FLUCON LEVEL 4

Today was consumed with widespread panic.

We woke up, as any normal day. Chris had duty last night, so it was just me and Emily this morning. I planned on going to work late so that she could sleep in a bit this morning, but as soon as 8:30am hit - my phone was blazing with call, after call, after call. My phone actually died mid-afternoon because it had too much activity today.

It all started with a phone call from Chris from the Coast Guard Base. He called me to tell me that there was a child at Emily's school with a confirmed case of the Swine Flu. At that point the question becomes: Do we take Emily to school? Chris was on duty still, so he couldn't get off work to look after her...and, although I had a ton of work waiting at the office, I was the only person available to stay home with Emily. Don't worry, Emily isn't sick...but after much discussion, we couldn't take the chance of her getting sick by entering an infected building.

Emily's school is like any other "government agency" - they are very secretive about any diseases spreading through the facility, and they don't say anything to confirm or deny the existence of a widespread disease. The bad part is, however, that we're a small community...their lack of explanation only causes more panic because everyone talks about what's going on!

So, 8:30am this morning I get the swine flu phone call. Which kid is it? Is that kid in Emily's class? Has Emily already been exposed? Should we take her to school anyway? No answers from the school...in fact, no one even picked up the phone at her school. About 6-10 people that work with Chris were pulling their kids from school and taking them home - this only causes more panic! In addition, the school was requesting an emergency closure from the Base Command. It wasn't an environment I wanted to send my child into.

I called the doctor's office to see if we could get a vaccine. Nope. There are NO H1N1 vaccines on the island. I called them a week or so ago about getting a vaccine for myself...at the time they had only 7 vaccines and ALL were gone within 2 hours time. So, the chances of getting an H1N1 vaccine are extremely limited, even though we're in the high risk group. It doesn't matter...there just isn't enough to go around.

The Base suggested getting the regular flu vaccine to help ward off any flu symptoms. I called doctor's office again about getting Emily a regular flu vaccine (I got mine weeks ago) and the earliest I can get an appointment for a flu shot is sometime next week...LIKE IN 10 DAYS! Screw That! We switched doctors...we didn't like that old doctor much anyway. So, the new doctor's office tells us that they don't do flu vaccines for children as young as Emily. We're going to try to go to the Base Clinic tomorrow and beg for a flu shot for Emily...it's our last resort.

A few hours later...Emily and I home for the day...a few hours later I learn that 133 high school students were home sick yesterday with flu-like symptoms, and 60 elementary school kids were home sick with the same thing. Yes, that may not seem like a lot to you - but, we're on an island with only 6,000 people in total...190 kids out of school is SIGNIFICANT!!!!

I also learned that a 3-year old co-worker's child from the Base was airlifted off the island yesterday because his airways closed due to the swine flu that he had contracted. In addition, Wal-Mart is out of Children's Ibuprofen. If Wal-Mart's out of medicine, the island is out of medicine!

This may sound a little silly in your world, but we're on an isolated island. It is a small island and everyone knows everyone. When a "cold" comes to the island, everyone gets sick. It may take a month or two to spread...but, guaranteed, everyone on the island will get sick. It's not like back in California where you can take your chances of encountering someone with the an infectious disease - it is guaranteed that if someone on the island has IT, you will have IT.


I've been an emotional wreck all day today! I've been stuck at home, not being able to do anything but sit here in panic and wait for more information. I can't get any flu shots for my family and the Island is Sick. The only information I have is information of panic. And, being 8 months pregnant, every nerve in my body is shot! I'm on the verge of a meltdown.

It's an epidemic and I am truly scared about "what to do" - I think the scarier thing is that we do not have the resources needed to try to protest ourselves. We're all just waiting to get sick.

This afternoon I got an email from the Coast Guard Command calling this epidemic "FLUCON LEVEL IV" Here's the email as they describe what's happening:

The clinic will begin to use a 5 point influenza condition scale (FlUCON)for future updates detailing our local level:

FLUCON 1- no reported casesCommand response- none needed

FLUCON 2- sporadic cases in the communityCommand response- institute social distancing when able, reinforce need forproper personal hygiene techniques (coughing into sleeve, hand washing, act)

FLUCON 3- sporadic cases in the local Coast Guard populationCommand response- plan for a possible reduction in key personal, personnelare able to either utilize the clinic for sick call or may stay at homeafter notifying their supervisor(preferable)

FLUCON 4- wide spread sustained illness reported in the local Coast Guardpopulation.Command response- consider canceling previously planned large meetings oractivities, institute work from home measures if possible, ill people shouldnot report to the clinic for sick call- the clinic will institute phonetriage of ill people (sick people call 487-5757 ext 155) and they will bedirected to stay home, come in to clinic, or head to the hospital dependingon the severity of their symptoms. However, no one would be turned awayfrom the clinic if the showed up.

