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Swine Flu feels worse than you think
'I Was Sore. I Was Weak. I Didn't Want to Do Anything.'
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Swine flu was predictably mild during the warm summer months in the Northern
Hemisphere, but some people caught it anyway. Since it was unlikely that regular
flu was circulating at this time of year, doctors believed any apparent cases of
flu that they saw were probably caused by the H1N1 virus. Following are some
local teens' experiences, as told to Washington Post staff writer Kathryn
Tolbert.
Alison Kelin, 15, Washington
I had been at camp for two weeks. We were leaving for a three-day trip to Boston
that day. I felt kind of sick, like I had a cold. I decided to go to the nurse's
office and get medicine. But I had a fever, so they wouldn't let me go on the
trip. With three other kids I went to a hospital. They tested us for flu.
We weren't allowed to be in our cabins. We were quarantined for a week in the
health center and given Tamiflu. The highest my temperature got was 102.4. It
was like basic cold symptoms but 10 times worse. It hurt to swallow and I could
barely talk for about three days, and [then] it started to ease up.
Kind of cool being able to say I did have swine flu. It's not too horrible,
actually. It's the kind of thing that happens, but not to you.
Amy McAlister, 14, Potomac
My cousin was visiting from Massachusetts, and they were sick, the mother and a
little cousin, with a fever. After they left I had a sore throat at first and a
little bit of a cough and congestion. I thought it was a cold. I was getting
slightly worse, around 101 degrees.
I went to the doctor when it hit 103. He did a rapid test. He said he was pretty
sure it was swine flu. It was not the regular flu season, and he had six cases
that day.
On the way to the doctor, my mom and I were joking: "You're going to have swine
flu. Ha ha ha."
When he said that I had swine flu, my mom and I laughed. "Okay, what do I really
have?" He said, "Yeah, I think that's what you have." Oh, my God. At first I
thought, "Am I gonna die?" He said no, it's just a mild case. Some people were
getting Tamiflu, but I wasn't allowed to have it because I wasn't a high-risk
case.
I was very weak. My temperature got as high as 103.5. I could not move. I almost
felt so hot I felt I was burning. My mother put [an] ice-water cloth on my head,
and it turned warm right away. It wasn't that long for me -- five days. So I got
lucky.
Samantha Overstreet, 14, Alexandria
I was at camp, and they had to close a day and a half early because of the swine
flu outbreak.
Twenty-two people went home because they were sick.
I woke up the morning we were leaving and had a really big headache and my eyes
were heavy. I was sore. I was weak. I didn't want to do anything. I slept in the
car a little bit. I got home, took a shower. I was really weak, had a headache
and a cough. I had to stay in the basement for two days, couldn't see my
friends.
We went to the doctor the morning I got back. He put me on Tamiflu.
I think that the camp really came together and supported everyone. We made
T-shirts that said, "I survived Camp Quarantine."
Yago Hunt-Laudi, 16, Washington, shown after he developed a fever while on a
student trip to China
I was with a group of 20 kids, and none of us guessed that we would get this
swine flu that everyone was talking about. On the plane, a 14-hour flight, I was
sitting next to this kid and talking the whole time, you know, boy stuff. When
we get to Beijing, the airport, we're going through these gates, and immediately
they stop this kid and take him away. Everyone was freaking out.
We're staying at an international hotel with a thousand other foreign kids. I'd
play soccer and go meet all these kids. I started feeling really, really tired.
That was the first symptom I felt.
One day I came back from playing soccer, back to the dorm, I passed out for over
16 hours. I went to sleep at midday and woke up at night the next day. When I
was sleeping I was pretty delusional, I was sweating. I was ridiculously hot.
Sweating, hot, freezing. Crazy dreams. Every day that we would leave the dorms,
get breakfast, they have these nurses waiting for us at the entrance to the dorm
with these ray guns and shoot it at your head and take your temperature. They
take my temperature and it's pretty bad: 102.
These security guards come. No one speaks English. Pushing, using sign language.
They take me to this nursery (shown above), and I'm sitting there for three
hours. I'm not, like, panicking. I felt bad but didn't think I had the swine
flu. We were told it was likely we'd feel bad in the first few days from jet lag
and pollution. I'm sitting in this chair in this Chinese nursery, and all these
people running around and talking on walkie-talkies, taking swabs from my mouth.
Eventually another girl from my group, who sat next to me on the plane, she was
feeling really sick. She's freaking out. Oh my God, what if we have swine flu?
Another hour and a half passes. They called an ambulance. Our chaperones came up
and ask, are you okay? They gave us water and stuff. So then these ambulances
roll up to the nursery, and these astronauts from "E.T." come out and push us
into ambulance. Now I'm starting [to feel] what is the deal, what is going on.
