I can not stop thinking about this boy's parents and what they must be going through right now. Our family is just getting back on our feet after having the flu for the last two weeks, and it had me on pins and needles the entire time. The swine flu is always in the back of our minds.
Little Max had just started Kindergarten and had gone on a Church fieldtrip to the zoo on Friday. That is when he first started to show signs of being sick. By Saturday he had a temperature of 102, not alarming, but enough to make you concerned. Surprisingly, the next day he was fine again showing signs of improvement and the fever had actually gone away, but to be safe, his parents kept him home from church. Monday came around and he had the fever back but this time with chills so his parents took him to the hospital where he died just three hours later. In a matter of 4 days Max went from being perfectly healthy to going to heaven. This is unimaginable to me, and so very frightening. My heart goes out to the Gomez family. May God give them strength.
Our schools and local news media are really hyping up this years' flu season to be at an all time high, in particular, with the Swine Flu. Everyone in our family washes their hands when we come home from public places, and sanitize directly after washing, but this is still not enough to protect ourselves from contracting the virus ~ and that is scary!
Of the 36 children who have died so far of the
H1N1 virus, two-thirds have had some underlying medical condition that made them more susceptible to
the virus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But until Max fell ill that weekend, he was a perfectly a healthy child. An autopsy will be performed to see if Max also had an underlying condition such as asthma for example. If nothing is found, then Max's death will certainly raise many questions.
On a final note there was one factor that Max's mom had mentioned that raised a few brow's with doctor's, and that is the fact that Max had a fever twice during his illness. He had a fever on Saturday, it was gone by Sunday, and had returned by Monday. Doctor's feel that this might be a key factor in determining if it is a specific symptom of the Swine Flu. I'm definitely going to keep my sponge bob thermometer next to my kids when their sick this flu season.
My daughter's birthday is the first week of November, but this year she really wanted to have a Halloween birthday party, so she did! We celebrated with cake and ice cream at home and opened gifts (which she hasn't put down since her party this last weekend). Then we hopped into the car and went to Johansen Farms to celebrate. My did we ever have fun, and the weather was chilly, but perfect!
