Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Does she have IT?

H1N1, that is....
I got an email from the high school yesterday with an attachment from the Johnson County Department of Public Health about the symptoms of H1N1 influenza, and what to do if you think your child has it. It turns out that yesterday there were approximately 400 students absent from the high school (out of about 1200). I was a bit worried about J15 last night when she fell asleep on the couch and then went to bed before 9. She came home this afternoon feverish and achey.
I'm not sure if she picked something up at school or if she has what I had over the weekend. I would have thought it was H1N1 except I didn't have any of the respiratory symptoms. I was just incredibly tired, achey and feverish. She sounds much the same. So she'll probably get to stay home tomorrow (we'll see in the morning). I just hope no one else gets it (she says with vain hope).
I had a crazy evening. I was home from work for just over an hour then dropped I12 off at church at 6:30 and headed to our old house to work on painting the basement walls in the laundry area. I vastly underestimated both the time it would take me as well as how much paint those cinder block walls would suck up. I had to call V to pick up Ian at 8 and painted until close to 930. Then I only stopped because I was out of paint. But I have all of one wall done and the worst part of the adjoining wall behind the dryer (the damp corner). I'll need to get more paint and try to find time to finish that East wall. I've never painted with Drylok paint before. I didn't realize how thick it was until I opened the can. It was more like I was icing the wall than painting. But it really soaks into the cement and V says it does a great job of sealing out the water. I just hope it cures enough before we get rain tomorrow. That corner of the basement only leaks when the gutter overflows but, unfortunately, I think the gutter is clogged with leaves because it was pretty damp back there. I'll have to see if V can reach the gutter from the bathroom window enough to clear it out some (I'd do it myself but I'm too short to reach that far- I've tried).
I just hope all this pays off. I would really like to get that house sold so we don't have to heat it over the winter. Even though we can keep the heat at a minimal level there, I cringe at the thought of paying to heat 2 houses. That and the financial cushion that we had is slowly fading away the longer we are doing this. We were pretty confident that our house would sell quickly so we took some risks. I just hope it works out. I'm getting a bit nervous with the economy not really coming around.

7 comments:

  1. Is renting it out a possibility in a college town? That should cover the heating and most other costs at the very least....

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  2. I hope the Drylock does the trick for you-it's amazing stuff!
    Keeping my fingers crossed that you guys didn't get the start of the flu at your place.

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  3. I am listening to your house selling with caution, we will be in a similiar place this spring.
    Were you required to be vaccinated since work in a hospital? I am on the fence whether to vaccinate the girls.-The intra nasal doesn't seem so bad...Its interesting how you describe your illness-both my 11 year old and I had the same thing 3 weeks ago-achey tired, mild fever, she was down for 2 days-me? I was down for an entire week-just really TIRED. I thought I had mono :}
    Hope your household stays healthy!
    Kris

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  4. Fingers crossed for you (and me as well that the Land Contract people stay focused on their bills) that the house sells or rents quickly.

    We have 2 houses to heat this winter unless we get the little city house rented out (we've had many calls about renting-I was hoping to sell it, but we may become landlords again).

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  5. Frank- we could probably rent but we really don't want to get into the renting racket in this town. Plus, some of our financial plans are dependent on selling it...and there is the insurance piece of it...and, right now, the fact that it has been a single family home and NOT a rental is a selling point. In this town, the majority of rental properties get trashed and we don't want that to happen.
    Sue- V has used drylok at his parent's house and says it's amazing.
    Kris- yeah, we had mandatory flu vaccine at work but just for the seasonal one (they don't have the H1N1 yet) but I'm still not convinced that what is going around is influenza.
    Gina- I was thinking about you as I was bemoaning our house woes. I hope everything works out for you quickly. You've been going through this much longer than we have. Good luck!
    Judy

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  6. My son was diagnosed with "probable H1N1" last Friday when I took him in with a 103 fever that evening... by Saturday morning he wanted to go ride bikes, so we dodged that bullet for now! Gotta love school - germ factories! I hope we can hold out until Oct 28th when we have our appt to get both the seasonal and H1N1 vaccine! Unfortunately since they are young, they will have to have the needle. I never ever skip the flu vaccines since I have had the real flu twice in my life and I thought I was dead both times!

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  7. I'm catching up here....hope you all are on the mend! I took Tyler to the doctor last night thinking he had the flue - just bad bronchitis. WHat a relief!
    Kris

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