3-3-25, flu: lessons being learned.

Flu, 3'rd day obvious symptoms for her, 2'nd for me, first day for the chilluns.  THEY don't don't know it, but it it's obvious to us.

Typical influenza, from what I remember.  It's been many years since I had the real thing.

LOT'S of coughing, intermittent but non-stop.  Headaches all round.  Lethargy, aches, and pains. Fever, light but there, 100-101.  No appetite.  Some nausea and the fun stuff that goes with it.

So, lessons being learned.  Tamiflu appears to work.  Certainly not a cure, but it seems to be shortening the time period and the severity of the symptoms. This makes sense.  If the viral loading can be retarded, good things can happen.

Tamiflu good. We Americans must get a docs permission to have the Tamiflu.  Funny how only the wealthiest nations require that.

The way our system is engineered, the Tamiflu is prevented from doing it's job by stupid regs.  We are not supposed to call the doc till we are three days in, and then it can take a day to get even an E-appointment, and then off to the drugstore to get the med. That makes it 4 days into a 9 day flu. So, here is the best I have come up with to short circuit the evil regulators who delight in our suffering.

Here, a quick E-visit with urgent care will get the scrip sent in, but they require you to self-test with a flu detection tester first.  That means stumbling off to the drugstore to get that kit while you are in full blown flu mode, and back again once the doc allows you to have the medication.  Next time I will have those kits on hand before flu season even begins.  *I* don't care what flavor of flu I have, but the system demands to know before we can have help, even though that help is exactly the same no matter what the tester says we have.

Also, the E-doc did not ask for an image of the little lines on the tester thingy. This leaves the way open for a nefarious ne'er-do-well (Like me) to simply say 'Hell yes, the whole family tested positive for Flu A, and we only have one bathroom!'.  That would get scrips for everyone, and the lucky ones could take the Tamiflu as the symptoms set in rather than wait till they are almost gone as the system requires.

Other lessons:  Be SURE of the OTC meds on hand.  We have lot's of stuff for various ailments, but the one thing Flu demands... we didn't have.  Nyquil.  It's the only thing that cuts the coughing enough to get some sleep, and sleep is critical.   I was pretty certain I'd seen two bottles on the bathroom closet shelf..... grrrr.  I expect we will consume 4 to 6 bottles between the four of us  Next time I will be stocked up when it's on sale, and I will LOCK IT UP to be sure it's there.

By day two we had worked out a system of grunts and hand signals to communicate.  Nobody has voice enough left to do more than whisper... and groan.

I'm sure more lessons will present themselves.   Meanwhile, I need to get back the doing and stuff, since somebody has to.