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I have just learned that my sister was one of those admitted to hospital. Not wanting to spend Christmas alone, she and her husband flew to London area to spend some time visiting their son's families and seeing their three great-grandbabies. They managed one meal with the entire family together at one grandson's home - the next morning she was admitted to hospital. I talked to her last night. She hopes to be getting out of hospital in a few days and flying home as soon as the doctor thinks she is well enough.
My sister has a lot of health problems and a compromised immune system. Flu hits most of us for one or two days; flu puts her in the hospital for a week.
My sister is almost four years older than I am. But I seem to be in much better general health.
 
As I sit, sipping on my honey and lemon hot water after breaky, I am looking out my living room window and appreciating the most beautiful sunset across the horizon - lines horizontally of pink, and white, and grayish blue, and darker grayish blue. Although it is somewhat blocked by the houses across the street - it is beautiful. Although "red sky in the morning, sailors take warning" is running through my mind, I am appreciating the beauty before me.

Last night I fell asleep in my living room chair watching tv and woke up sometime around midnight, as I turned the telly off and the lights I noticed the most beautiful Northern Lights dancing in the sky. I went between living room window and kitchen window to take them all in. Beautiful!!! I don't know how long they were there, but they quickly diminished as I watched - I guess they danced across someone else's sky. I feel so blessed to have seen both these natural phenomena within a twelve hour period :).

I think this is going to be a great day.
 
Pr. Jae said:
Twelve per year in the entire province of Ontario? That doesn't seem like that many.
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She mistyped a "." instead of "," I think. It should be "12,000/year".

I had my shot and I'm getting pretty good about handwashing but I've got what is likely a sinus infection on the go (likely began as a cold but it's lasted too long to be just that).
 
Sorry to hear that Seeler, sounds worse being away from home too. Hopefully she'll have a good flight back!
 
Mendalla said:
She mistyped a "." instead of "," I think. It should be "12,000/year".

I had my shot and I'm getting pretty good about handwashing but I've got what is likely a sinus infection on the go (likely began as a cold but it's lasted too long to be just that).
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Aah. Ok. Maybe. Still - 12,000 per year is about 9% of the population. That's not an epidemic. Hope you get over your sinus infection.
 
It doesn't sound high, but that's a normal flu she's citing. 9% of the population going to the hospital for a regular, recurring disease is not a good thing. Imagine the numbers if we get another pandemic flu coming through. Flu shots, handwashing, staying home while ill, and any other preventative measures we can come up with could stem that if more (ideally most) people followed them.
 
umm, the population of ontario is 13.6million.
If 12,000 are hospitalized , that is far fewer than 9%.
it would take 1.2 million to be hospitalized to be 9%

On the other hand, a flu can be epidemic with few hospitalized. An epidemic is the amount of the population impacted. If you stay home, and do the prescribed treatment for the flu, you are still part of the epidemic. It is recommended that you stay away from the hospital, in fact.
 
Indeed pinga - the number hospitalized is the proverbial 'tip of the iceberg' as you say. Overall impact is cascading & much wider - for example, just within our health care system - staff sick days result in added expense for coverage staff when staff are ill; higher than usual number of admissions to hospital requiring opening of surge beds (small numbers, and often not available) with additional cost for staffing, or sometimes cancellation of elective surgeries; long term care facilities 'closing' to admission & transfer - i.e. not accepting new patients because they themselves are on 'outbreak' status - this then clogs the flow out of hospital, creating more pressure on beds - people end up on stretchers for days in emerg; etc. etc. Within the wider community - lots of other impact as well. Flu is not a benign little bug.
 
I'm always a bit hesitant to go the the emergency room due to contagious illnesses. Twice, I've been released when without the risk of contracting something it would have been safer for me to stay, but the doctors and I had to consider the risk of a nosocomial infection. During higher flu outbreaks I'm even more hesitant.

As for most people getting over the flu in a day or two - I don't know them. A cold or even some ILIs sure. While most don't end up in the hospital, with influenza they are usually feeling fairly sick for longer than that, not to mention being contagious. I think 4-5 days is more typical for a healthy person than 1-2. Perhaps less if they had some level of immunity protection but ended up with a mild case anyway.
 
