Swine flu hits

So I was preparing this "Babymomma reveals all" post about my new job - which starts Monday - and what I've been up to workwise for the past few months, but Jasmine has come down with, erm, "flu like symptoms" so yes, basically, we reckon it's swine flu.

The National Pandemic Flu service reckons it's swine flu too, and issued our Tamiflu authorisation code at 3a.m. What sucks about the service is that all links to the Anti Viral Collection Points in Barnet are broken. In fact, type "Barnet tamiflu collection point" into Google UK and it still takes about 25 minutes of digging to find out where our nearest collection point is. There is no list. In the end I had to dig it out of some MP's blog but reckon your average punter would struggle a bit.

Our GP reckons it probably is swine flu, but might not be, and reckons we could take Tamiflu, but that at the same time it might be better not to, but really it's our decision. Most people would find this disconcertingly unhelpful. I appreciated his honesty. (It helps having a doctor for a boyfriend to explain why you can't just give a straight yes or no.)

Other than that it's all been distinctly unmelodramatic. Our main concern, of course, is Jasmine's weak chest, and whether she will suffer more than your average 3 year old. But even though she's really quite ill, her breathing rate is normal, and both Daddy and the GP said her chest was clear, so we're not expecting to have to rush her to hospital any time soon. So far, this illness seems "normal" by Jasmine standards. Fingers crossed it stays that way.

The most unpleasant aspect is the horrendous diarrhoea. 6 gag-inducing pottyfulls of it today. As a result I have become obsessively anxious about hygiene and have dry, cracked hands from overwashing to prove it. Despite getting to the potty every time, I convinced Jasmine to go back to nappies temporarily, which is just as well as we've had two accidents since. The knock on effect is I am now panicking mildly about getting enough fluid into Jasmine, but she refuses to take even a sip of drink and is now in a coma-like sleep on the sofa.

Hmmm, as I write this I realise it doesn't sound too good... I'll see whether she drinks anything when she wakes up, and if she refuses I may have to force feed it to her. Joy.

Today was supposed to be my last day at work. So I feel like I'm handing over a big, involved project that is slap bang in the middle of build in a mess of snatched emails and telephone messages. Katia, who I work with, wisely said "you have to be at peace with yourself when you go." Right now, she couldn't be further from the truth...