One of our chaperones came with us. They drive us out of Beijing to the outer
rim of the city.
Eventually we got to this, they call it a hospital, but it's like a garage. Kind
of weird. They sat us down and no one spoke English and we sat on this table or
something. They signaled to us that they wanted to take a blood test. I was
sitting at this makeshift desk with this girl crying in the background and five
Chinese people running around in the background yelling. They put us in these
rooms. This tiny, tiny cell basically, with white walls, no windows. Wooden bed.
A little box desk thing and one LED light that never went off. The other girl
had her iPhone and her books. I didn't have anything. I didn't have a pen.
Other than giving us food twice a day, the only time I had contact was when my
chaperone came in and told me I had tested positive for swine flu. It kind of
startled me. I was kind of shaken. My parents called and said don't worry. These
people have been developing medicine for thousands of years. You'll be fine. So
that calmed me down.
That was a makeshift hospital for people with the flu.
After two or three days they moved us. It was a really big hospital. They
created a big section of it for people with swine flu. We're so relieved because
we get to this nice, clean place. The room's beautiful compared to where we
were. TVs, shower. Perfect. Great for quaranti ne.
I was roomed with a Chinese guy. He was a tour guide, chaperone for some U.K.
kids. He ended up being a wonderful, wonderful guy. He was showing me Chinese TV
shows that were famous: This one Chinese actor was the Forrest Gump of China. We
started getting food from the U.S. Embassy. We were pretty happy.
[In terms of medicine] each individual needed something different. A friend of
mine I don't think got anything. I got this potion. I asked the doctor and he
told me it was scorpion something, like crushed scorpion tail, a couple herbal
flowers and tea. You had to just drink it. It was the worst-tasting [expletive]
I ever had in my life. Right after I had it I felt great. It helped me recover.
I stopped coughing, I could sleep better and my temperature went down
immediately. At this point I was pretty happy .
I was surprised because coming to China, I had stereotypes.
They were so nice and very compassionate. It's more than compassion. It's also
like respect and some form of honor. I had a couple of experiences where it
showed us that being honest and honorable in society was very important.
They did it very efficiently.
I came back not really trying to tell anyone. But everyone I know knows that I
had swine flu. It sucks. It's like the same jokes every single
time.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/24/AR2009082402346.html
credits rumjal
'I Was Sore. I Was Weak. I Didn't Want to Do Anything.'
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Swine flu was predictably mild during the warm summer months in the Northern
Hemisphere, but some people caught it anyway. Since it was unlikely that regular
flu was circulating at this time of year, doctors believed any apparent cases of
flu that they saw were probably caused by the H1N1 virus. Following are some
local teens' experiences, as told to Washington Post staff writer Kathryn
Tolbert.
Alison Kelin, 15, Washington
I had been at camp for two weeks. We were leaving for a three-day trip to Boston
that day. I felt kind of sick, like I had a cold. I decided to go to the nurse's
office and get medicine. But I had a fever, so they wouldn't let me go on the
trip. With three other kids I went to a hospital. They tested us for flu.
We weren't allowed to be in our cabins. We were quarantined for a week in the
health center and given Tamiflu. The highest my temperature got was 102.4. It
was like basic cold symptoms but 10 times worse. It hurt to swallow and I could
barely talk for about three days, and [then] it started to ease up.
Kind of cool being able to say I did have swine flu. It's not too horrible,
actually. It's the kind of thing that happens, but not to you.
Amy McAlister, 14, Potomac
My cousin was visiting from Massachusetts, and they were sick, the mother and a
little cousin, with a fever. After they left I had a sore throat at first and a
little bit of a cough and congestion. I thought it was a cold. I was getting
slightly worse, around 101 degrees.
I went to the doctor when it hit 103. He did a rapid test. He said he was pretty
sure it was swine flu. It was not the regular flu season, and he had six cases
that day.
On the way to the doctor, my mom and I were joking: "You're going to have swine
flu. Ha ha ha."
When he said that I had swine flu, my mom and I laughed. "Okay, what do I really
have?" He said, "Yeah, I think that's what you have." Oh, my God. At first I
thought, "Am I gonna die?" He said no, it's just a mild case. Some people were
getting Tamiflu, but I wasn't allowed to have it because I wasn't a high-risk
case.
I was very weak. My temperature got as high as 103.5. I could not move. I almost
felt so hot I felt I was burning. My mother put [an] ice-water cloth on my head,
and it turned warm right away. It wasn't that long for me -- five days. So I got
lucky.
Samantha Overstreet, 14, Alexandria
I was at camp, and they had to close a day and a half early because of the swine
flu outbreak.
