HEALTH How are you Handling the Swine Flu Emotionally?

MorningSunn

MorningSunn

Rhea the Rogue
Mrs Smith made a very valid point ...

Mrs Smith said:
I'm not trying to start an argument, just stating facts.

Ok, on H2H mortality rates: malaria kills 2.2 million people worldwide every year
Hepatitis?
HIV?

Preparedness is what we do. Panic is what we don't do.
Click to expand...

It is one thing to prepare for this ... discuss it ... think your ready for it

But it is another thing when the reality of it hit you ... and you say to yourself ... It is here ... It is really happening ... It is no longer a what if or could be situation but a reality!

So I was wondering how members are handling the situation emotionally...

For myself ... One min. I say OK this doesn't look too bad ... No One here in the United States had died ... they are reporting it as a pretty mild Flu ... We have been preparing for this so we should be fine.

Then I hear it has hit another state and find myself fight down a minute or two of panic and fear ... Fear for my children, my Husband, my 84 year old Father, Friends and even myself ...

How about the rest of you? How are you Handling this ... calm, confident, moments of fear or panic, roller coaster of emotions ... Just another day?

:confused:
 
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dissimulo

dissimulo

Membership Revoked
It may help to keep in mind that this will take months (possibly even a few years) to play out - not days.
 
O

optimistic pessimist

Inactive
Well, being that I had a bad flu in December, my current instinct is to top off preps...NOW...before news spreads, and before germs spread.

Made a trip to the store for a few items

Thinking about gatoraid/rehydrants
tylenol
cough drops
sambucol
immune boosters
thermometers
homeopathic meds...things that will fly off the shelves later

gardening

I also thought about staying hydrated and keeping up on vitamins, as well as going outside a lot more for fresh air.

I am more concerned about the panic, lack of goods and being homebound than catching it at this point.
 
O

Oreally

Right from the start
dissimulo said:
It may help to keep in mind that this will take months (possibly even a few years) to play out - not days.
Click to expand...

You are the #1 B.S. artist on this board. Who do you really work for?

Months, are you insane? This will be full blown within 45 days...no one in this country has immunity to it.

Consider that it appears that it gains in virulence with each passage through us... that is why no one has died from it yet here.

But it appears it has been passing H2H in Mexico for quite a while, maybe 2 months or more, and only now are people getting REAL sick and checking out.

Probably the same thing is happening here.

Who do you really work for... Mr self described agent?
 
BigBadBossyDog

BigBadBossyDog

Inactive
I'm ignoring it. I'm convinced one reason I've been incredibly healthy all my life is in part because I don't buy in to all the alerts and alarms. I genuinely believe people can talk or scare themselves into falling ill.

I take 4 vitamins and 1 aspirin each day.
 
Tweakette

Tweakette

Irrelevant
I'm finding myself frustrated both with the current lack of solid information (i.e. the answer to why is it fatal in Mexico for so many yet apparently mild in the US) and the amount of panic and hyperbole in places that I seek this information.

IMHO, until it starts killing people in the US there is little TO be emotionally handled. I'm prepped, have given my advice to loved ones (their choice to follow it or not) and now I need solid data, and I'm not getting it (probably because it's not yet there to be had).

Tweak
 
dissimulo

dissimulo

Membership Revoked
Oreally said:
But it appears it has been passing H2H in Mexico for quite a while, maybe 2 months or more, and only now are people getting REAL sick and checking out.
Click to expand...

That is kind of my point.

Even 1918 took many months to become full-blown within regions and it is the worst flu pandemic we've seen.

The time of the year is not right for ideal flu spread. It should take some time.
 
S

summerthyme

Administrator
_______________
Oreally... actually, IF it follows any pattern resembling the 1918 epidemic, Dissimulo is absolutely correct.

That kneejerk reaction of yours seems to affect your reading comprehension. He didn't say we wouldn't see SOME cases- maybe even significant numbers, and possibly some horrendous CFRs. But the 1918 pandemic (like most) came in distinct waves. Just about the time they thought it was finally over... it roared back again. IIRC, it took well over 2 years to completely burn itself out.

So... I agree. I'm not absolutely certain "this is it"... as far as a high CFR pandemic. It may be... but it may not be. We're badly overdue for a pandemic, given historic patterns. But so far (please God, it will continue) we've had NO deaths anywhere but Mexico... and it's at least possible there are some other contributing factors to explain that. For one, I believe they have a fairly high TB rate.

Summerthyme
 
DustMusher

DustMusher

Inactive
Dissimulo is correct - pandemics uch as the Spanish Flu of 1918 lasted months - it came in waves - light cases first then 'died out' then came back much more deadly.

