Swine Flu

Since I mentioned that Trey had Swine Flu in my last update, I thought I should give a bit more info, lest any of you worry. :)

It turns out that many children, teens and adults who went to camp around the country this year have caught swine flu. Camps are keeping it alive and well - apparently this strain of the virus lives just fine in the heat of summer. Trey went to and returned from camp just fine, but a few days later began to cough a bit, then a few days after that had a fever and a headache. Since I heard that someone else had gotten H1N1, I took him to the doctor to be tested. (With the mild symptoms he had, I never would have taken him in without having heard about the possibility.) Sure enough, he tested positive for type A flu (which they considered to be H1N1 because the other type A doesn't last in the summer). He was put on tamiflu and sent home to stay in his room for five days (yeah, RIGHT!). The fever lasted about another 24 hrs. He had a slight stuffy nose, and the cough lasted for a couple more days. But other than those "hardly anything" symptoms, he was fine, and recovered in two days - with no one else in the family catching it.

BUT the thing is....
Because of the dang media hype about H1N1, some people freak out when they hear someone has swine flu. So some people were scared to be around our whole family! And for a people-person like me, it was a blow to the psyche. Leon had to be out of town on business, so mom (me) and four kids were stuck in the house - with neighbor kids running away from us when they saw us, and some folks acting like we had the plague. Thank God that my own family didn't worry about contamination, or I would have been in the loony bin from loneliness.

All that actually made me think about what kind of person I am. I realized that, although I want to protect my kids from danger and harmful things, I want to show love to other people MORE. I would risk my kids catching a virus to reach out and help a friend or be kind to someone. Not that I wouldn't wash hands and be smart about it, but I'm just not that worried I guess. I suppose that's why I don't have a problem taking them downtown to see drunk, un-bathed, toothless men (although some homeless folks are like that, not all are.) and even allow them to hold hands with those folks if they want to pray. Good grief, it would be terrible if I taught my kids (either literally or with actions) to say, "Oh, we just came to give you some water, but we don't want to touch you."! Now I really shouldn't get on my high-horse and think I'm too wonderful. I should probably realize that there are circumstance where I put my family's safety or comfort first at the expense of others. God show me how I can be more like you in this way.

Anyway, we are all fine and so are all the other campers who got swine flu. (I think it ended up being a couple dozen from our church - some treated, some not.) And as always, there were lessons to be learned from the experience.

The more I live, the more I realize that I can thank God in all circumstances for the good he brings forth from everything.