My Husband "Subvet" says that when our first son "Sonshine" was born the sun rose on our world, when our second son "Gator" was born the sun laughed and when our daughter "Sugars" was born all the flowers bloomed. That says it all.

"Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass...
It's about learning how to dance in the rain."
Anonymous

Your mind is the garden, your
thoughts are the seeds, the harvest can either be flowers or weeds. — William
Wordsworth

Friday, May 1, 2009

The Swine Flu

oh geez. it's all anyone's talking about. Who's doing what when because of the swine flu.

Ok folks. Here's my 3 cents worth. (since I'm an RN I'm upping it from the usual 2 cents!)

Everyone needs to take a collective deep breath and chill a bit.
To help with this I am including excerpts from the flyer circulated by the group of hospitals I work for in Dallas regarding the swine flu.


The swine flu is receiving prime placement in local newspaper headlines and in both local and national radio, television and online news stories.
It is important to understand that the swine flu is not yet a severe pandemic. There are only a few isolated cases that have been reported.

If you think you might have symptoms that are similar to those indicating swine flu, make an appointment with your primary care physician or call his/her office. If you do not have a primary care physician, visit your urgent care clinic. Only visit the hospital’s Emergency Department if you have a true medical emergency.

Remember: it is important to practice good hand hygiene and cough manners. Washing your hands on a regular basis and coughing and sneezing into a tissue or your sleeve instead of your hands will help eliminate the spread of infectious germs.


and there's this from my hospital's Employee Heath Nurse:
If you have not received the flu vaccine this fall, this is a needed time to receive. The flu vaccine will not prevent you from getting the Swine Flu but will help with having severe symptoms and prevent it from mutating into another strand. Please get the flu vaccine if you have not already.

So, wash your hands, cover your cough/sneeze, don't kiss strangers, and get the flu shot every fall!! Also, folks, remember that this flu is NOT resisitant to any medication. So if you do feel sick go to the doctor and take your medicine as prescribed. (I won't go into a rant...but the #1 reason that any illness has become resistant to medicine is because a bunch of folk quit taking it as soon as they feel better...or don't take it as often as they're supposed to. FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS!)

There, feel better??

10 comments:

... said...

a little. and what... i can't kiss any strangers!? =)

no, seriously, i haven't been freaked out over it. just wanting to keep my eye on the progress of it. thanks for the info.

Diane@Diane's Place said...

I'm in cautious watching mode here. No panicking, just use common sense as you would with ANY communicable disease.

I received your card in the mail today, and thanks again for sending it. :o)

Love and hugs,

Diane

Stephanie D said...

Thanks for the public service announcement! I'm doing my part--staying away from work, playing in the dirt, and only kissing my husband and the dog--and not necessarily in that order.

nancy said...

Thanks for the good advice. I hope we don't stop doing these things once this one is over. There are lots of scary microbes running around these days. Caution is always going to be appropriate in this world.

Subvet said...

"FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS!"

Real men don't need no stinking directions!

ABNPOPPA said...

Amen, Subvet, Amen!

Pops

Sherry said...

I'm tempted to suggest having fun with this, coughing while in line at the grocery store to watch people bump you up in line so as to get you out of the store faster, but thanks for the common sense reminder and I'm not that mean anyway.

Rita Loca said...

Having lived most of my life in third world countries, I have to say that I am finding the reaction to this to be a little bit exaggerated.
Common sense is always a good idea!

NCSue said...

Chicken Little - THE SKY IS NOT FALLING!!! I'm an RN, too, and have been a bit astonished at the level of alarm this thing has generated. As you said, common sense goes a long way - wash your hands frequently, cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze, and avoid exposing others if you're sick, and you'll have come a long way towards minimizing the impact of this scare.

Thanks!

NCSue
http://acts17verse28.blogspot.com/

Unknown said...

Thanks for a refreshing dose of common sense!! My neighbor seemed so freaked out about the news! Could this be a sample/test run by the gov't to see how we respond to biological attacks? Just asking.
Also, isn't it funny, we've sunk to such a low spot as to only wash our hands when the gov't tells us to! I want to holler out ""Geeze people, think for yourselves!