He laid out his outfit the night before.  He has new shoes.  Remember how great it is, the first day you wear new shoes to school?  He’s still waiting for that day, although he’s shown everyone his new “shewz” on FaceBook.

But he was unable to get up.  He was clearly still weak and needing lots more shut-eye.  So began  Day Four of staying at home. 

As the hours ticked by, he perked up considerably.  A highlight was opening a jar of wild grape jelly, sent by my dear childhood friend Lisa in Missouri, who collected the grapes and made the jelly herself and sent it off carefully, enclosing  it with a long, hand-written letter that was very cheering to me.  Malcolm was very keen to make toast and have it with Lisa’s grape jelly. 

And it was delicious.

Bolstered by purple toast and green sneaks, we predict Malcolm will be back to school on Monday, returning in the pink of health.  Which is the appropriate hue for a swine flu survivor. 

 Thank you all for your well wishes!  Sneeze into your elbow, wash your hands often, and have a great weekend.

Malcolm has swine flu.  On Sunday night, despite fabulous seats at an exciting Phillies playoff game, he was apathetic.  The next day, when he was coughing, feverish, and saying that it hurt his eyes to look up, I had a sense of foreboding.   The pediatrician did a nasal swab Monday night, and on Tuesday the verdict was in:   h1n1.  The name that failed to catch on.  Let’s just call a swine a swine.

The top priority was making sure that Malcolm was getting better.  And that meant that last night, although Chris and I had long-standing plans to go see Bruce Springsteen in his final show at the Spectrum, I shooed Chris out the door without me.

This little piggy stayed home.

I am not a huge Bruce fan, and never bought one of his albums or CDs back when those were the prevailing technologies.  It’s not as if I felt crushed by the turn of events.  But in arriving at this decision, I will admit to some fear of public censure. 

“A 12-year-old boy, left home alone with a known diagnosis of swine flu, called 911 tonight, feverish and near-delerium.  His eldest brother was in Spain on a gap year adventure.  His other brother was at a church youth group meeting several miles away.  And his parents?  They were at Philadelphia’s Spectrum, attending a Bruce Springsteen concert.  When security guards found the neglectful middle-aged couple at their standing-room-only location on the floor, the father was yelling WOOOOO with his arms up, and the mother was swaying to Dancing in the Dark with a distant look in her eye.  Child welfare officials have been notified.  The 12-year-old is expected to be remanded into the child custody system later today.”

All of which ties in nicely with Emily’s musings from yesterday. 

Yes, fear of public scorn, the village stocks and cyber-dunking is partially responsible for keeping me in line, as a parent.  After, of course, concern for my child’s welfare. 

PS  I’m happy to say Malcolm’s 102 fever has dropped back to normal, and his appetite has returned full-force.  He appears to be on the (Thunder) Road to Recovery.

Last year my response would have been:  “And you’re calling me because…?”  You see, I am perhaps the opposite of a germ-a-phobe.  I actually believe that it is most often the people who walk around with hand sanitizer in their bags that get sick.  My refusal to engage in overzealous hygiene has served my kids well; I’d like to think they have built up an immunity to most sicknesses because of their exposure to, not fear of, the common germ.  Last year, I would have shrugged my shoulders and we all would have shown up with bells on.   Maybe I would have reminded the kids not to lick each other, if I remembered.

 But that was last year.

This year, all sorts of alarms went off — and I heard the squeals of little piggies in the far corner of my mind.   The campaign to scare people (right or wrong) had actually worked on me.   All the signs that show the proper way to cover your cough with your elbow, all the notes that were sent from the school about keeping sick kids home, all the work notices and news articles about the high rate of infection had taken hold of me.  As if brainwashed, I felt I had no other choice but to respond:  

 “I can’t bring my kids, but I’ll still come.”

I immediately felt like s—t going alone.  Sue understood. She knew that I wasn’t one of those hyper parents.  She isn’t either.  That is why she called to let me know in the first place.  Last year, she admitted, she may not have said anything at all and dosed Jake up with Advil and no one would have been any wiser.  (I would have done the same.)  But this year is different and we are all trying to be smarter.

A few hours later, at T-1 she called back.  Jake had gotten a strep test which was positive.  It wasn’t H1N1.  Still possibly contagious but not airborne.  Danielle was still coming with her brood.  Hmm.  I pondered but told her I would still be there alone. She understood, but I felt even s—ttier.

I felt bad because I let my fears get the best of me and change my plans.  I wanted to see my dear friends; I wanted my family to be with me.  Chances of the boys getting strep were definitely there; but not guaranteed.  It would be months before we would be together again.  And it wasn’t the evil swine flu.

I called Sue back.  We were all coming.  She cheered.  I smiled.  It was a great afternoon.  We caught up on months of our lives, reminisced about years past, and made plans for our next get together.   The boys had fun, played outside, and we all ate yummy food off our own forks.  I told the boys not to lick each other.  It felt like, perhaps, the healthiest part of our weekend.

I wouldn’t have brought the kids if we thought Jake had swine flu.  The warnings have worked.  I’m adequately scared.  But if anyone in the family gets strep, I’ll be the first to say it was completely worth it.

Can you tell which brother is sick?

I think the Swine Flu outbreak has been over hyped, but I can’t be sure.  On one hoof, they are using scary words like “pandemic” and “state of emergency”.  But on the other hoof, the deaths in the US are almost non-existent (and so far not local) and patients are responding well to treatment.  Should we be afraid or not?

I’ll be frank.  Personally, this little piggy doesn’t scare me.

I have never been a germaphobe.  In fact, quite the opposite.  I am a huge believer in building up immunity to germs.  I do all the important things like washing hands after going to the bathroom.  I shower every day (almost).  But I never understood the Mommies who carry around the hand sanitizer and constantly hassle their kids to apply it after touching things.  Do you ever notice that THOSE are the kids who are always sick?  I’m just sayin’.

I spent this week in Boston at a conference with several hundred people who traveled on gigantic flying petri dishes planes and trains to get there.  I shook a lot of hands, and even hugged and kissed a few long time colleagues who I haven’t seen in a while.  If I bought into the news and the hype, I may not have attended the conference at all and been fired.  I hear that a few people didn’t attend for that reason.  And Joe Biden doesn’t want to get on the subway.  Sounds like a little malarkey to me. 

My guess is that if you are a germaphobe, this news is very scary to you; but if you’re like me, you shrug and look around to see how other like minded people are behaving.  And until someone I know gets sick, its business as usual.

P.S. -  While I am one of the most reasonable people about germs, I am also unreasonably superstitious.  I am a huge knocker on wood.  To wit, this post guarantees my imminent illness.