Grumbling observations, personal and general….
Observation: The flu treatment plan is a work in progress.
Testing is strange — tests seem to confirm in couple of hours, but take 24 hours to disconfirm, but by then patient may actually develop the flu (either that or their are several tests out there…) and nothing is definite since tests don’t confirm specific flu (seasonal or H1N1). Logic is applied: you have tested positive for flu, and since we have not seen seasonal flu cases in this area yet, it must be H1N1 (problem is, folks like me who have now had “confirmed” H1N1 walk around as if immune, but what if it was false positive for H1N1 and really was seasonal; am I really off the hook now or should I take the vaccine when provided?)
No wonder the words used by CDC are parsed.
And those parsed words are changing and problematic as well, since the instructions you get depends on the last time the medical staff read them. So as of now I am more than 24 hours without fever, although not fully asymptomatic since I have a lingering cough. From all I can tell, this cough will linger for awhile — some place I read it hangs on for weeks. In acknowledging such, CDC modified its advice on H1N1 from 24 hours fever-free plus no symptoms to 24 hours fever-free. But that update does not seem to be passed on….
Then there is the paranoiac behavior of grown-ups who only hear what they want to hear. Oblivious to information, they wander around seeking a temporary germ-free lifestyle and conjure up Monty Pythonic images of their bodies being tossed onto rickety old wooden carts while they scream “but I’m not dead yet!” One begins to understand how quickly all pretenses of civility and common sense courtesies disappear during periods of real panic — and why those who keep some sense of proportion and concern deserve all the admiration we bestow on them. At minimum they are worthy of being called “mensches” — but sometimes they are rewarded cultish sainthood….
Bottom line, however, is that if what I had was H1N1, then all I can say is that the bodily illness itself will likely prove a hell of a lot less annoying to its individual victims (actually, pretty mild compared to previous flu bouts) than will its social consequences….
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