Well, Christmas 2014 did NOT go as planned!! We had big plans to go to the family Christmas Eve party in Salt Lake and then head to Mesa, AZ for a week. We had all been looking forward to the trip for a while. We told the kids that the trip was their present so I didn't do much shopping.
On December 19th Maggie woke up not feeling well. She ran a fever of 103 all that Sunday and was still running a fever on Monday. I took her to the Dr. Monday afternoon. Sure enough, she had Influenza A.
And yes, we all got our flu shots this year like we do every year! Apparently the flu virus mutated after the vaccine was made so too bad for us!
I asked the Dr what the chance was that all of the family would get the flu and he chuckled and said, "pretty good!". Hmmmm, not what we wanted for Christmas.
Todd and I discussed what to do about our trip. Of course, I called Dr. Mike in Mesa to get more info about when you are contagious and for how long. It wasn't looking good for us. We made the decision to cancel the trip and a few days later we were glad we did.
By Christmas Eve I was sick. Todd and I spent Christmas Eve in the ER with tons of other people! It took us 2 hours to see the Dr but we got the Tamiflu I needed.
Tate was the next victim. By Friday, Dec. 26th he was sick. Todd and Ethan were the next to go on Saturday, Dec 27th. We were doomed to spend our entire Christmas break sick!!
It got a little tricky finding pharmacies with Tamiflu. With the botched flu vaccines the flu was spreading like wild fire all over the nation. This created quite the demand for Tamiflu. When I went to get Maggie's they only had half the amount so I had to go back the next day and get the rest. When I went to get Tate's, same story, only half the amount so I had to go back 2 days later to get the rest. When I went to get Ethan's they were totally out at every pharmacy in town!
The cost was outrageous. Even with insurance it cost us $37 per prescription. We ended up filling 4 prescriptions and Todd ended up "sharing" with the rest of us.
None of the doctors we saw were firm believers in Tamiflu. They said all the studies showed that it only shortened the flu by about 12 to 15 hours. I have to say that was not our experience. It certainly seemed to ease the symptoms by A LOT. Maggie had been running a fever of 103 for 2 days, she was just miserable, she took the Tamiflu in the evening and by the next day she was up playing and feeling so much better. Same with me, I was completely miserable, running a high fever, I took the Tamiflu and by the next day was feeling so much better. We weren't cured by any means but we were much better and feeling human again.
So we ended up spending our entire 2 week Christmas break being sick. Cora was the only one not to get sick. That girl has one good immune system! It wasn't the break we were expecting and I don't ever want to do it again! Here's hoping we have a healthier new year!
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