you'll have both and it could even be that there's less normal seasonal flu circulating. I'm still getting vaccinated against it, though.

Last week there was a school in suburban Dallas that was shut down. 200 kids and 14 teachers had flu like symptoms. On Sunday a 14 year-old Fort Worth girl died. Get this, on Wednesday afternoon she reported a mild fever. It didn't go away so her parents took her to the doctor on Friday. The doctor said her case wasn't bad and there was a shortage of tamiflu, so she didn't get any. According to guidlines only the very young and the elderly are to get it, along with people who have other issues. She was otherwise healthy so they let her go. On Saturday she got worse. Parents called the doctor and he said she still wasn't bad enough for an ER visit. On Sunday morning her parents took her to Cook Children's hospital, where she died of pneumonia some hours later.

Now I don't want to sound cold. I really, really feel for that girl and her parents. But out of all those cases in Collin County nobody is dead. Something else had to be going on with that girl that they didn't know at the time. Right? I know in 1918 the virus would kill people quicker than that, but there's not evidence to suggest that what's going around now is anywhere near that bad. Right?

In Dallas County, there are currently 99 people hospitalized with confirmed H1N1. Roughly a quarter of them are in intensive care units. 68 percent of them are 24 years of age or younger.

Seems to me that the pandemic would stop if they'd just close all schools. As a school nurse you should know how schools breed disease. I like kids and everything but they don't have any sense and won't wash their hands and all that, and when you pack them all together you're just asking for trouble. Since they don't learn anything except how to take standardized tests anyway (at least in Texas), I think they should just give up on the school year. I'm serious. Preventative measure, you know.

But they won't do that.

I still can't decide whether my job puts me more at risk or less at risk, but I guess I can't worry about it.

For everyone: Regular seasonal influenza vaccine is currently available. Latest from CDC puts H1N1 in early or mid-October, so that's coming soon.

Hopefully the vaccine will prove very effective and this won't get that bad. Maybe it's just a weird off year and H1N1 has come sooner because of when it arrived last Spring, and will be gone sooner, too.

Off and on I get pretty worked up about it. Right now I am, and sorry if I've alarmed anyone. So I'll try to throw some good news in here:

Week 37: CDC reports that of all people who were symptomatic and were tested for influenza, more than 75 percent turned out not to have it. Of the less than 25 percent who did, most did have H1N1 as opposed to other strains.

Since the start of the new flu season less than 10 percent of those testing positive for H1N1 have been hospitalized.

So it's very unlikely for any one person to get it right now unless they're some kid in a school where there's an outbreak.

Of those who have tested positive for flu nationwide (during the last reported CDC Week), 99 percent of those positive results were subtyped H1N1. In their words, they expected H1N1 to "overwhelm" the seasonal flu virus, so there may not be much of it out there this year and maybe that's what we're seeing. Or it may just be early for seasonal flu. Regardless, of known cases practically all of them are H1N1 at this time. Almost 50,000 patients were tested during their last reported week...if this were a political poll that would be considered a giant sample size, so I think it's safe to make some inferences from their results.

Closing schools is not practical, I know. And perhaps I overstated it when I said it would "stop the pandemic". It wouldn't stop it, but I think it would slow it to the point at which it would be manageable. When a kid sits in a classroom for hours with another kid who has the virus, he's much more likely to get it than if they were at the park, mall, or wherever kids hang out these days. Outside of school kids also hang out together in much smaller numbers. The primary concern would then be younger children and daycare centers.

The number of people hospitalized in Dallas is indeed very small and statistically insignificant. My point was that of those people, the vast majority were children and adolescents. Prior to school starting, the number was in single-digits. The last date for which data is available is 9/19, and I would not be surprised to see the number double or even triple when they release new information. As far as the number in intensive care goes, I'm not even sure why I mentioned that. If a case is serious enough to be hospitalized there's of course a very good chance that person would be in ICU. I don't think that fact is really applicable to the entire population for any reason.

I think all of this is interesting to track, and from what I can see in the numbers it's kids in school who are going to kick start things for sure. Right now I do feel bad for those who get it but I myself am not paranoid like I was late last night. Like I've said before, I have sort of an interest in the sinus of this whole thing but since I have anxiety (and health anxiety for sure) I have my moments where I go overboard.

