I'd just about given up on the whole contacts thing. It was taking me almost 15 minutes to get them in my eyeball, usually after stretching out my eyelids with the other hand in strange contortions just to keep my eye from shutting. That's one way to get serious wrinkles over time-just stretch out those sensitive eye areas for 15 minutes every morning. The contact would stick to my finger, not my eye, and by the time I did get it in, my eyes would be irritated for quite awhile after being poked, scraped, rolled around, stretched, and gooped. But once they're in and I'm used to them for the day, they're great for the whole actually seeing thing, and I like that part. This morning was a victory-I actually got the buggers in within two minutes, with no problems, and decided maybe I'd give them a little more time between tossing in the contact case. ;)
I think I'm missing something on the whole Swine Flu thing. Level 5 Threat? Closing schools for a week even if nobody there has it? Rumors of potential problems with the utilities? Some people being told to store up food? The media is making it sound like Ebola is coming, or that someone dropped a biological weapon on the US. It's a flu, which is bad, but the regular flu kills around 36,000 people every year. Of course I don't want the flu-I don't want the regular flu and I don't want the swine flu either. But what is with the hoopla? This thing doesn't have a huge mortality rate (so far); why is it any worse than any other virus or bug that gets spread around and makes us all deathly ill and miserable for up to two weeks at a time? Last year was the Bird Flu. The year before West Nile virus. The year before SARS. How about Mad Cow disease? Is there some reason we have to induce worldwide panic over this now? How does 154 cases of flu, in 9 countries, with only 8 deaths worldwide, justify the CDC calling for all countries worldwide to "activate their pandemic plans?" It's the flu, I know it will spread, but I just obviously don't get it...
Kaylee's school has implemented new policies in protection against the flu too, by taking some reasonable precautions. They are not allowed to share anything any more in class without wiping it down first. They can't share food any more, no sharing of clothes or shoes (sometimes they'd swap shoes for the day for some reason), and they all have their own supplies, so if they are going to share scissors or pencils or whatever, they have to wipe them down first. Kaylee is irritated by it, but schools are definitely a place to pick up any bug out there, so being more proactive with hand washing and more careful with "sharing" stuff is a good idea. Of course it's all drops of water in an ocean so to speak, because they all touch the same door knobs, bathroom faucets, etc., and you can't walk around sterilizing everything they touch-and it only takes once. I do hope that the kids can remain healthy of course, and these are the best precautions they can take, and I'm glad they are-every bit helps.
The SMA world is slightly amused and surprised that people are having to be told about hand washing and cross-contamination because it's so second nature to them. Some SMA parents will change clothes after being out at work or running errands, will be careful about what they touch, will think about gas pump handles and grocery cart handles and door knobs, have their own portable bottles of Purell, etc. and what are "emergency actions" to much of America now have always been Standard Operating Procedure for a lot of SMA families whose kids could get terribly ill and possibly die from the common cold, let alone RSV or flu season. Again, it's a good thing for the general public to be more aware of anyway...
Stay warm, dry and healthy, and have a good weekend!
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