I didn't recognize the phone number that flashed across my computer screen while I was on my first post-Labor Day conference call yesterday morning. A moment later, I realized that it was my daughter's elementary school.
Before I had time to react (after all, it was only Kindergarten Day 6), my cell phone rang. It was the school nurse. I hit the mute button on my office phone, and steeled myself for the report. While I "listened" to a discussion about plans for an upcoming work conference, I "listed" (mentally) my questions:
Does my daughter have the swine flu?
What are her symptoms?
Should I bring her to the pediatrician or should we go straight to the emergency room?
Would she need to be in quarantine for 7 days? Should she start on anti-viral medication?
Is my son also infected?
How will my husband and I split up the sick-and well-kid child care?
And so on. Before last week, I might not have begun my foreboding with the novel influenza A (H1N1) virus - what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now calls the swine flu.
The top contender on my list would have been tummy ache. My daughter, who is already rehearsing her Academy Award acceptance speech, has perfected imaginary stomach pains that have convinced many a preschool teacher. Her fondness for snack, especially birthday cupcakes, usually tripped her up, though.
The runner-up would have been lice. We'd already lived through a preschool lice episode that left our curly-haired family with a lot less hair. And we'd spent weeks searching the remnants of hair still on our scalps for nits with a jeweler's head visor magnifying glass with a swiveling headlight. (We do like our gear.) Our school system had sent home a lice "fact sheet" the first week of kindergarten signaling the presence of the ever-present threat.
But primed as I was by all of the "back-to-school" stories about the swine flu (see, for example, the Wall Street Journal's Swine Flu Primer for working families on The Juggle blog and Tara Parker-Pope's Well blog Monday's Times), I was certain it was the novel H1N1 virus. Indeed,the CDC last week reported an "uptick" in the virus among school children in the Southeast, where students returned to school in mid-August.
The nurse, perhaps used to dealing with parental apprehensions, preempted my inquiries.
My daughter had hit her head, just above her eyebrow. Play-Doh was the culprit. Actually, she had hit her head on a table while retrieving some of the crumbly stuff that had fallen on the ground. She was fine. No brain damage. No cosmetic blemishes. No anything. Really.
I talked to my daughter on the phone. She was happy and excited by her visit to the health unit. Ominously, she declared that the nurse's office was "awesome."
I jumped back onto my work call and continued the conversation. But I wondered whether the next call from the nurse would be about the swine flu. Even though the evidence is still out on whether the novel H1N1 virus will be more lethal than the seasonal flu, which usually kills 50-100 children each year, the data show that the virus affects preschool and school-aged children disproportionately in terms of infection, hospitalization, and death rates. And while 67% of the 36 children who have died had other high-risk medical conditions, that's not really comforting. It's sad.
After speaking with the nurse, I clicked on the common-sense tips for working parents that Currentmom.com founder Katherine Reynolds Lewis culled together for her About.com post on the implications of the swine flu pandemic for working moms earlier this year. Here they are - in very abbreviated form (they work for seasonal flu and other viruses too):
1. Be informed. Know the symptoms.
2. Take reasonable precautions. Cover your mouth and your nose (but not with your hand), wash your hands, get vaccinated, stay away from sick people, and keep your sick child away from others.
3. Don't panic. Don't communicate anxiety to your child. Respect but don't fear the swine flu.
4. Plan for days off from work. Hoard paid sick days (if you have them - check out this post from MomsRising on the swine flu and sick leave), look into telecommuting arrangements, and arrange back up babysitting.
Ironically, after worrying about my daughter yesterday, my son woke up this morning with a slight fever and a cough. So, I'm home doing the sick kid shuffle today. Still, I'm hopeful that by taking all these precautions, maybe this will be our healthiest winter yet. And that the nurse's next call will involve only another artwork accident.
Photo: CDC - "Cover your nose with a tissue when you sneeze. Visit www.cdc.gov/h1n1 for more information."
How do you manage to be funny in a post about swine flu? And yet, I laughed out loud imagining all those future trips to the "awesome" health center for phantom stomach aches. Thanks for linking to my piece about the swine flu and working moms -- I think the key is to be prepared but not panic. My daughter's best friend already had swine flu last month, and it was very mild. So while it's no picnic to stay home with a sick kid for multiple days, at least this strain appears to be on the mild side for otherwise healthy children.
Posted by: Katherine | Wednesday, September 09, 2009 at 01:04 PM
Thanks. Well, it is important to have a sense of humor about all this. In case you want to laugh a little more, my daughter had another "artwork accident" today. Something to do with an easel, I think. She got another visit to the nurse's office out of it. I'm afraid she's found her "niche" - apparently she was very friendly to everyone in the health unit and the nurse said she was "delightful." She did get a little bruise on her head this time. I have to admit I'm a tad nervous about what's going to happen tomorrow . . . .
Posted by: Stacy | Wednesday, September 09, 2009 at 05:07 PM
Did you see the piece on NBC Nightly News tonight? They say that small business owners may be hit hardest when an employee gets sick or has to stay home with a sick child. They mentioned that Dr's offices, for instance, may be brought to a screeching hault if a receptionist is home sick and no one is cross trained to fill that position. How are other enterpreneurs getting ready for this? I would love to hear.
Posted by: MRJ | Monday, September 14, 2009 at 09:23 PM
I actually feel a whole lot better about H1N1 after reading the article and comments. Thanks!
Posted by: Emily Rodman | Thursday, September 17, 2009 at 02:29 PM