Twenty-two people went home because they were sick.
I woke up the morning we were leaving and had a really big headache and my eyes
were heavy. I was sore. I was weak. I didn't want to do anything. I slept in the
car a little bit. I got home, took a shower. I was really weak, had a headache
and a cough. I had to stay in the basement for two days, couldn't see my
friends.
We went to the doctor the morning I got back. He put me on Tamiflu.
I think that the camp really came together and supported everyone. We made
T-shirts that said, "I survived Camp Quarantine."
Yago Hunt-Laudi, 16, Washington, shown after he developed a fever while on a
student trip to China
I was with a group of 20 kids, and none of us guessed that we would get this
swine flu that everyone was talking about. On the plane, a 14-hour flight, I was
sitting next to this kid and talking the whole time, you know, boy stuff. When
we get to Beijing, the airport, we're going through these gates, and immediately
they stop this kid and take him away. Everyone was freaking out.
We're staying at an international hotel with a thousand other foreign kids. I'd
play soccer and go meet all these kids. I started feeling really, really tired.
That was the first symptom I felt.
One day I came back from playing soccer, back to the dorm, I passed out for over
16 hours. I went to sleep at midday and woke up at night the next day. When I
was sleeping I was pretty delusional, I was sweating. I was ridiculously hot.
Sweating, hot, freezing. Crazy dreams. Every day that we would leave the dorms,
get breakfast, they have these nurses waiting for us at the entrance to the dorm
with these ray guns and shoot it at your head and take your temperature. They
take my temperature and it's pretty bad: 102.
These security guards come. No one speaks English. Pushing, using sign language.
They take me to this nursery (shown above), and I'm sitting there for three
hours. I'm not, like, panicking. I felt bad but didn't think I had the swine
flu. We were told it was likely we'd feel bad in the first few days from jet lag
and pollution. I'm sitting in this chair in this Chinese nursery, and all these
people running around and talking on walkie-talkies, taking swabs from my mouth.
Eventually another girl from my group, who sat next to me on the plane, she was
feeling really sick. She's freaking out. Oh my God, what if we have swine flu?
Another hour and a half passes. They called an ambulance. Our chaperones came up
and ask, are you okay? They gave us water and stuff. So then these ambulances
roll up to the nursery, and these astronauts from "E.T." come out and push us
into ambulance. Now I'm starting [to feel] what is the deal, what is going on.
One of our chaperones came with us. They drive us out of Beijing to the outer
rim of the city.
Eventually we got to this, they call it a hospital, but it's like a garage. Kind
of weird. They sat us down and no one spoke English and we sat on this table or
something. They signaled to us that they wanted to take a blood test. I was
sitting at this makeshift desk with this girl crying in the background and five
Chinese people running around in the background yelling. They put us in these
rooms. This tiny, tiny cell basically, with white walls, no windows. Wooden bed.
A little box desk thing and one LED light that never went off. The other girl
had her iPhone and her books. I didn't have anything. I didn't have a pen.
Other than giving us food twice a day, the only time I had contact was when my
chaperone came in and told me I had tested positive for swine flu. It kind of
startled me. I was kind of shaken. My parents called and said don't worry. These
people have been developing medicine for thousands of years. You'll be fine. So
that calmed me down.
That was a makeshift hospital for people with the flu.
After two or three days they moved us. It was a really big hospital. They
created a big section of it for people with swine flu. We're so relieved because
we get to this nice, clean place. The room's beautiful compared to where we
were. TVs, shower. Perfect. Great for quaranti ne.
I was roomed with a Chinese guy. He was a tour guide, chaperone for some U.K.
kids. He ended up being a wonderful, wonderful guy. He was showing me Chinese TV
shows that were famous: This one Chinese actor was the Forrest Gump of China. We
started getting food from the U.S. Embassy. We were pretty happy.
[In terms of medicine] each individual needed something different. A friend of
mine I don't think got anything. I got this potion. I asked the doctor and he
told me it was scorpion something, like crushed scorpion tail, a couple herbal
flowers and tea. You had to just drink it. It was the worst-tasting [expletive]
I ever had in my life. Right after I had it I felt great. It helped me recover.
I stopped coughing, I could sleep better and my temperature went down
immediately. At this point I was pretty happy .
I was surprised because coming to China, I had stereotypes.
They were so nice and very compassionate. It's more than compassion. It's also
like respect and some form of honor. I had a couple of experiences where it
showed us that being honest and honorable in society was very important.
They did it very efficiently.
I came back not really trying to tell anyone. But everyone I know knows that I
had swine flu. It sucks. It's like the same jokes every single
time.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/24/AR2009082402346.html
credits rumjal