Additional Needs

Fear of the, "F-word".

Posted by Brittney Baumgartner on 1st February 2018 Additional Needs, Disabilities

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Reports of hospitals running out of IV bags, people dying from the flu, children passing from it, vaccines being sold out, has sent me to be a dormant little crab in my home.

I was even nervous sending my step-son to school every day, knowing the germs festering in that building!

Every day he would come home talking about who went home that day with a fever, cough, or other symptom. All I could do, was stress hand washing and staying away from anyone who seemed ill.

Now I don't know that protocol on how long flu season lasts, but I thought we were doing pretty well until he came home one day claiming his throat was hurting.

This momma busted out with the gloves, face masks, sanitizer, and Emergen-C.

We literally had to quarantine him, until he was on his antibiotic long enough, to not be contagious anymore. (He was on an antibiotic, because he ultimately tested positive for strep).

My fear was everyone getting sick, including my one year old, but my HUGE fear was my son Oliver getting sick.

Oliver is diagnosed with spina bifida and a few other diagnosis, but is just at a predisposition where illnesses hit harder than they would any other person in our household.

Because of his diagnosis, he also has a VP shunt, which is placed in his skull to drain the excess fluid off his brain and in to his belly.

A lot of shunt failures occur, due to infection which could likely start from any infection from another part of the body.

I remember him suffering from a serious UTI once, that landed us in the hospital, and we had to start an antibiotic to make sure his shunt did not catch infection as well.

With hospitals being jam packed with sick patients suffering from the flu, and shortages occurring, I could not risk Oliver catching this virus.

Let alone the fact that we do not vaccinate for it, because the risk of latex allergy.

Although it is hard to know when your child may just have a common cold or something more serious like the flu, it is always best to keep them home and be safe than risk getting other kiddos sick.

I may be that random, few and far between family that has a child with higher risks coming from a virus like the flu, but we try to take the same precaution with children just the same.

The flu season has been nothing short of scary this year, and that is why is has been the scariest F-word to hit this year!