Football Season and Swine Flu

I know, I know, it's H1N1, but I wanted to get that alliteration in there...

I'm going to make a long story short--Joel's come down with the flu. It's been flying through all the football teams (at Joel's scrimmage last week, there were FOURTEEN kids missing, including the backup quarterback, who, it turned out, was in the hospital...)

No, he hasn't been tested--at this point, apparently, they're only testing people ill enough to be hospitalized. Richard's been in contact with the County Health Dept. (because he's a high school principal), and they're saying that the only flu out there right now IS swine flu--the seasonal flu hasn't made an appearance yet, which isn't surprising, since it's STILL SUMMER HERE.

He ran a low-grade fever on Saturday, then got up yesterday (Sunday) morning with a 103 degree temperature. Advil helped to bring it down a little bit, but it pretty much hung around 103 all day, peaking at 103.8 at about ten o'clock last night. Kinda scary, and it broke my heart when he asked at one point, "I'm not gonna die or anything, am I?"

According to the doctor, the key was to watch how he felt and behaved. If he became unresponsive or lethargic, then we were to get him down to the hospital, and he never reached that point. He didn't move much yesterday, but was relatively pleasant, watching movies and playing video games.

Fever's down this morning to 99.4. I'm expecting that it may rise in the late afternoon (why do fevers do that, anyway?), but I think he's on the road to recovery.

The football coach wanted him to come to practice today (I know, I feel the same way!)--and we wonder how this spreads so fast through the team! I think Richard and Jenny and I had mild versions (99.5 degrees) this weekend, so the only one left is Katie, who feels like she has a target painted on her forehead.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for another MILD case...