Swine flu
Looking back to 2009 to see what was happening then, I read that Barry had had a routine blood test. When he ‘phoned the surgery for the results, he was told that the laboratory had lost them, so he was asked to give another sample.
He duly presented himself early one morning for a fasting blood test. He noticed that the nurse appeared to have drawn less blood than previously but said nothing. A matter of days later, the surgery ‘phoned, full of apologies, because not enough blood had been siphoned off for all the necessary tests to be conducted. They asked if it would be possible for him to attend the next morning.
Barry demurred, explaining that he had been feeling unwell for a couple of days. The receptionist asked him to describe his symptoms and then advised him to contact the NHS help line. After a short conversation, he was told that he had swine flu, to remain in bed, take paracetamol and drink plenty of fluids. Telephone consultations and subsequent diagnoses are not always successful!
Swine flu is usually contracted by pig farm workers and vets and is rarely passed between humans. It cannot be contracted through eating pork. Barry had never had any contact with pigs.
How he came to contract swine flu, if he did, and I have my doubts, is a subject for much mirth. There was a swine flu pandemic in 2009 caused by the H1N1 strain which is now a normal seasonal flu that circulates in humans every winter.
The symptoms for swine flu are very easily mistaken for other strains of flu as they are almost identical. They all cause fever, cough, sore throat, headache, aching limbs and fatigue.
Flu can persist for ten to fourteen days and there is a lot of ‘gastro-intestinal disturbance’ with it, which is a feature of swine flu.
Happy days! I’m very careful not to call him a pig – at least, not too often.
It's just one of so many strains of flu spreading throughout the world, with even more new varieties popping up every year. I'd like to know where they are all originating from and wonder if a couple of years of "closed borders" worldwide would help to slow the spread.
ReplyDeleteClosing borders would be such an interesting and costly exercise, but really it's the only way to stop the spread of diseases. Maybe limiting the number of international, inter-continental flights to perhaps one per person per year might help. Exceptions for essential flights, of course.
DeleteThere's always something out there to make us sick. We don't hear much about swine flu in humans.
ReplyDeleteThere is. We're such a sickly race!
DeleteWas everything all higgledy-PIGgledy."
ReplyDeleteLOL!
DeleteSo many viruses out there and so many of them have very similar symptoms. I think it is often difficult to know just exactly which one is affecting us.
ReplyDeleteYes, and telephone diagnoses are not satisfactory.
DeleteSwine flu! It reminds me of the first time I came across a case of foot and mouth disease in a child. Unpleasant but not serious.
ReplyDeleteMany people don't really believe that foot and mouth disease can affect humans, but there are many zoonotic diseases just waiting to catch us out.
DeleteJust grunt at him, should make him laugh. I hope he is feeling better soon and your nursing duties are not to much for you.
ReplyDeleteI grunt at him most of the time anyway. 😉 It was seventeen years ago, so all signs have long since departed.
DeleteI remember the swine flu outbreak. The advice (much like during Covid) was to stay at home and not to go back to work or school until it passed. My daughter got it really badly and had to have 3 weeks off school. Despite keeping her school fully informed, I got a snooty threatening letter from the local authority and phoned them up to give them a piece of my mind!
ReplyDeleteThat's a typical example of bureaucracy gone berserk. Your poor daughter, though - she must have felt very ill.
Delete"gastro-intestinal disturbance". So nicely put. Ray's brother in law, his sister and their daughter were held up in Singapore on their way home after staying with us when he was diagnosed with pig flu and I remember a workmate also catching it. It was nothing like the widespread transmission of Covid.
ReplyDeleteThat phrase was the doctor's. It's miserable to be ill away from home, whether on holiday or business.
