Thursday, April 30, 2009, Nashville, TN., 11:49 a.m., D.S.T., Nashville Memorial Hospital, Emergency Room~

Dear Journal~

Louisiana Sandusky here.   Hope this finds y'all better than I am faring at the current time.

I am working the E.R.; ever since this outbreak of swine flu started, it seems that our E.R. department has gotten extremely busy, people who come in with flu-like symptoms, in addition to all the other accidental and occidental situations that cause people to come to the emergency department, making the E.R. department a living nightmare.

I don't know how many people have come in, claiming they have the swine flu, when, after we take care of them and test them, we find out that they are only carrying the standard flu.  Of course, some of them are very sick because they already have compromised immune systems or some chronic condition that only seems to intensify their symptoms.

It's enough to make me want to pull my hair out by the roots!

To add to the fun, we had two heart attack and stroke victims (the stroke victims and one of the heart attack victims survived; the other heart attack victim, unfortunately, died, despite our best efforts to save his life), and a teenaged girl who had a doozy of an asthma attack.  I first thought it was some of my children (i.e., Ronee', Deborah, Loueva, LaVella, or Johnathon, all, of whom have asthma or allergies); fortunately, that wasn't the case.

This young girl (aged 13) thought she had the swine flu, so she worked herself into an asthmatic attack.  I could hear her coughting and wheezing as soon as the ambulance pulled into the ambulance bay; she sounded very bad.  We knew we had to act fast to prevent her from going into cardiac (or respiratory) arrest.  The poor girl's mother wasn't in much better shape:  she was crying hysterically, saying that her baby had the swine flu.

It turned out to be just the standard flu; there was nothing "swinish" about her flu:  no excess vomiting or diarreha, which are the two hallmarks of swine flu; the standard flu doesn't usually have nausea or vomiting as symptoms.  It made all of us breathe easier, yet we had to ease her severe breathing difficulties before she choked halfway to death.

The doctor in charge put her on oxygen (via nasal cannula), and started an IV of theophylline and epinephrine, two strong drugs for asthma which usually alleviate the breathing difficulty in a matter of minutes; meanwhile, I hooked her up to a pulse oxymeter (to check the level of oxygen in her blood), a blood pressure cuff, and raised the head of the bed so it was higher than her feet, so to ease her dyspnea.

Not surprisingly, due to the panic she was probably experiencing, her breathing rate (as well as her heart rate) were exceedingly fast.  As the drugs for the astham started to kick in, her breathing easeed, and soon she was lying on the bed, sleeping like a baby, her breathing even and without effort.  It was a close call, but it was most definitely a save.

I don't know what direction the swine flu is going to take, but more and more people are falling ill, and we are going to have to do everything humanly possible to protect ourselves, take drastic measures to keep ourselves clean, and wash hands fruequently (plus use hand sanitizer, and stress to people not to use their hands when they cough or sneeze, amongst other things).

Right now, schools in the Nashville area are (mostly) open; what's to say what will happen tomorrow?  Next week?  Next month?  TIme will only tell.  Everyone is on a heighened state of alertness; they are shaking-scared of getting the flu.  I don't blame them one bit.

I am concerned too, especially for my kids who can't take care of themselves or have serious medical issues; they are the ones who are most vulnerable, as are my twin boys Ian and Isaiah.  It seems this flu hits kids especially hard, so we have to be vigilent, watch out for any signs of sickness, and when they do get sick, get them to medical treatment, STAT!!

All I can do during this time is try to help those who do fall ill, and pray I (or none of my family members) come down with swine flu.  It is a very frightening time right now; it's anyone's guess just how long it will last or how many more lives it will claim.  (Right now, only one death has been confirmed: a little twenty-three month old boy from Mexico, in Texas.)

Just keep me (and my family) in your thoughts and prayers; we could really use a miracle during this time of flu fanaticism!!  Pray we don't get it!!  Thanks in advance!

~Love, your friend in Tennessee, Louie May.  :(