My friend in Oregon didn’t make it

<Local newspaper story

More personal sad news

A friend of mine is in the hospital in Portland OR with flu complications and is not expected to make it. He has had a stroke and kidney failure on top of the pneumonia. He’s late 40’s/ early 50s.

I found out a few more details about my friend’s friend. She was a good friend of another friend of mine, too.

Apparently she was sick for 2 or 3 days at home. It got worse and she had a fever of 106. They called the hospital and were told to wait it out. Well they did for a few more hours but by the time she was admitted things had advanced so much that they couldn’t save her.

H1N1 can be life threatening

I hope I am not giving the impression that I am anti-doctor. I’m not. I recognize that there are many dedicated and hard-working medical professionals out there and I would specifically like to thank them.

I have been following this blog for over a year and I feel like she is a close friend even though I don’t even know her real name.

About a month ago, her son contracted H1N1 and needed everything modern medicine could give him. Even so it was touch and go. He’s out of real danger now, but he’s still hospitalized.

Attila The Mom’s blog

ATM if you want me to remove this post, just let me know

My very own case(s) of the flu

About 2 weeks ago I was sick. Headache, scratchy throat, feeling blah and maybe a slight fever. This only lasted a day or so.

Then this Sunday I had a weird headache that would come and go. On Monday I was definitely sick, again with the sore throat and headache. This time I developed a fever. It briefly got to 103 in one ear. This time I was blowing my nose a lot.

It’s now Thursday. The fever is almost gone and I feel much better but I get woozy if I stand or walk too much. I’ve quarantined myself for the week, missing a few fun social occasions.

So, do I have H1N1? Probably. But I can’t know without a lab test. Since I wasn’t that sick, there isn’t much point to the test.

A friend whose son goes to the local elementary school said absences there were very high (40-50%).