I am working right now trying to get all the solid info I can get and sending it out to the members of my personal circle of friends. It is up to them and thei free agancy to act or not act on the info I am sending

but one thought keeps coming to the front

INFOMAGIC WAS RIGHT - JUST A DECADE EARLY

DM
 
M

momof23goats

Deceased
i'be got plenty of stuff, for nausa, and all the rest. So i am ok. just watching this. going to go to get milk and things, later, just getting extras,so I don't have to go out.
looks like a long hot summer at home.
 
adgal

adgal

Veteran Member
I'm just topping off preps and making sure that if someone said "You're quarantined for three months – we could handle it.”
 
maric

maric

Short but deadly
I'm trying to get as much info as possible. Will be going to Wally World early in the AM to top off some stuff. After that we're sticking close to home as much as possible because NYC isn't all that far from me. But we are NOT going to panic. I was a nurse for 20 years and I hope to God I learned a little more than how to wipe a butt properly.
 
Jubilee on Earth

Jubilee on Earth

Veteran Member
Oreally said:
You are the #1 B.S. artist on this board. Who do you really work for?

Months, are you insane? This will be full blown within 45 days...no one in this country has immunity to it.

Consider that it appears that it gains in virulence with each passage through us... that is why no one has died from it yet here.

But it appears it has been passing H2H in Mexico for quite a while, maybe 2 months or more, and only now are people getting REAL sick and checking out.

Probably the same thing is happening here.

Who do you really work for... Mr self described agent?
Click to expand...

I completely agree. Maybe it was months back in 1918 when people stayed within a 5 mile radius and didn't travel except by horse, boat or train. But with airplane travel and cars? Yeah... days is definitely more like it.
 
annieosage

annieosage

Veteran Member
Well at one time I was proud to say we probably had 2-3 months worth of preps. I know that's not a lot for some of you but for us it was.

Things have been real down for us lately. Mike still is not working and we have had several unexpected bills that used all our savings (well what little we had). We have been forced to use some of our preps. Needless to say I am worried but not at the panic stage. We will do what we can and trust in God.

Preps I am good on luckily are the medical supplies. Preps we are low on is the canned goods, meat, perishables.
 
maric

maric

Short but deadly
annieosage said:
Well at one time I was proud to say we probably had 2-3 months worth of preps. I know that's not a lot for some of you but for us it was.

Things have been real down for us lately. Mike still is not working and we have had several unexpected bills that used all our savings (well what little we had). We have been forced to use some of our preps. Needless to say I am worried but not at the panic stage. We will do what we can and trust in God.

Preps I am good on luckily are the medical supplies. Preps we are low on is the canned goods, meat, perishables.
Click to expand...


Remember, God ALWAYS provides.
 
FloridaGirl

FloridaGirl

Veteran Member
My DGI family is starting to discuss this with a very worried tone. Hopefully this will be a wake up call for them. As for me, I will go to Sam's tomorrow and stock up even more for my preps.
 
F

Fred

Middle of the road
I'm not handling the swine flu emotionally at all. I'm pretty sure it's a non-issue (except perhaps to the very few people dying).

Please bear in mind we are on the cusp of May sweeps. That means it's time for the media to scare you. Don't let it.
 
Amelia

Amelia

CheekyMonkey
There's little point in losing one's head over this. We do prepare as best we can, and then keep an eye on our six.

The thing that REALLY concerns me is all the disinformation that's floating around out there on both sides of the panic/don't panic issue.

Mrs. Smith's idea of "Preparedness is what we do. Panic is what we don't do." is absolutely spot on. Just like a person can't survive and grow at the same time, if you panic, you like wise can't effectively prep.

However for her questions regarding malaria, HIV and hepatitis included in your quote, I'll respond the same way I did on the thread from which you quote, in terms of comparison:

Malaria is spread through bites of specific types of mosquitos.

HIV is spread through exchanges of bodily fluids - not air or particulates.

Hepatitis does affect groups, but smaller ones due to a limited scope of influence and transmission routes. A = fecal/oral, and B-C also exchange of bodily fluids.

Considering this newer Swine Flu is airborne (none of the above) and hard mortality rates have not yet been determined, and we haven't any substantial demographics yet (that I've seen), mortality rates can't be used to draw any parallels at this point in time.

I think intelligent observation and sharing, and taking the time to bring counterpoint by recognizing logical fallacies are far more important to consider than getting your panties in a wad over whether or not we'll all die in the next 30 days from this new disease - i.e., preferring the adrenaline rush...

