Swine Flu - My Story

I am a regular user of this forum although don’t post that often, but after my experience this week I felt I should share my story to raise awareness in the coming weeks and months as the flu spreads. Sorry for the long post, but just wanted to give a full account. I am just over 17 weeks pregnant and contracted Swine Flu last week from a family member who was not sick at the time and had just come back from holidays. I started displaying symptoms two days later on Thursday night it started off as a slight dry cough which wasn’t that bad this continued into Friday and got worse as the day went on, by Friday evening I also had a slight temp which was just over my normal body temp. I just thought I was coming down with a cold. I spoke to my brother who is a GP and he advised me to take paracetamol to keep my temp down. Saturday I felt much the same until Saturday evening when I developed a head cold. The head cold continued into Sunday and Monday with my temp continuing to go up and down, but only ever going slightly higher than normal body temperature. On Friday my family member who was then also displaying more severe symptoms than me was tested for swine flu. The positive results were confirmed on Monday at which point I was tested and advised by the GP to start taking Tamiflu. This advice was given as it was clear that I wasn’t improving and was still carrying the temp. I also felt that my body was not fighting the virus. The risks of not taking it were explained to us. As my immune system was down due to pregnancy my body was trying to fight the virus and if the virus won then I could rapidly go down hill and worse case end up in the hospital. This was a frightening thought for me. We had a long road to get pregnant and I had a recent miscarriage at Xmas, so did not want to risk anything with this baby. Myself & DH had a long discussion about all the risks and decided that if I got worse then I would have to take the medication even though we were dead set on not taking it. On Monday evening my body changed and I felt different I got very weak and I also developed diarrhea, so at that point I said I would have to start taking Tamiflu the hardest choice I ever had to make, but at that point to me the risk of my body giving in to the virus was a bigger risk. I have now taken half the course of tablets and I have turned the corner and feel a lot better which is great thank god. I am going to see how I get on and hopefully I won’t have to take any more tablets to get over this. I just wanted to make you all aware that you don’t need to have a temp of over 38 to have this flu and during this experience my temp never went much above normal body temp. Also all the symptoms came on slowly with me over a couple of days and not sharply within 6 -12 hours which were a dry cough and head cold initially. My advice would be if you start displaying any of the symptoms please contact your GP straight away for advice as we are in a high risk category all pregnant women will be tested for the flu. If you have read this so far thanks! I hope my story doesn’t alarm anyone, before this I was worried about getting this flu, but also knew that between now and January I would probably get it, so I said I would deal with it if and when it happened and not worry about it. I just didn’t think I would get it this quick and the only positive I have from this is that I shouldn’t get it again. I just hope and pray our little one will be ok

Hi Hope 09, thanks for sharing you story. It certainly is a concern, particularily for pregnant women. Please God it won't affect as many people as predicted and if it does, that they will make a quick recovery. Sorry to hear about your MCs too and will be saying a prayer that your pregnancy is a smooth journey from here on out!

Hi Hope 09 wishing you a speedy recovery and I pray all is well with your LO

Thanks Sleep Monster hopefully it will all go smoothly for the remainder. Wishing you a healthy & happy pregnancy also

i have a dry cough only since this evening like its hard to swallow thought i was getting sore throat so i will watch this now over coming days. in work i come into contact with peopel alot of the time so i could easily catch it. thks for posting. hope your and bean are doing well

Hope 09, really hope your on the road to recovery now. Im sure babs will be just fine. Rest up and take it easy for the next while.

Thanks for sharing and get well soon

Wow Hope09, fair play to u for sharing your story. If just goes to show u don't necessarily have to be dying sick with loads of symptoms to have it. I wish u a speedy recovery & hope all is well with your LO. xx

Hi Hope09, Hope that you are feeling better now and everything is alright with baby. Take care of yourself

Thanks for sharing, this is a big concern for me, i am washing my hands like mad these days! I hope you are feeling better and make a speedy recovery xxx