Stupid pigs

We’ve been quarantined for going on 5 days now. Well, Lexi has, but really, when you've got a sick kid you don't get out much. And we had 3 days of quarantine with Vicki a week and a half ago.

Swine flu. Oh, yeah.

Actually, if this is the dreaded H1N1 (which it must be because apparently normal seasonal flu has not hit Oregon yet) then it’s not that bad. I do realize that people have become deathly ill from this virus, but for us it’s been no worse than the seasonal variety. My kids get high fevers as a general rule, so 104 degrees, while uncomfortable, is nothing to panic about around here.

I completely understand and respect the school’s rule that kids can’t come back until they’ve been fever-free (fever being defined as 100 degrees or above) for 24 hours without the aid of medication (does that include the parents?) I don’t want my kids catching something from someone else’s kid, and I would feel awful if I knew my kids had been spreading germs around the school (more than usual, that is.) I don’t send them to school when they’re sick, period, and I expect others to show the same courtesy.

So if, when the temperature has been normal for most of the day and we’ve spent the whole day assuming she’ll go back to school tomorrow, the temperature goes back up to 101 degrees, then of course she stays home the next day. But when, that next day, it goes to barely 100 degrees but she feels absolutely fine, it becomes an unhappy experience for all involved.

Cabin fever, big time. But she’ll be back in school tomorrow. If I have to simply plead ignorance by not taking her temperature all day long, so help me she’ll be back in school.*

Sadly, all I can think of now is: two down, one (or, heaven help us, three) to go.

*We all know I'm kidding, right? I really have checked her several times today. Totally normal. Well, normal for this house, anyway.