ChemGal said:
I think 4-5 days is more typical for a healthy person than 1-2.
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That's how long it lays me up for. My last three or four bouts of the flu have each laid me up for most of a week.

I haven't had it since the H1N1 outbreak though (thank you, flu shot).

It still doesn't compare to the one bout of suspected Norovirus I had though (thank you, day care). That had me sick as a dog for about four days and then a few more to fully recuperate.

 
Mendalla said:
It still doesn't compare to the one bout of suspected Norovirus I had though (thank you, day care). That had me sick as a dog for about four days and then a few more to fully recuperate.
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I've been lucky, and I haven't had anything like that in a long time. I think due to my handwashing/hand sanitizer/not touching my face in public. I think it's easier to avoid than the flu if it's not in your home. When my sister was in this city by herself she got it. She had called home to complain about it and a few hours later her roommate was calling as he didn't know what to do with her, she kept losing consciousness.
 
Pinga said:
umm, the population of ontario is 13.6million.
If 12,000 are hospitalized , that is far fewer than 9%.
it would take 1.2 million to be hospitalized to be 9%

On the other hand, a flu can be epidemic with few hospitalized. An epidemic is the amount of the population impacted. If you stay home, and do the prescribed treatment for the flu, you are still part of the epidemic. It is recommended that you stay away from the hospital, in fact.
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Okay, maybe my math is off (I'm majoring in in-ministry, not math) but I get 12000/13600000 = 8.8 (where am I going wrong?)
 
Well, you could need a new calculator. You should have got .00088. To convert that value to a % you multiply by 100 (or move the decimal two spots to the right). This means the correct answer is .088%
 
Remember too that that is just the number of people admitted to hospital. I think it was last winter a number of our ERs ended up closing because there were so many people with the flu in the ER and it was so contagious. After some IVs or what not they get sent home so they're not included in that statistic. The veteran's hospital where my Uncle is has already had to close two or three wards - one for over three weeks because of the "flu" - they wouldn't let people in or out and several people died. The notion that it's easy to get over or that "I" never get sick needs to be changed - first, just because "you" may never get sick doesn't mean that someone with a compromised immune system in your life wouldn't be adversely affected (I believe you can be a carrier) and second, it takes many days to get over the flu and stop being contagious (for most people, at the least). Vomitting, etc is not the flu - it's a bug or food poisoning (food poisoning can lie dormant for many days before you get it) but not the flu - few people actually vomit from the flu. And norovirus is a terrible, terrible virus - somehow I avoided getting it but my roommate 11 years ago got it and she was unbelievably sick (from both ends plus unbearable fatigue).

My Uncle now has a terrible cold - he is so sick. I am so worried.

I hope everyone and their family is on the mend!
 
We took our older cat to the vet today-and had her put down. I suspected as much and had my youngest come with me. It is technically his cat.
Her energy had really been falling these last 2 weeks. Not eating much. Still drinking water-and purred if we pet her.
The vet said he could try to do diagnostic tests (blood and x-rays) but the stress of the tests might cause death.

All three of us thought ending her pain was the best option. She had out lived all her litter mates. She just lay on the table at the vets and wouldn't even sit up.
They sent us into a lounge type room with a fireplace and brought the sedated cat in. I cuddled her and the vet released the vial into her forearm catheter (the needle port they put in after sedation). That was it. Her heart stopped.

We'll miss her. As a youngster she used to accompany me and my youngest as he did his twice a week paper route. She'd wait under a big tree 2 blocks from home and join us on way back.
A loving gentle cat (well most of the time-she hated vet before this one-and drew blood scratching him-on a well cat check up)
In Edmonton a substitute vet was checking her once. Willow objected to something and batted at Vet's hand. The vet turned to me in surprise and asked if she was declawed. No-just well mannered.

I'll miss her as she often slept at the foot of my bed-and under my feet at the computer desk.
 
Sorry to hear about your cat, Tabitha. I remember her from my visit.
I remember each time we've taken that long drive to the vet knowing we'd have lost a piece of our hearts when we drove back home.

Each time we were given that option - wait, observe, do some diagnostic tests. Each time we said 'no' that we had already prepared ourselves to let go, I felt our vet agreed with our decision.
 
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