Swine Flu?

Smudge was a sick little munchkin last night and today. Poor little chicken! She was up most of the night up-chucking and the whole house was dead tired and worried this morning. She wouldn't eat or drink and had been throwing up all night. She had a terrible cough, fever and cried every time she coughed as if her throat was very sore. Was she showing signs of Swine Flu? What should we do?

Mommy called the doctor's office first thing this morning and wouldn't you know the office was closed for the day. The ER was called next to see if I could talk to an ER nurse. All I got was a recorded message telling us to stay at home if we had flu symptoms, and call our family doctor. Great. Now what? The message did give me a Swine Flu hot-line number to call, and as soon as I hung up the phone I dialed that number.

Ahh, sweet relief. I got to talk to a real person. She was very calming and reassuring. She listened to all Smudge's symptoms, gave me a list of things to watch for and actions to take if I saw any of them, and told me to take her to the ER if my inner voice told me Smudge just wasn't right as the day progressed. I felt much better after talking to her, and felt like we had an action plan to follow. After I talked to her, we sent Daddy off to work, Mommy off to the drug store for meds, and Buppa rocked Smudge while I tended to Jboy. It was a family affair, and we all made it through the day just fine. A tad tired, but fine.

The above picture showed how Smudge spent most of the day, but by the time we left around supper time, she was up watching TV and had a bit of her old sparkle back. Amma and Buppa came home for a much needed rest. Smudge had an egg and toast for dinner and kept it all down. Yahoo! Let's all celebrate.

Here's hoping she has a much better night tonight. We could all use a good sound sleep.