<p>I think I was exposed this weekend. A friend I hadn’t seen in a while came up to me at a crowded event and told me how her D came home from college with the flu. As she breathed all over me I thought to myself, “Oh, oh.” :eek:</p>
<p>kelowna - I got this info in an email this weekend, and was wondering if you could respond to its claims. I’m just very skeptical that anything you’d do after being infected could prevent you from getting it.</p>
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<p>Slap? Really?? Is this also a New Jersey custom or are you a native of Chicago?</p>
<p>teriwtt - I really do not know, never heard about it. Sounds a little like black magic, doesn’t it. I know that gargling with salt helps me when I have a sore throat, helps immensly. Never washed my nostrils in the way described there 
As for the Vit C, it is more important to have it on board BEFORE one is afected by a virus. Natural sources like citrus fruits are the best way of delivering it. Forget about the Airborne - it has been labelled the most expensive Vit C in the world. I am surprised people are still buying it. </p>
<p>A very interesting piece of investigative reporting by CBS. Make sure you watch the video (it has been posted on you tube as well)
[Swine</a> Flu Cases Overestimated? - CBS News](<a href=“http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/10/21/cbsnews_investigates/main5404829.shtml]Swine”>http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/10/21/cbsnews_investigates/main5404829.shtml)</p>
<p>It’s often not possible to know if you are at any given moment, a carrier. I had no idea I had it until after the fact. (Some medical underlying conditions misled me to thinking it was a complication of standard flu/cold, whereas it was apparently The Real Deal.) I had been around lots of children, before & during incubation, and during early stages. It had gone around my work environment before, during, after both my incubation and my presentation with it. A few others at work had it before/during/after me, but they had even greater occasions of exposure than I did, so there’s no way to tell how (unintentionally) “culpable” I was.</p>
<p>Love Post 33. Regrettably, that was the old SAT, with real analogies, really measuring analytical ability.
:)</p>
<p>Around here, if you are a guy and you say, “Back the f* up” to a lady in a grocery store, the cops will be called. I know because a few years ago an elderly woman ran over my husband’s sore toe with a grocery cart accidentally and he said “F* a duck!” because he was in pain. She got badly frightened and had the manager call the police. Needless, to say, my husband was hugely embarrassed.</p>
<p>I would have just switched places with the lady in back of me or left the line. I think you are getting exposed to h1n1 in any crowded situation and the best thing to do is wash those hands!</p>
<p>Both my husband and I have pooh poohed the swine flu, thinking there has been a huge over-reaction to it, but we have gotten a scary reminder that it can be dangerous.</p>
<p>My husband’s best friend is in ICU right now dealing with complications from swine flu. He is on a ventillator because of fluid in his lungs. He almost died over the weekend, but is showing some signs of improvement now, and they are hoping to get him breathing on his own by tomorrow. He had no prior health problems, he just started feeling bad last week, and by the end of the week, he had severe chest pain and trouble breathing, so he went to the emergency room. It was that quick!!</p>
<p>I’m not poking fun at it anymore :(</p>
<p>I don’t see what accomplished with telling someone to back the f away. I’d just get out of line if I cared that much to be verbally agressive. Such an approach- here at least- would make all surroudning people look down on such a person, like they must have some kind of instability issue. Actually having lived in NYC for many yars, I didn’t see that kind of behavior there either.</p>
<p>If I cared that much I’d avoid public places…fortunately i don’t care that much since I work in a univesrity surrounded by tons and tons and tons of people everyday and the flu has already taken quite a toll on the region. I’ll get the vaccine when its available next week (hopefully).</p>
<p>teriwtt - an update. It is almost funny, but my 7th grade daughter just came back from school with exactly the same recipe for fighting the illness as you described. Came from her science teacher. I guess a lot of people got that e-mail over the weekend :)</p>
<p>kelowna - I’m sure the email is viral now (no pun intended), but I what I really want to know is how valid are the suggestions. The email came from another co-worker who tends to forward emails without checking out the source. I’m guessing the info your daughter brought home mentions the physician’s name that supposedly initiated the information. When I googled his name Saturday, the only stuff that really came up about him was related to this email. Our county is having its first vaccine clinic this Thursday, and I plan on being there bright and early and think I should qualify as I work in health care and am in the field with patients. I’m also due to leave for London in a week, so if I can just manage to avoid it for a few more days (although I know it can take up to two weeks to get the full effect of the vaccine) I’ll feel better about it.</p>
<p>OK… if anyone else can find more info on the physician who supposedly published this, I’d appreciate it. His name is Dr. Vinay Goyal. This article comes from a group called Live Well America, although I can’t seem to find out much about them either, or what their credentials are. He is referred to as Dr. Vinay Goyal, but the credentials listed after his name do not contain M.D., so I’m not even sure what kind of doctor he is.</p>
<p>I checked snopes.com for the email and instead got this:
[snopes.com:</a> Swine Flu](<a href=“http://www.snopes.com/medical/disease/swinefluinfo.asp]snopes.com:”>Swine Flu Resources | Snopes.com)</p>
<p>which says that there are more rumors than they can handle!</p>
<p>A couple of weeks ago, I watched a program on Discovery Science (or some channel like it) about how a global flu pandemic gets spread. In the example, they showed an Asian business woman who was standing in a market booth in Shanghai (or some other Asian city) when a asymptomatic chicken farmer and carrier of a flu virus, which had just made the jump from animal to human, sneezed without covering his nose or mouth. Some of the spray landed on her face, and she wiped it off, and said something in irritation to him (probably, “cover your mouth when you sneeze”, you rude and thoughtless man." in Chinese—LOL). Well, she got on a plane headed west in order to present at a conference within hours. But, it took about three days before she began to display symptoms. During the plane ride west, she coughed once or twice, and in the confines of the airplane (where the air is often recycled), she spread it to several other passengers without having a clue that she herself had been infected. That’s what’s scary about something like the flu, especially a pandemic strain like the 1918 flu or H1N1. You can be a carrier for several days and not even know it. You can also be vaccinated, but be exposed before the vaccine has time to kick in. </p>
<p>Barrons, it’s good to know you’re as affable in real life, as you are on CC;)</p>
<p>dmd77 - yea, I checked snopes, but they don’t have anything listed on this specific email, or this specific doctor.</p>
<p>R-rated version of Jersey Wiki. I heart the motto. Mix in 8 years in Chicago and …</p>
<p>[New</a> Jersey - Uncyclopedia, the content-free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/New_Jersey]New”>http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/New_Jersey)</p>
<p>I have found this on nasal rinses
[Salt</a> Water Flush - Nasal Saline Irrigation - Sinus Rinse](<a href=“http://allergies.about.com/od/noseandsinusallergies/a/nasalsalineirr.htm]Salt”>Nasal or Sinus Rinse Recipe and Uses)</p>
<p>Uhhhh… i’m back, even though i still feel like crud…</p>
<p>I called the campus clinic this morning and i qoute “there is nothing we can give you if your not in the risk catagories…”…</p>
<p>Then i asked if there was anything i could do to help get better… and was told drink plenty of fluids, take fever reduicing meds, and rest…</p>
<p>But there is one good thing, I was able to get a meal kit today (last nights one was meger, as there was no one in…)…</p>
<p>bah, i’m sick of being sick :(</p>
<p>Also you must not have heard “What’s a Coastie” on YouTube. The Chicago Girl–priceless.</p>
<p>Our school (of only 500 or so students) had over 100 student absences…and THIRTEEN faculty members were out ill also. I just keep washing my hands and hoping for the best. What else is there to do?</p>