Thursday, September 24, 2009

Trendy Thursday- the flu

H1N1, otherwise known as the Swine Flu, has been all over the news lately. At our monthly all-staff meeting at work we had a guest speaker from EH&S (Environmental Health & Safety). She told us all how to wash our hands, sneeze into our elbows, and use sanitizer. Common sense stuff, but it's really being drilled into everyone right now. She also said that "it's in the community, but we're not releasing numbers because we don't want anyone to panic". Great news, huh? So I'm using hand sanitizer like crazy, and should probably get some wipes for the bathroom to wipe things down in there too.

On the other hand, there are things to do this weekend! There are 3 local-type fairs going on this weekend, and of course the Big E. How many will we hit? Too soon to tell. I think we've pretty much decided against the Big E this year. It's expensive, and I don't really want to be in a crowd that size. Kind of hard to avoid an occasional sneeze or whatever there. Really we should just stay home, but face it, we can't all live in bubbles. So we're taking our chances.

I tried to call the doctor's office twice today to schedule my "seasonal flu" shot, but after waiting on hold for ten minutes I gave up. I'm not sure if they have the kid ones ready yet or not, and I need to find out, but I couldn't connect to a human being so I'll have to try again tomorrow.

One of my coworkers has been out for 3 days with "flu-like" symptoms. Is it H1N1? Probably not, but we'll probably never knows. Word is that she is recovering and will probably be back at work tomorrow. We were told by the nice lady from EH&S to stay home for 24 hours after our fever disappeared, but Human Resources is going to make us use our sick time if we do, and who wants to "waste" sick time?

Personally I've got some allergies going on, no fever, nothing major, just sneezing and a tickle in my nose. I know it's an allergy because when I leave work, it's gone.

Speaking of leaving work... I'll post about the local fairs tomorrow, and more!