01 July 2009

It's the Swine Flu COUNTDOWN!

Have you ever heard the song Final Countdown by Europe? That song has been going through my mind constantly these last two weeks, except I replace the words with Swine Flu Countdown. Doo do doo doooooo, dun nah nah nuh naaah!

Yes, sadly someone in our office contracted swine flu. It was inevitable. There are now 1 million cases of the swine flu in the U.S, according to WebMD. I've been told that the incubation period is 14 days for swine flu. So we created a paper chain at work with pink and yellow paper strips (It reminded me of pigs. I got to choose the paper.) to count down the days until we were safe. WebMD though says that if you contract swine flu you need to be quarantined for seven days (How many days did a Q last in Ricks Hall at BYU-I?).

Let's just be honest! I don't have the best immune system. Mr. Crohns is not the kindest to me in that sense. In fact, once swine flu became a pandemic and entered the MTC in Provo I started taking my multi-vitamin regularly and made the Purell readily accessible at my desk. A sufficient sleep is also necessary for me to survive, which is why I've been going to bed EXTRA early. We all know that on a normal night I fall asleep earlier than many children, but now I am making sure to take my fair share of rest after work is done.

I'm hoping that with rest, multi-vitamins, and a conscious effort to keep my hands clean and not bite my fingernails, I will be able to withstain the strain. I've concluded, though, that it would just be safer overall to have the whole office to take the week off... paid of course. It's not my choice that someone came to work with a swine flu aura. Quarantine BYU for 7 days. Is that too much to ask for our health?

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