To do so otherwise, until we get a clearer idea of what we're dealing with, seems antithetical to the preparedness concept...

Glad you asked, MorningSunn. Good question!
 
lectrickitty

lectrickitty

Great Great Grandma!
I'm concerned, but not panicked. I plan to pick up a few bottles of vodka and order a few lbs of elderberries. They didn't make this past year so I couldn't gather any locally.

I worry for my kids much more than for myself. I've survived a bad flu (Hong Kong flu?) in the mid 80's. Dad survived the 1918 flu so hopefully some of his antibodies were passed along to me.

DS thinks he's superman and nothing can hurt him. He's the one I worry about the most. I'm trying to get him on garlic and/or oregano oil. I'll have plenty of the elderberry syrup on hand and force it down his throat if I have to.

Now that I've wrote all the common sense things, I will admit that I intend to hunker down and avoid all outside contact as much as possible. That said... we've probably already been exposed and are now in the incubation period. :eek: Thoughts like that make me want to run & hide.
 
Jennysmama

Jennysmama

Inactive
I hadn't thought much about the flu lately and I refused the flu shot this past fall, as usual. The other day, though, as I was getting chemo (my 13th infusion so far this year; I have stage IV metastatic breast cancer), I looked around the room at all the patients, many very frail, and thought, "All it would take is one really serious flu to wipe out at least half this room". The thing is, right now, I just don't have the mental, emotional, or physical energy to worry about it. If some form of the flu takes me out, after how hard I've battled cancer these past four years, well, I'll just have to laugh at the irony on my way out, lol.

Seriously, I am using common sense and not allowing myself to be exposed to any sick people (other than my fellow cancer patients, but we're not in each other's faces), and I keep flu remedies and preps stocked as best I can. I have to use what energy I have to fight the battle I'm presently engaged in and pray for the Lord to take care of me and of my family.
 
C

cathypeanut

Inactive
I am a tad bit more concerned than I was yesterday, and actually quite shocked that we could be seeing something that some of us have watched for years. It is unfolding right before our eyes. From the tv to the internet every time I turn around there is another case or possibel case.

Mexico has reported 1000 people sick with 79 or so dead. The BBC has reported that they have heard from Dr's in Mexico that are saying it is over 200. I don't know what that fatality rate is my math isn't good right now.

We have cases in Texas, Calif, NY and now possibly in Mass and Minn. Also in England.

so, I would say it is something we need to keep a very close eye on and I am not liking what I am seeing.
 
cider

cider

Contributing Member
I mostly just want my DD home. She is overseas and her plane home is not until next Friday. She'll be 19 on Monday. If air travel is restricted because of this she will not handle it well and neither will I. :(
 
Jennysmama

Jennysmama

Inactive
Cider, I pray your DD will get home safely and that you'll have peace while you wait. I have a daughter about to turn 19, too.
 
LoupGarou

LoupGarou

Ancient Fuzzball
DustMusher said:
...
pandemics such as the Spanish Flu of 1918 lasted months - it came in waves - light cases first then 'died out' then came back much more deadly.
...
Click to expand...

Two thoughts on this, (one already stated above):
  • The transmission will spread a LOT quicker thanks to a lot more people traveling a lot more often, and a LOT quicker than in 1918. Most of them will be traveling inside of cabins that will recirculate the air again and again many hundreds of times during the journey. It's gonna get nasty
  • In 1918, medicine was next to pathetic. They did not have the hard core antivirals and other things like they do today. That being said, there are a LOT of people that have been overusing those medicines and have now developed things like MRSA. If we end up with a resistant form of this thanks to the overuse of antibiotics and antivirals, then we really could be up a creek. All it would take is for a few people to not finish the full series of antibiotics or antivirals, let the pestilence get hardened to it, and then spread on to others. This was what happened back in 1918, when it seemed to die out, then come back with a vengeance.

Loup
 
Ragnarok

Ragnarok

On and On, South of Heaven
All the other crap going on in the world... This isn't registering on me mentally, yet.
 
D

dero50

Veteran Member
Things don't even seem real anymore. It's like a fantasy world and we wake up to a new fantasy every day.
 
Amelia

Amelia

CheekyMonkey
Good point, Ragnarok.

Cider, if it relieves your worry in any way, keep in mind that no one's yet even talked about closing our southern borders, and how many things will be truly screwed up if they restrict international airfare.

Having said that, I will also keep both of you in my prayers.
 
Abdon

Abdon

Veteran Member
If I may. It's not 1918 anymore. And with all the genetically engineered everything we ingest.

Apples and oranges . . .
 
