Flu

Flu, Flu go away.
We don't like you anyway!

Kate came down with the flu at 1:30 am Friday morning.  Never one to miss an opportunity to do things big, she woke after a day of visiting with dear friends, with a temperature of 105.6.  We dosed her with ibuprofen and began cool compresses.  She got up to 106.4 while we were doing that, so we moved her to a cool bath and I dressed for a hospital run.  She came down to a respectable 104 in the tub.  We had her hang out on the couch while we waited to see if the ibuprofen alone would keep her from heating back up. When she reached 102, we put her back to bed.

The next day, we went to see the doctor, since her fever had been so high in the night.  She tested positive for the flu.  She started Tamiflu (which our insurance company doesn't seem to like due to its high price).  After that expense, I looked into making elderberry syrup.  It is touted to have many of the same benefits as Tamiflu  without the need to visit the doctor, the pharmacist, the side effects, and it can be taken before the onset of symptoms, as a preventative.  Plus it doesn't taste like soap, which Kate tells me the Tami-flu tastes like.

We were able to procure dried elderberries (We actually have an elderberry bush planted in our yard, but it is too young to bear yet.) locally and got started with it on Sunday.  Unfortunately (Happy New Year to me!), I've come down with a fever today.  (I was really kind of hoping that the two week long cold I had was part flu so I wouldn't have been sick all three weeks of Justin's Christmas Break, but alas...it was not to be.)  Be it we weren't taking it long enough to prevent it or not, perhaps it will help shorten it--I've read some places where promising studies were cited.  Ours is made with common food items (berries, honey, ginger, and cinnamon), so I figure it won't hurt us, though of course, I'm not a doctor.

We will add less honey next time because we find it very sweet and hopefully in a couple of days I'll be better!

I blame my fever on all the parenthetical remarks.