FLUCON 5- Widespread contact and death reported in the community or in theCoast GuardCommand response- same as level 4

Based on the above proposed scale, we are at FLUCON 3. (this was before they advanced it to Level 4) I therefore recommend to all commands that you plan for a possible reductionin key personal in the near future, that you continue to encourage socialdistancing when able, reinforce need for proper personal hygiene techniques,and expect that personnel who are ill to come to the clinic for sick callunless you otherwise direct them.This clinic will update you periodically as the situation warrants.

I was cleaning the house the other day, and I just had to take some pictures.

We have worked long and hard making this house "our home" over the last few months. We recently killed the rest of our savings by buying some new furniture that we have wanted for years; and after cleaning, the house just looked so nice - I thought I needed to post some pictures so you all could see. (It was decorated for Halloween.)

This is the main living room area from the front door. It's an odd-shaped room, so it is set up similar to how the previous owners had their furniture arranged.

This is the living room from the other angle. The drapes were left by the previous owners, and they blended with our design, so we kept them.

This is the kitchen. Originally the kitchen was a hunter green and so dark that it looked like a cave. It took us a few days, but we lightened up the walls with a tan-coffee color, and it really accents the wood cabinets much better. We still need to order some sort of blind for that window - it's so large that we'll need to special order something and we haven't decided what to get just yet. You can't see it, but there's a skylight in the ceiling...totally helps keep energy costs down!

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So, those are all the pictures I'll show you for now. Our current projects coming up are the kids' room and the downstairs bathroom. We're hoping to have both those projects completed within the next 2-3 weeks. I'll be sure to post some pictures up when they're ready.

To Our Fans in Albuquerque

We got another package in the mail on Friday. It was from our friends Mitch, Jess, Emma and Kaitlyn in Albuquerque. Emily was excited to open the package and see all of the neat stuff for her brother. Emma was also really thoughtful, and added in a present for Emily; Emily really liked the cool purse, necklace and headbands.

Thank you Emma (and the rest of the fam) for sending a present to Emily and her soon-to-be baby brother.

Happy Halloween!

The entire month of October we've prepared Emily for Halloween.

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We decorated the house, and talked about all of the decorations.

She got a Trick-or-Treat pumpkin bag, and we practiced knocking on our door and giving her candy. We explained Trick-or-Treating many, many times throughout the month so that she would understand for the Big Day.

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And, over the course of the month, we've tried-on the different Halloween Costumes with the constant comment from her "I don't like it."

So, because she was so "I don't like it" with all the costumes, we had on standby: Elmo, Snow White, Monkey and a Rescue Swimmer costume...but...
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The big question this year was:
What is Emily going to be for Halloween?

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Her costume was going to be a surprise to us all.
What was her day-of choice for a Halloween Costume...???

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She ran at the sight of a dress for Snow White...she wouldn't even try that one on.

No Snow White.

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Was it Elmo...?

Nope...not Elmo.

Was it the Rescue Swimmer?
Nope...not a rescue swimmer.

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Was it a monkey?

Well...it didn't look like it at first.

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But, then she changed her mind, and Emily was a monkey this Halloween.

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So, we took our little monkey out trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. It was about 7pm, and dark outside. Luckily we've had beautiful sunny weather the past week, and the clear skies stayed-put for Halloween Night - perfect for a night out! It was still dark outside, but there were a lot of kids out; I think we had about 40-50 come to our door.

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(I should probably mention that although we had clear skies it was still 35 degrees outside...and snow is forecasted for the remainder of the week. Yes, it was COLD!)

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Emily was a little shy to go to the door. She wouldn't say "Trick or Treat" to the people, but she had no trouble holding her bag out for the candy...and then she would say "Thank you" when the candy went in her bag. It was sweet.

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We visited about 6 houses in total. It was cold and I don't want her eating a lot of candy. So, we let her get a "feel" for Halloween and then we went home. Once home she was excited to dig into her 'pumpkin purse' and start eating the candy she got.

In the end, she had a really good time and next year will be a whole lot easier!

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Nigh...Night!

First School Performance

Emily had her first "school performance" on Thursday. They had a Fall Festival where the parent's were invited to come and watch the kids sing and dance. It was kind of a cluster with a room FULL of toddlers and babies, but she participated...somewhat.

Happy Birthday Pumpkin

Pumpkin Carving

Tonight we carved pumpkins. I wasn't sure how Emily was going to handle this...she's been carting around her little pumpkin this last week as if it were her new baby.

How would she handle it when we cut it open??

She did really well and had a smile on her face the entire time. She wasn't too keen on getting dirty, so it took her a while before she stuck her arm in the pumpkin to pull out the seeds with her fingers.

In the end, she had a great time carving her pumpkin.

The next little dilemma was lighting the pumpkins.

She thinks that the candles are "birthdays" and that she must blow out the candles once they are lit. (She sings Happy Birthday and everything; it's cute)

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So, we will have carved pumpkins this year

...they just might not be lit. (lol)