Rhiza Labs FluTracker Forum

Keep in mind, everyone around here seems to have forgotten about flu. It is never mentioned, I don't think I hear it on the news at all. However, Texas Children's Hospital still announces, when they call you for an appointment reminder, that they are screening for flu. This has been in place since the pandemic began.

Those of you who have been here for awhile may remember that my youngest daughter has Cystic Fibrosis (CF). We found out this afternoon that her best friend, with whom we all spent a lot of time yesterday evening (cramped in a car as well as at a restaurant), has developed flu and strep throat. According to his mom's facebook posts, he feels horrible.

Given the risk to our daughter, we decided to try to get her some Tamiflu. The pediatrician was already closed and we couldn't reach her CF nurse. So we put it off, but when we picked her up from daycare she was slightly warm, and indeed she had a very very slight fever as measured under the arm. While there we learned that, apparently, there has been a lot of flu in the 2-year old class. Another child, I was say probably an after-schooler, came to the office while we were there, shivering terribly (it was 80 here today). I would guess he was easily 102-103 based on how cold he appeared.

At this point we decided to contact the pulmonary oncall doctor at Texas Children's. The conversation I had with the doctor (probably a resident) was interesting. I asked for prophylactic Tamiflu. She said she needed to check with another doctor, as she hasn't written any prophylaxis prescriptions, they have just been writing for patients who have flu (sounds rather like they have seen a lot of them).

In late summer 2009 we received a prescription for Tamiflu for our daughter so we could get it if we needed it. In fact, we picked up the powder and kept it on hand to mix when we needed it. Pharmacies later ran out of the powder and had to compound it.

We picked up her Tamiflu tonight. Our pharmacy does *not* compound. But, this Tamiflu was compounded (adult dose capsules were broken open and mixed with water, the manufacturer provides instructions on how to do this). The implication is that there has been so much flu in children around here that they are out of the pediatric formulation, much as what happened in fall of 2009. I wonder what it is like elsewhere in Houston. I will have to ask our pulmonary doctor when our daughter goes for her routine checkup on Monday.

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I am not a doctor, virologist, or any of type of medical/life sciences professional.

I am a layman with a background in the physical sciences.

Thanks for the detailed update. I suspect the shortages are widespread. The vaccine is not very effective at this time, and P&I deaths will be at 8.25% tomorrow, representing the 4th week in a row that it is above 8% and above the epidemic threshold.

H1N1 doesn't read agency or media reports or press releases. It is alive and well and increasing in frequency.

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www.twitter.com/hniman

wotan,
I hope the Tamiflu does the trick!

I went to the doctor's office on Tuesday. (Houston also, but I probably live 40 miles or more to the SE of wotan) 12 doctors in the practice with one waiting room. (very personal practice - NOT) My appointment was for 9:30, and I waited 2 hours to get into a room and then another 20 minutes or so until the doctor came in. While I waited, the staff made announcements like "Dr. B is running 1 hour behind. If you need to reschedule your appointment ...." They made that announcement for 3 of the doctors, if not 4, including mine. His nurse said that on Monday, they were there until 8:00 seeing patients, and that is well beyond their closing time.

I was not there for any ili symptoms, but hope that I don't come down with any. Took an elevator with a man in his twenties who sat down on a bench to wait for the elevator to come down from the 4th floor to the lobby. He looked pretty bleary, and if I had seen any stairs, I would have walked up them.

A lot of sniffles, but not a lot of wracking coughs.

Wotan,

I will sincerely pray for your daughter's health this weekend.

Jim

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I used to think I had to understand in order to believe, but then I realized that I had to believe in order to understand. - Augustine

So far from our side we are doing fine. We had some concern last night when our daughter went to sleep "early" (read, at a decent time, she normally keeps herself awake until after 9:30) without any prompting. But the only effect of that was that she woke up at a good time and in a good mood. Maybe the vaccine worked for her (I find it hard to believe she was not exposed to a lot of virus) or maybe the Tamiflu will keep it in check.

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I am not a doctor, virologist, or any of type of medical/life sciences professional.

I am a layman with a background in the physical sciences.

Wotan

Hope your daughter is recovering!

Well it looks like the flu has struck my home big time. My son started on about Tues. feeling run down, had the sniffles, now has the cough....

Husband was fine up till about 10 pm last night and then wham, he started coughing, got achy, got hot, then cold etc. Has been lying about all day and evening feeling awful....

My 2 daughters who do not live at home are both sick. I've had to make chicken soup and deliver, all were in bed by 6:30 this evening...according to the texts I received...I fell asleep at 5:30(highly unusual) and now just up, thinking this is going to be a long night...husband has started coughing again....

Hope my 2, 16 year old tabby cats don't get this(do cats get the seasonal as well as H1N1?) ....and I have avoided it, mostly...time will tell.

Good luck to you, Hopeful.

We've had no problems, looks like we were either lucky or the vaccine worked for us.

Apparently there are widespread shortages of pediatric Tamiflu in the area, everyone is having to compound it.

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I am not a doctor, virologist, or any of type of medical/life sciences professional.

I am a layman with a background in the physical sciences.