oink

Last night, out of the blue, Maggie started running a fever of 103.3, and before we could even get her upstairs and ready for bed, she'd fallen asleep on the couch in her clothes - very unlike her! I took her to the doctor this morning; on the off chance that it was the flu, I knew that we had a very short window in which to begin taking the antiviral drug Tamiflu.

This morning, Maggie's behavior was back to normal as was her temperature. I almost didn't call the doctor, but thank God for that mommy instinct - I just wanted to be 100% sure. Turns out, she does in fact have the flu! (I have to say here that she was SO GOOD during her flu test. Usually she FREAKS for any sort of test - finger prick, swab, or otherwise - and the last time she had a strep or flu test, we had to literally hold her down in the chair ... so awful. Today, she sat very still in the chair - whimpering, but not fighting.)

We didn't get to see our regular pediatrician since it was Saturday, but we saw the lady who's probably our second favorite. When she came back into the room to tell us the test was positive, I asked her about H1N1, figuring everyone's been asking about that. She answered that "everything out there right now" is H1N1, so I guess they're just assuming that's what Maggie has.

Ugh. Swine flu ... and we don't even eat pig! :) (just kidding ... I know it has nothing to do with eating pig or not)

Maggie is acting relatively OK today - she's mostly upbeat and playful, though she has occasional sudden crashes. Hopefully this means her case is mild and she won't have a long recovery. The only other time she had flu was spring of 2007, and it lasted an entire week. That time, we missed our Tamiflu window, but we were able to get some today (one pharmacy in town has it!), so again, hopefuly this will help. I wonder if this means she'll have added immunity for the remainder of flu season.

Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers!