Flu Like Symptoms

When your only editor is ill and you've got a small office it doesn't matter what everyone else does nothing gets published. Nothing gets up and nothing gets out. So boo on the small office and small businesses. There should be medium businesses or nothing at all. Small businesses are too personality driven. So welcome our new senior editor who was interviewed and hired before our illnesses but didn't have any access necessary to start work.

Our "flu like symptoms" didn't include a fever and only included coughing and migraine like headaches that felt like our heads would explode. To remind you here's what the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said were the symptoms for H1N1. (Warning Signs) Though we do have to admit that their exact words were: "You may have the flu if you have some or all of these symptoms." While their symptoms numbered nine (9) ours personally only numbered four (4). The CDC list concluded with this asterix: "It’s important to note that not everyone with flu will have a fever."

Yeah, well we missed that and should be excused because we had flu like symptoms!

We made fun of Dr. Sanjay Gupta when he complained of his H1N1 symptoms. Ours we're the same. We weren't nauseated and our entire body didn't hurt nor the freezing cold. We sweat but without the fever. We couldn't hold ourselves up and other than taking ourselves to the nearby bathroom it was difficult to stand. There was some dizziness. That was just when the trouble began.

This editor got married and joined his spouse in holy matrimony and medical insurance coverage without his prior medical records and only his current medications. Without a medical history this editor made the mistake that can result in disastrous medical mistakes not included in the website Wrong Diagnosis.

Complications due to adverse interaction resulted in a one (1) day hospitalization. Other complications included a rejection of his doctor's specific prescription by the insurance company (which included a letter received one week later explaining their reasons), in-house staffing problems within the doctor's office (which was duplicated from prior physicians offices and may indeed be a common problem) and timing (getting sick as the doctor goes on vacation). This just wasn't our month!

On our first real day of health (there's still some coughing on all our parts but other than that) some of us attended church services as a group to discover that the 19th Street Baptist Church(located on 16th St in a building that was a former synagogue. Considered the "First Colored Church of Washington" some how it all makes sense in a very strange and bizarre way) had a guest speaker - former Governor now HHS Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius. This turned out to be the start of: National Influenza Vaccination Week.

“This is a challenging flu season for millions of Americans and their families, and it’s not over yet,” said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. “The H1N1 vaccine is safe, effective and the best way to prevent the flu. We urge all Americans to protect themselves and their families by getting the H1N1 flu vaccine.”

From April 2009 until mid-November 2009, H1N1 flu infected approximately 47 million Americans and contributed to more than 200,000 hospitalizations and nearly 10,000 deaths. Flu season is unpredictable and typically lasts until May.

“The window of opportunity to get the H1N1 vaccine is still open,” said Thomas R. Frieden, M.D., M.P.H., director of CDC. “We do not know how many more cases of flu there will be in the coming weeks and months, but we do know that the H1N1 vaccine is the best way to protect yourself.”

Launched in 2006 as an annual initiative, National Influenza Vaccination Week brings awareness of flu’s risks and complications—and encourages vaccination—by designating each day of the week for an at-risk group or individuals who are in close contact with them. So far, over 130 events are planned around the country, and more are being added.

"Sebelius got a mixed reaction when she kicked off vaccination week Sunday at a prominent Washington church" MSNBC. We didn't think so but unlike MSNBC we thought her response was warm. However according to the individual volunteers less than 200 shots were given out on the rainy Sunday after Haiti afternoon. Though the church is largely African-American the few stragglers at evenings end were not. We were in that number. So we must concede that indeed the reaction was mixed if not warm.

We were at the right place and the right time doing the right thing. Just as Secretary Sebelius dropped this bombshell about the H1N1 that the rate of infection was "five (5) times higher than in the regular flu season." This would indicate that failure to inoculate the vast majority of resident can create a financial and medical disaster that affects us. Better crowded shot lines than crowded emergency rooms and doctor's office. All can serve to make treatment, that even in the less trying times can result in less than quality care - insurance or no insurance.