Swine Flu

I have to admit that I often roll my eyes at the way the media tends to over exaggerate things which causes people to freak out for no reason. I thought this when they first started talking about Hurricane Ike heading for Houston and had absolutely nothing in my hurricane survival kit. Truth be told, I don't even own a hurricane survival kit.

Sam and I kept making jokes about all the people stockpiling batteries, water, dry foods, etc. Only at the last minute did I decide to make a trip to the store to get a few things just in case. Little did I know that we would be without power for 4 days, living on the peanut butter crackers and juice boxes I picked up at the store...just in case.

You would think that after this experience I would have learned my lesson. Maybe the people on the news do occasionally speak the truth, and perhaps we should heed some of their warnings. But not the Cockes. We continue to roll our eyes at the hysteria they create.

That brings us to the current situation with the swine flu. I was so unconcerned about it that I traveled to Mexico, swine flu capital of the world, in the middle of a pandemic without a second thought. And sure enough I came back healthy, rested, and tan. So the thought that Sam might catch the swine flu at a camp in Colorado never even crossed my mind.

You see where I'm going with this? Believe it or not Sam, along with 60 other campers, came down with swine flu while at camp last week. The good news is that as long as you don't have respiratory problems like asthma, it is just a 24-hr flu with high fever and nausea. The bad news was that after not seeing Beckett for 9 days he wasn't able to hold him or touch him for another 48 hours after he got home.

We are all now healthy and happy again. But you can bet that the next time I see someone buying batteries before an approaching storm or boarding a plane to Mexico wearing a mask I will think twice before making a joke.