Swine Flu

Well it is official.  My family and I have been hit with the 21st century plague.  My son has come down with swine flu and we are running around frantic.

It all started on Wednesday when he came home and complained of a sore throat.  I just assumed it was an excuse to get out of seeing if he made the science olympiad team at school.  Next morning he wakes up and says he doesn't feel good so we take his temp and it's only 99.6.  We let him stay home because he is a good student and all.  Temp stays stable all day and he wants to get out of his room.  He is fine I tell myself and settle down for an evenings rest.

Wake up this morning to find him complaining of a sore throat and nausea.  We take his temp and it's 104 and we are freaked, two worriers don't make for a good pairing during times of childhood illness.  Call his pediatrician and they have us bring him in right away.  We show up and are whisked through the waiting room and taken straight into an exam room.  As we pass through the waiting room we are met with horrific looks from a pregnant woman and her son obviously there for some sort of well child visit.  Docotr tells us it is H1N1 and writes prescriptions for Tamiflu and Zofran for nausea.  We get the prescriptions filled and we give him the Tamiflu and he keeps it down for about 40 minutes and then throws it up.  My wife asks me, the pharmacist, if we should give him another dose. I don't know Tamiflu well enough to know that off the top of my head so as my wise father told me more than once "A wise person doesn't have to know everything he just needs to know where to find it", so I look through the package insert and find nothing.  Now remember that this is a drug known to cause this reaction as a side effect.

I decide to go to the source and I call the manufacturer, Roche Laboratories.  I get someone on the phone with me and I tell them in my best Pharmacist Voice that I need to know if I should give my son another dose and vomiting the first one up after only 40 minutes.  They tell me after a bunch of information gathering that they don't have any data on that and I should check with the perscriber.  WHAT?!  You make the stupid drug, What do you mean you don't know?  Why should I check with the perscriber that doesn't know anything about this drug other than what the drug rep tells him.

So here I sit waiting to give him "another" dose and hoping for the best.  Send us your good thoughts and lets hope that Big Pharma starts acting more like health care providers and less like drug pushers.