Ben had the flu

So, Ben had the flu this week. You would never have known it except that on Thursday evening/Friday morning he had a pretty high temperature (102.5 at one point) and was tossing and turning throughout the night. So, Friday morning, I took the girls to school for their last day before break, while Joe took Ben to the dr. Klara also had her Primary performance she did not want to miss. They automatically did a test for flu since he had the high temperature, as well as the fact that his sister Klara had had the flu on Dec 7. Ben had his flu shot (of course!) and had a course of tamiflu when Klara had the flu. But, with his immune system being so suppressed, those things don't always work as effectively. His test came up positive for flu a. The same as his sister. Though, his teachers had told us that 3 kids went home sick with fevers that week, so it is also possible that he got sick from the school. Or anywhere outside of school. Or in the hospital during his biopsy. Anything is possible. Especially since Klara had been better for over a week and a half by the time Ben got sick. Anyways, they immediately put Ben on tamiflu again. Due to his transplant he has to go on tamiflu if he has the flu, even though he had been on preventative tamiflu just 2 weeks before.They also upped the amount of his breathing treatment he gets to 2 puffs a day, and added in some of his xoponex. We also decreased the amount of his cellcept to allow his body to fight off the infection. But, only for 7 days so that he does not reject.

Later on that evening, I started getting a headache and cough and feeling very blah. Joe took my temperature and I had a slight fever as well. I went to the urgent care and they gave me tamiflu as well since i have asthma and having the flu can result in pneumonia, asthma exacerbation and hospitalization as well as being on oxygen. They also gave me robitussin with codeine, which helps with the coughing at night. Though that has gotten better too.

Ben has actually looked REALLY good. I attribute this to his flu shot and first course of tamiflu really helping out. He only looked really sick on Friday morning. After a couple of doses of tylenol and the first dose of tamiflu, he looked perfectly fine. He was actually playing with his sisters by that evening. I felt better by Saturday morning, though still really tired and really achey. I feel almost like myself today.

All this is to say, even though the flu shot was not a good match this year because one of the strains mutated, it DOES help minimize and shorten the duration of the flu, even when it is a different strain. If Ben had not gotten the flu shot, or if he had not gotten his first course of tamiflu, I think we would have had a much different course. Perhaps hospitalization, perhaps it would have been weeks of illness. It probably would not have involved my spunky boy who is right now running around playing with his sisters and breaking their houses ;)

Eating (pasteurized) eggnog on Saturday

With Klara, after running around

Playing in his heart hero cape