General update

We have an owl in our neighborhood that makes the wildest whooping sounds at night. I don't mean "whoo-whoo-whoo" but something else entirely more creative. I'll have to listen more closely next time it calls in the middle of the night so I can relate its sound here - I'm afraid I couldn't do it justice right now. It sounds a little like a monkey. Richie thinks it's a barred owl, but I'm not sure.

The girls are drawing with chalk on the sidewalk with their friend from three doors down, Ceja. Mazie stayed home today because we think she has H1N1 and Vivian hated having to go to school when she knew Mazie was staying home. Their school is going pretty well, although Mazie's class has just last week broken into reading groups even though school has been in for almost 6 weeks. Besides, all the reading groups are reading a book called, "Hop, Frog, Hop" or something equally beginner-level-sounding, and Mazie is - er - not being challenged. I have no idea what to do about that, but Richie and I are going for a conference with Ms. Johnson on the 22nd, during which I'll ask gently about challenging Mazie if her ability level is beyond the classwork.

Vivian goes into her pre-K every day with no fuss, according to Richie. It starts at 8:30, so I'm already in school by the time she goes in. Her pre-K is at a school for autistic children. 1/3 of her classmates are autistic. The teachers are highly trained, really energetic, and there are a lot of them. But I'm getting the idea that school for Vivian is 99% social - which is wonderful for kids with autism who really need help developing socially. Vivian's not complaining, either.

I still feel like I see a lot of them. I am able to keep the times that are ritually important - dinner and all meals on weekends. Bedtime. Church, most weekend outings, special events. But all the spaces between (the interstices) are full of school for me. The only movie I have watched in the past 2 months has been The Pink Panther in 2 installments. No T.V. because we don't have one. Basically, I'm busy and sometimes pretty brain-tired, but functioning like normal in the family, except that Richie has taken on 90% of my domestic responsibilities. I'm like a roving helper and he runs the show. (Thank you, Richie!)

And he's just putting chili on the table. :)

Explanation of pictures: Mazie and Vivian playing with giant balloons in the yard with our neighbor, Maria. Vivian and Mazie with storm troopers at a local parade. They were overwhelmed and a little worried; that's what their facial expressions are saying.

Okay, so we actually got H1N1

And it's rather old news now.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, I had two days of increasing cough - it felt almost painful. That "specialness" of the cough was the only warning sign that it could have been flu, but I honestly thought it was a cold because there was no fever (I know 1/3 of H1N1 cases have none...but still) and there were no other symptoms. By day 3, Thursday, I was feeling crummier than I had and was beginning the wild aches, so I got a reservation at student health. They were awesome; they put me in a room with other masked, puffy-eyed people and then they violated my nose. No, really, I adore student health and it was actually a very efficient visit with lots of good care from an NP named Molly who handed me tissues because I was still weeping from the flu test. She was one of those practitioners whose clinical presence I'd like to emulate. Anyway, I had a 101 fever at student health (no prior fever noted) and felt horrid the rest of that day. ( I was in denial about not being able to do my last-minute prequiz sprint, but I just...couldn't...think.) Then, Friday, I felt pretty lousy, but a little better. No fever control necessary. The past two days, I've felt modestly crummy, no body aches, cough resolving. No fever. Now I'm wondering, can I go back Monday morning? I am.

I'm feeling pretty badly about taking my germs into my grown-up school, but there's also the public health crime of the century that I've just committed: sending Vivian to school with the same cough for the entire week. Unlike me, Vivian never ran a fever (we checked), but I'm pretty sure she has what I have. I immediately kept her home as soon as I was diagnosed with H1N1 and that she probably has it, too, but she was at school for long enough to spread it to every child and teacher there.

Alas. I really didn't know :(. Sorry, everybody!

It's a miracle!

Vivian got better overnight and nobody else has gotten sick. YAY!

H1N1

Today my small group leader was on vacation (at Disney World!) and so we got to meet with Dr. Helinski. Dr. H is a pediatric infectious disease doctor. Naturally, the conversation flowed to its inevitable terminus: H1N1. Documented cases have increased rapidly (like, 5-fold) in the past week at one of the hospitals nearby, so we were discussing the ramifications of this early surge in Influenza A (H1N1 is technically an influenza A - just one we've no immunity for because of its porcine origin).

August is quite early for a surge in influenza. Usually the surge begins around November and cases begin to peter out by February. My question for Dr. H was, does this mean that this is the surge or could a second increase in infection rate be superimposed on this prior high infection rate, creating a super high infection rate in November. He said he didn't know but it's certainly possible.

Here are some other little things about Influenza A. They think this one will require two sequential vaccine shots to confer resistance. If the vaccine isn't ready until October and this Flu A is surging now, the vaccine will be too late to make a big difference. You have probably heard that this flu isn't particularly virulent, which is great. It does have the potential to mutate into something more virulent. If you get the current, milder form of this flu, the immune reaction you generate will protect you from even a mutated virulent strain. All this points to go ahead and get sick and don't worry about it.

However, the more human hosts the virus has, the more opportunities it has to mutate into something more virulent. So from a host-limiting perspective and from a population productivity perspective, it would be helpful for people to get the vaccine to stop the spread of the flu.

Those are just the things we discussed.

I will add that when we went to Vivian's ice cream social at her pre-K classroom on Friday, they informed us that one kid had gone home after throwing up and there were ominous rumblings of upset stomach from Vivian's best buddy, Beatrix. Beatrix looked positively peaked, draped on her mother's shoulder. Tonight Vivian complained of an upset stomach. Then, during sing and pray I noticed she felt warm. She had a 101 degree temperature. And now Mazie and I both feel a little queasy. Ohhhhh, boy....here we go!