In reality, I've been alive now for a little over 33 years. I attended large suburban schools growing up, and a very large university after that. In between I had a stint in the Marine Corps. All of this, and knock on wood, to my knowledge I have NEVER had the seasonal flu. I've had strep throat many times, and every year when I was a kid. In college I had mono, which was the worst communicable disease I've ever had by a long way. Anyway I'm sure I'm not the only one who's never had it. For all I know it's more common never to have had it. But at the same time, there's this novel strain out there and I don't even know first hand what the regular flu is like, so when I do get paranoid it's largely because I have no idea what to expect of it. I mean I read what the symptoms are and I've had all those symptoms before at one time or another but not usually together and probably not to the extent you'd see with an influenza.

Meanwhile I've seen people on TV who've had swine flu and they said it wasn't much different than a normal cold. Then, last night, I hear the news of that poor girl's death over in Fort Worth. My mother, who is 60 years old, has had the flu once in her lifetime and says it was one of the worst things she's ever been through. And that woman had a lot of health problems early in her life. I hear lots of stories similar to that. I imagine there are more stories I never hear, and those are probably going to be the milder cases.

Anyway, it's a big public health issue obviously, but aside from the moments in which I freak out about it, I do know that on an individual basis it's unlikely to affect any single person or family that much if at all.

Put 100,000 people in the Rose Bowl.  Put a guy with a loaded rifle on the 50 yard line.  Have him spin around several times, raise the rifle and fire one shot.  For everyone in the stands the chance of being shot is so close to zero that it may as well be zero.  Nevertheless, for the person who gets shot this is extremely serious and he isn't interested in odds.  If you are reading this you are doing the right thing by keeping your eyes and ears open.  Follow the suggestions of health professionals re washing your hands and so forth.  I have travel plans for every month the rest of this year, but there are certain places I will not be going.  We've been very lucky so far this hurricane season and we've not had a reporter from the weather channel standing on our beach saying "Don't panic, but we're all going to die."  Once again, hope for the best, plan for the worst.

Good Evening Everyone,

Let's put the H1N1 back in the low anxiety category again.  I would like to take this thread back to what we hoped to accomplish here and that was to decrease anxiety re the flu and not let all the news media hype cause our anxiety to sky rocket.

Plain facts:

Novel H1N1 infection has been reported to cause a wide range of flu-like symptoms, including fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue. In addition, many people also have reported nausea, vomiting and/or diarrhea.

Illness with the new H1N1 virus has ranged from mild to severe. Most people who have been sick have recovered without needing medical treatment and yes some people have needed hospitalization.  That does not mean you will should you get the flu.

When the novel H1N1 outbreak was first detected in mid-April 2009, CDC began working with states to collect, compile and analyze information regarding the novel H1N1 flu outbreak, including the numbers of confirmed and probable cases and the ages of these people. The information analyzed by CDC supports the conclusion that novel H1N1 flu has caused greater disease burden on people younger than 25 years of age than older people.

It’s thought that novel influenza A (H1N1 Flu) spreads in the same way that regular seasonal influenza viruses spread, mainly through the coughs and sneezes of people  who are sick with the virus, but it may also be spread by touching infected objects and then touching your nose or mouth.

What can we do to prevent the spread of H1N1 Flu  at home ?

Wash your hands regularly with soap and warm for 20 seconds or clean with alcohol-based hand cleaner if soap and water are not available. Use a paper towel to turn off the faucet and to open the bathroom door. Wash after eating and after using the bathroom, just like your mom always told you.

Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when you cough or sneeze or cough or sneeze into your upper sleeve, not your hands. Put your used tissue in the waste basket.

Consider getting the flu vaccine. The vaccine is very important for people at high risk.

Try to avoid close contact with sick people.

Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. Germs spread this way.

Carry hand sanitizer as a backup for when you can’t get to the sink.

Wipe down public items that everyone uses, including light switches, doorknobs, toilet handles, and toys. Alcohol-based disposable wipes are ideal for this use.

Pay attention to your overall health. Make sure you are getting enough sleep, maintaining a healthy diet and managing stress. By taking care of yourself, your body will be better able to fend off flu viruses.

In community and home settings, the use of facemasks  generally are not recommended.  However, for certain circumstances, a facemask may be considered, specifically for persons at increased risk of severe illness from influenza. At the schools we have been putting them on students that show sx of flu and requiring them to keep the masks on until they have left the building.

IMHO the flu is  one of those topics that may cause health anxiety or anticipatory anxiety so please do try to stay in the moment.  Fall the guideline and use your own best judgement when it comes to your families and to yourselves.

I wish you peace.

 

Kitt