I have swine flu... :(

What were your first symptoms?  I work in a school where diseases are rife. You can imagine the fear with the staff....

And my son has started coughing but I refuse to panic (unlike other half...)

Don't want to alarm but yes a dry persistent cough was one of my first things, accompanied by an increasingly sore throat hurting to swallow, a fevered feeling and headache, the dry, hacking, persistent coughing fits, with lots of sneezing and a nose that was both stuffed up and runny by turns.

As all of these got worse in the space of a couple of days, my body also felt weak and fatigued, and achey in my joints, that was about the third day, and all of this continued -- as the days went on the soreness of the throat faded but everything else got worse, and I also felt temp fluctuations -- too hot one moment, too chilly the next. The cough began to loosen from dry and non-productive to phlegmy. The fatigue was horrendous, you just want to stay in bed and not ask anything of your body. They say most people get it "mild" but mine didn't feel mild-anything, I felt like hell for two weeks and the best part of three, but I think that I was already sub-healthy because I'd been stressed out and probably below-par for along time before the first symptoms, so I think it layed me lower, though not seriously so as I seem to have recovered without real issues or getting to the point of hospitalization, thank the gods.

The BF was sick for two weeks, mine dragged out for three, but his 15 year old daughter was ill for FOUR weeks and her school told her not to come in.

Don't want to alarm but yes a dry persistent cough was one of my first things, accompanied by an increasingly sore throat hurting to swallow, a fevered feeling and headache, the dry, hacking, persistent coughing fits, with lots of sneezing and a nose that was both stuffed up and runny by turns.

As all of these got worse in the space of a couple of days, my body also felt weak and fatigued, and achey in my joints, that was about the third day, and all of this continued -- as the days went on the soreness of the throat faded but everything else got worse, and I also felt temp fluctuations -- too hot one moment, too chilly the next. The cough began to loosen from dry and non-productive to phlegmy. The fatigue was horrendous, you just want to stay in bed and not ask anything of your body. They say most people get it "mild" but mine didn't feel mild-anything, I felt like hell for two weeks and the best part of three, but I think that I was already sub-healthy because I'd been stressed out and probably below-par for along time before the first symptoms, so I think it layed me lower, though not seriously so as I seem to have recovered without real issues or getting to the point of hospitalization, thank the gods.

The BF was sick for two weeks, mine dragged out for three, but his 15 year old daughter was ill for FOUR weeks and her school told her not to come in.

This sounds exactly like my son who we found out had swine flu as well but on top of this he also had the vomiting and unable to keep anything down and today is finally the first day of eating something without it coming back up. He still gets tired and his eating isn't 100% but he is better and hopefully knock on wood the rest of us won't catch it.

Hope the rest of you remain okay Little_Evo, and that your son is fully better very soon.

I was just confirmed as having swine flu today (although my son was diagnosed last week, I somehow thought I'd fight it off  ).

Anyway, I've been given such conflicting information about Tamiflu and don't know if I should take it or not. I'm not particularly high-risk, don't have a massive fever at the moment, and don't tend to ever take medication unless absolutely necessary.

I've heard a definite 'yes' from one doctor, and a definite 'no way' from another. I paid $87.80 for this damn prescription (!) and don't know what to do! Is there anyone in the know here?  

ETA: I don't feel terribly sick right now, and have been exposed to the flu for 5 days now.

I've had it twice! and my daughter (16 months) has had it once and neither time did we take Tamiflu.

The first time was just mild bodyaches and mild fever.

This most recent time was pretty bad. We both had a fever for 3 days (treated with ibuprofen) and the cough with Benilyn. I'm still not 100% (niggling cough) a month later but the munchkin was back to her normal self in about 6 days.

I've had it twice! and my daughter (16 months) has had it once and neither time did we take Tamiflu.

Thanks for that.

See this is another major inconsistency: I was told you can only get it once per season.  I guess that's not true then, is it?

No two medical professionals have given me the same answer. 

Granted the first time I had it was in late June and then again in mid September.

One other question: if your kid has had this, how long did you keep them out of school? My son has been home for 6 days now and we're all going bonkers. We've also kept my other son home, who ended up with a really, really, really mild case of it and has been acting well for the past 2 days.

I was told to keep my very sick one home for 12 days, but seriously. don't. know. if. we. can. wait. that. long.!!! He seems fine now. Any thoughts?

Thanks for that.

See this is another major inconsistency: I was told you can only get it once per season.  I guess that's not true then, is it?

No two medical professionals have given me the same answer. 

The theory is that once you have a virus, your body creates the antibody and you develop immunity to it so you won't get it again (the reason flu shots to begin with, except they are dead strains).  You can get another strain (or a mutation of the original strain) but you're not supposed to be able to get the exact same strain.  Unless you have some kind of immunity issues.  So you could get H1N1, then get H3N2 (both influenza A subtypes), but not H1N1 again.  Of course, even though your doctors told you this, it's just a theory (a fairly good theory with lots of scientific studies and statistical data to back it up), so it's not impossible to get the same strain twice...just extremely unlikely.

One other question: if your kid has had this, how long did you keep them out of school? My son has been home for 6 days now and we're all going bonkers. We've also kept my other son home, who ended up with a really, really, really mild case of it and has been acting well for the past 2 days.

I was told to keep my very sick one home for 12 days, but seriously. don't. know. if. we. can. wait. that. long.!!! He seems fine now. Any thoughts?

Obviously every school/district will have different rules and/or guidelines, but our school nurse (who rocks more than anything in the world and I trust implicitly) said that our district is telling parents to keep kids home until they've been fever-free for 24 hours without the aid of fever reducers.

Granted, we haven't yet been hit full-on with H1N1 here, so take that however you want.

[...] so it's not impossible to get the same strain twice...just extremely unlikely.

Thanks for that explanation!

Obviously every school/district will have different rules and/or guidelines, but our school nurse (who rocks more than anything in the world and I trust implicitly) said that our district is telling parents to keep kids home until they've been fever-free for 24 hours without the aid of fever reducers.

Wow, the amount of inconsistency regarding this swine flu is staggering!   I'll take your school nurse's opinion over our pediatric nurse's, though - !

I really hope you don't get it. The CDC's map shows that it's pretty much widespread now throughout the States, but my doctor said he'd only seen a few cases here in MD (which may be the cause of his complete incompetence in regard to giving out information).

Anyway. Stay healthy!  

Well chalk me up as a statistic then, I've had it twice and both times was confirmed by my GP.

Well, my son became sick with it after we found out parents were sending their children back to school too soon.    Either way it's a hard decision. My son was sick the week before school was due out in July and stayed home another week after that, but then again he was really sick with it. We were told to keep him home for two weeks. Hope you all get to feeling better soon! 

Well, my son became sick with it after we found out parents were sending their children back to school too soon.   

Yes! This. But how to know when kids aren't contagious anymore? Of course I'd never send my kid to school if I thought he could still infect others.

It's a difficult call, really, especially when the information from health officials is so varied! In the end, we sent our older son to school today because he's been fever-free for 5 days now and seems TOTALLY fine. But we kept our little guy home, who's been fever-free for 2.5 days, because he's still coughing.