O

oldladydoolin

Inactive
To be honest, I am not looking forward into going into work tonight. The majority of our patients symptoms lately are cough, fever, sore throat, body aches, abdominal pains and nausea and vomiting. With this coming out in the news, even if they have a slight cough, they will be coming in thinking they have this flu.

My main prep is to stay away from my family. There is no way that I would want to pass this on to them if I was to come in contact with it.
 
Marthanoir

Marthanoir

TB Fanatic
Abdon said:
If I may. It's not 1918 anymore. And with all the genetically engineered everything we ingest.

Apples and oranges . . .
Click to expand...

Yeppers and factor in the average level of physical fitness now compared to then,
Back then people were used to a hard graft from cradle to grave, alot tougher & fitter than your average person now,
Secondly you have the sterile world we have grown up in, we live in an anti bacterial world, i read a report sometime ago that they reason we have so many illness's and bugs and allergies nowadays is because we dont allow out bodies to climatise to the real world, we sterilise everything, we dont even allow are kids to play in the mud or hay
 
China Connection

China Connection

TB Fanatic
Well I've been expecting this for many years as it's part of a plan. Say whatever you want but it is happening on time with everything else.

The Spanish Flu went over two years until everyone that was going to get it got it.

In the end stages of Spanish Flu people were good when they got up in the morning and dead by nightime.
 
Hfcomms

Hfcomms

EN66iq
How are you Handling the Swine Flu Emotionally?

Actually I'm doing just fine with it. We might find out that fear and irrational anxiety may produce as many casualities as flu does. When people start to panic they get stupid and all kinds of violence might break out eventually with people even fighting over flu supplies and access to limited medical care.

There are tons of threats on our event horizon and this is just one of them. Got to keep everything in perspective. If the information is accurate (and I grant you it's a big if at this point) there is an 6% to 10% morbidity in Mexico. For all intents and purposes much of Mexico is a third world nation. I would think that our morbidity might be even less that Mexico's rate.

Yes, it can mutate and get worse and it just might. We might be heading into a bio-engineered pandemic and then again we might not....only God knows. Like anything else you prep to the best of your ability and do what you can. Everything else is in God's hands. I don't have to sit up at night and worry about things that are outside of my control. God doesn't sleep and he's up anyway. :) Unless the Lord comes first none of us are going to get out of this life alive anyway and were all going to die of something eventually. I'll still sleep good tonight.
 
B

bluetick

Inactive
Emotionally, I am a bit fearful. For the past few years, I have been pretty much a healthy hermit. However, my house is sold and I start my trip to the west coast in a few days. I will be encountering people and places along the way that could result in my picking up whatever "bug" is floating around the area.

You know I will be extra careful at handwashing at every stop along the way!

Until I make it to my destination, quarantines are not allowed!
 
SouthernGal

SouthernGal

"Don't retreat...reload"
dissimulo said:
That is kind of my point.

Even 1918 took many months to become full-blown within regions and it is the worst flu pandemic we've seen.

The time of the year is not right for ideal flu spread. It should take some time.
Click to expand...

True. My FIL is a retired epidemiologist (studies epidemics just in case someone doesn't know). He was in town this weekend and we were discussing the swine flu. He said "it could be an interesting winter next year."
 
P

Perpetuity

Inactive
I'm staying fluid with the situation. I'm actually right now more concerned with chigger bites from trimming back the creeping fig tomorrow, but while I'm doing it, I'll be doing mental checklists for the "what ifs". Can't do anything to stop it, so may as well use the time to be prepared as possible if events transpire quicker then normal. I've been in spring cleaning mode, and I knew somewhere down the road the organization would come in handy. And hey, found a 1868 silver dollar tucked away that was completely forgotten about!;)

What will be, will be. What we can do to help ourselves for the future is worth it's weight in gold. Whether it's tomorrow, next week, next month, or next year.
 
B

Barry Natchitoches

Has No Life - Lives on TB
How am I handling the swine flu situation emotionally?


Well, in the 60 hours before Hurricane Katrina hit landfall, I remember doing all the things that I should do to try and help my family, and to keep up on the news and all of that. There was no emotion to it. That would come later. I remember sometimes having to remind myself that Katrina was real, and she was massive, and she really was headed New Orleans way.


I'm feeling the same way right now. My family has done everything we can do to prepare for difficult times. And we will continue to do what we can. Tomorrow, I will go out and get gasoline for the mower (or the car, if things go bad). Will probably get some more TP (we are down to our last 200 rolls right now), and some bottled water. Maybe some more masks.


But emotionally, well, not really very emotional.


Just aware. Very, very, alert and aware.
 
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