Everyone's Favorite Topic: The Swine Flu

It started with the one-year-old I babysit. He had a cold all last week with a runny nose and a possible fever on Thursday, the last day I was with him. Then I woke up Friday with a feeling in my head. It started with a slight headache and nose stuffiness, then went to my throat, and is now all over my body with aches, pains, tummy queasiness, and chills! No fever yet, thank goodness. Will has also been feeling the cold bug since Saturday. It's always the worst in the morning and at night but I was feeling pretty good last night so I thought I might be getting over it but I was wrong. Today has been one of my laziest days I've had since I've been married and I had to spend the day on the couch. I didn't even see the sunshine once today! Ugh.

So in the midst of all this lazing about and feeling icky, I read an article about Washington State University and the N1H1 virus, AKA the swine flu. At the beginning of the quarter there were about 10 students who had it and now 10 days into it there are 2,000 and maybe more who haven't seen a doctor. Of course I immediately thought, "I live in a college town too. What if I have the swine flu?!" Of course I'm sure it's just a panicky delirious thought that is not grounded in any sort of truth, but it's a frightening thought nonetheless. I have the tendency to blow things out of proportions in my mind. I read too much about bad things and think it could be happening to me. Maybe I should stop that. Anyway, after reading the article about WSU, I started reading up on the symptoms of the swine flu (and of course I have most of them), then I saw an article that said that pregnant women are at a higher risk of having complications from the swine flu and I immediately flew into a panic. I called my dad and he reassured me that it's probably just a cold. I know deep down in my heart that it's just a cold but I still can't shake the stupid swine flu out of my mind.

So as I sit here, I keep repeating to myself, "I do not have the swine flu, I do not have the swine flu." Maybe if I say it enough times I'll believe it.