DeleteI remember the swine flu outbreak. I was working at a Sure Start Centre under a local authority contract I was carrying out at the time. With hindsight it was like a forewarning of Covid because under the council rules we treated everybody who came to the centre as "unclean" and potential carriers. Handcleansers were in use for the first time issued from County Hall and nobody allowed in without disinfectant first. One child was said to have swine flu and the centre went into meltdown and was closed. It was then re-opened when it was not proven and nobody else was ill. It was a sign of things to come. My view at the time was that the precautions were way over the top. Rachel
ReplyDeleteOverkill definitely, and yet when we had a real pandemic, no-one was prepared.
DeleteWhatever name he could have put on that particular flu, I'm sure he did not feel well. Just makes me think that in a few months summer will be over and I'll be time for my flu shot!
ReplyDeleteThat's a happy thought, Lynn. 😄
Deleteonce covid19 came along i think powers-that-be were somewhat more circumspect about naming that latest bug after animals (or places) - Spanish flu, swine flu, bird flu, or Wuhan flu are all in the past now and we have numbers or acronyms like H5N1 etc. Any telegone diagnoses has to be a bit suss - 'you're sick mate, and WE don't want you in here' might be the top and bottom of it.
ReplyDeleteFlu will take its due time, no matter what variety it is.
DeleteMaybe those swines who mishandled the bloodwork will get the eponymous influenza!
ReplyDeleteI'l never know. 😉
DeleteI often wonder how they can diagnose someone over the phone without any testing. Yes, you can guess by the symptoms but that can't always be accurate.
ReplyDeleteI worked with someone whose father was a doctor. He used to get very exercised about telephone diagnoses - rightly so.
ReplyDeleteWhen I saw Swine Flu as the post title, I immediately assumed our president was sick.
ReplyDeleteHe's definitely not well!
DeleteI remember the Swine Flu scare days. No one in my social circle experienced it.
ReplyDeleteScares come and go. The latest one is ebola.
ReplyDeleteThat's a terrible laboratory. I presume there's no other one, a bit more efficient. Losing the results, not drawing enough, they deserve to be closed down.
ReplyDeleteHope the flu is mild whatever it is
And giving diagnoses over the phone. Don't understand that at all, though it seems to be common in some places.
DeleteThis happened seventeen years ago, and the surgery has been in special measures for some time now and not noticeably improving.
DeleteInteresting post. I remember swine flu as well because I am old. You must have been a child at the time.
ReplyDeleteYour contraction 'phone for telephone reminded me of my English friend Douglas Braund when we both employed by IBM 60 years ago. He was from the High Wycombe office but assigned temporarily to Poughkeepsie, New York, where I worked. Doug was so meticulous with the language that he didn't write bus, he wrote 'bus because it was a contraction of omnibus.
Shouldn't you have written 'flu, though, as a contraction of influenza? (I'm kidding, sort of.)
I should have, but my pedantry is lessening with the years. 😄
ReplyDeleteA lot of people were sick here during those H1N1 days, and one of our neighbours died.
ReplyDeleteIt's frightening when it's so close to home.
DeleteI remember that swine flu epidemic. We were all poorly, though DH had it worst, and very glad that when it was all over. I wonder if they looked back at that time when they were trying to deal with the first outbreak of Covid?
ReplyDeleteI'd like to think that health experts learn from past experiences and can make their voices heard. Whether they're listened to is another matter entirely.
DeleteYes in recent years it seems there have been many scares.
ReplyDeleteAs you say above the latest one is Ebola.
All the best Jan
There is so much inter-continental travel that viruses can be transported very quickly. It's worrying.
DeleteIt's just one more thing. I too can't get it in my head how someone can diagnose over the phone.
ReplyDeleteIt's too remote.
DeletePoor husband. Bet he doesn't want to remember that time!
ReplyDeleteHe had forgotten about it completely!
DeleteYes, I remember the swine flu "epidemic." What intrigued me most, though, was your first sentence...."Looking back to 2009 to see what was happening then, I read that Barry had a routine blood test." Where, exactly, is it that you can look back to to read that sort of routine/ordinary information? Do you keep a daily diary?
ReplyDeleteI do write a daily diary - or try to - but I actually looked back at some old blog posts from 2009.
Delete