Please, No.

I have so many dark, horrible feelings about Swine Flu. Call me a crazed, uninformed citizen, and I'll agree. But I am scared of it.

Haven, my niece, was diagnosed with swine flu on Monday. We had been with her on Sunday night. We also found out that a little boy in our ward, who attended nursery on Sunday, also got diagnosed with swine flu at the start of the week. We heard that there were 500 people in the Instacare by Peanut's doctor's office over the weekend, all with swine flu symptoms. We heard on the news last night that 10 people have died from swine flu in Utah.

Lucy had a cold starting last Thursday and it's still going strong. Doug got a sore throat on Monday but it went away yesterday. Isaac got a cough yesterday, along with a runny nose and low fever (100.6) and the cough got worse today. The fever has been off and on and we've been giving him Tylenol. I woke up this morning with a sore throat, a headache, and achy, painful joints. I have chronic hives that don't cause me any troubles unless my immune system's struggling. So I'm itchy too. And taking Tylenol.

I am just so worried. I called the after-hours nurse tonight to describe Isaac's symptoms and see if he ought to be seen. She was almost COMPLETELY unintelligible. I do not understand why people hired to help on the phone are allowed to be hard to understand. She is no doubt brilliant, competent, and wonderful. But she should not be allowed to handle phone calls where the information she shares is vitally important. She said I should bring both kids in tomorrow, so I'll do that and report on our findings.

Haven is fine. She passed through her incredibly high fever and pain and lethargy, and miraculously avoided getting her siblings and parents sick. I am SO glad. But I'm just sick about this horrible flu and sick with worry for my children. And I'm sick, which makes everything tougher. I'm praying hard and I just want this virus and every other horrible thing on earth to shrivel up and die.