Swine Flu, or H1N1 Influenza, is a respiratory disease of pigs that is caused by type A influenza virus. This is a common flu among swine, and is most often seen in outbreaks during the fall and winter months – just as the normal flu season for humans. The H1N1 was first isolated from a pig in 1930, so it’s been around a good while.

H1N1 is, like all influenza viruses, constantly changing and adapting itself. Since pigs are able to carry viruses that affect not only swine, but human and even avian, the pig is a perfect host in which these viruses can undergo alterations that result in a new influenza virus being generated.

While most viruses generated from pigs are the H1N1 virus, there are other types that have been isolated from pigs: H1N2, H3N2, and H3N1

The H1N1 normally does not spread to humans, however, it can happen. Most cases are from direct contact such as “children near pigs at a fair or workers in the swine industry”* The news has said that one of the factors in this outbreak that is different is that the virus is spreading human to human, however, according to the CDC this is not the first time that has occurred.

…an outbreak of apparent H1N1 flu infection in pigs in Wisconsin in 1988 resulted in multiple human infections, and, although no community outbreak resulted, there was antibody evidence of virus transmission from the patient to health care workers who had close contact with the patient.

The symptoms of H1N1 in humans is similar to any flu virus and can include fever, lethargy, lack of appetite and coughing. The CDC reports that some that have contracted Swine Flu have also reported symptoms that include runny nose, sore throat, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. The primary factor with the Swine Flu, according to news reports, is to stay calm unless you would have normally sought medical aid, if you would have gone to the doctor with the symptoms you experience were it normal flu, then go, if you would not have gone to the doctor then you are safe continuing treatment at home. I would suggest anyone that has a care recipient contact the care recipient’s doctor and go with the doctor’s advice, and if you have the flu, take normal precaution to avoid spreading it to your care recipient since the standard flu vaccine is ineffective against Swine Flu.

It is important to note that Swine Flu can not be contracted by eating pork. The process of cooking pork, to an internal temperature of 160°F, kills bacteria and viruses – including the H1N1 flu virus. The Swine Flu is contracted just as normal flu is, through sneezing, coughing, and touching of infected items then touching your nose or mouth.

The CDC has a page of information to help you care for a sick family member at home. Be sure to read the entire page before you need it, then review it if you need to care for a sick person at home. Or print it out and keep it tucked into the medicine cabinet.

The page includes information on how Swine Flu spreads, medications that can help lessen symptoms (check with your care recipient’s doctor or pharmacist on what they can take with their current medications), how to lessen change of spreading the flu to others in the home, and how to care for laundry/dishes/etc in the home.

Basic points to keep in mind are as with any cold or flu:

• wash hands often
• cover up if you cough or sneeze
• use antibacterial hand sanitizers when you can’t wash hands readily
• ask others to reduce visitation with care recipient if they are sick and for up to two weeks after symptoms subside

As stated, if your care recipient shows symptoms of the flu, contact your care recipient’s primary care physician for specifics on what to do in your care recipient’s particular situation, and if you would have normally taken them to the doctor, take them now.

Also, be sure to check with your care recipient’s doctor and/or pharmacist before giving any over the counter medications to be certain there is no conflict with the medications they take – then doublecheck yourself at the Safe Medication website – a medications website by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists®.

* – http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/key_facts.htm

For more help see:

• CDC: Facts about Swine Flu

• CDC: caring for sick family member at home
• Safe Medication

I have known for some time that there was little attention paid to family caregivers and the nation’s senior population, but that was never made so pronounced for me as it was when my friend sent me a text message to my cell phone a little while ago telling me to tune into Olberman because “Olberman talking bush & nursing homes in a bit.”  My first reaction was to send her back a note “About time someone pointed out Bush needs to be in a nursing home.”  Joking aside I went off and tuned in in Keith Olberman and listened to his “Still Bushed!” segment where he was expressing surprise at this law Bush signed in as he was leaving office.  You know that sent me straight to Google.  What I discovered was less than encouraging when it comes to just how much people care about seniors in the United States.

On September 7, 2001 the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform warned us about this. 

Bush Administration Nursing Home Proposal

According to news reports, the Bush Adminstration is considering a substantial weakening of the federal protections for nursing home residents. This proposal would reduce the frequency of nursing home inspections and eliminate automatic sanctions on substandard nursing homes. Rep. Waxman has written to the President to explain why this proposal is seriously flawed.

This was accompanied by a link to the letter that Rep. Waxman had wrote concerning the proposal.  In this letter to the president, Rep. Waxman stated that “I am extremely troubled by the substance of the changes that you are considering. I believe they would substantially weaken protections for vulnerable nursing home residents.”

How can people be so uncaring about our senior citizens?  The people that are in nursing homes are, without a doubt, the greatest generation that ever lived.  We all know and accept that their generation did nothing less than save the world and now – how do we repay them? We shunt them off to nursing homes to be forgotten.  Then we tell those nursing homes that the Federal government will forgive anything they do to the men and women we entrusted to their care.

We need to tell the government that this is not acceptable.  Our parents, grandparents, great grandparents mean enough to us that we want their basic rights protected.  Our husbands, wives, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles…. our family, our friends… they mean enough to us that we want them to get the best care possible.

Letting nursing homes regulate themselves is not acceptable. Rep. Waxman stated in his 2001 letter that in a three year study only 5% of all nursing homes complied with federal nursing home standards for all three years.  5%.  Even as scary as that is, it is nothing when you read the next line of Rep. Waxman’s letter: “During the same three-year period, more than 56% of nursing homes had violations that caused actual harm to residents.”  HARM, not danger, harm, they caused harm to their residents – while they were being watched! Imagine, if you have a strong enough stomach for it, what happens when they are not under scrutiny.

People complain about the cruelty of how cattle are treated in slaughter houses – why do they never complain about how our elderly are treated in the very nursing homes that should be taking care of their every need?  Why is it that 56% of the nursing homes can cause harm to their residents, while being observed, and no one cares?

Look at your mother, your father… look at your spouse, your children… every one of them might one day, for one reason or another, be placed in a nursing home.  Is 44% enough odds that your loved one will be taken care of.  And that is only the odds they will be taken care of while someone is looking – President Bush has said that we only need some to look in every three years.

The new rule also designated state inspectors, Medicare and Medicaid contractors, as federal employees – shielding them from providing evidence in private litigation.  The explanation for why this was necessary seems to be that state employees were too burdened by requests for information.  Excuse me? Shouldn’t it be a clue that something is rotten in Denmark just by the fact that they were too burdened for information from people seeking help in finding out what happened to their loved ones?  If the state employees in charge of inspecting the nursing homes are being bombarded with requests for help in finding out what is going on in there, then there is something going on in there.

Maybe we should make a law that all state and federal information on nursing homes be public information and freely available online or in local libraries?  If we can all see what is going on, then maybe there will be less happening.

What is happening? You would be sickened to find out.    With just my own father, and the brief amount of time he was in nursing homes after his stroke:

• Fall in bathroom and ignored.  My dad fell in the bathroom and pulled the emergency assistance string for help.  He also happened to have a radio for talking to me, he called me when he needed to go into the bathroom and I told him it was too late for me to come assist him, to call the nurse.  Half an hour later he called me again – no nurse.  A little while later as he was calling me again the nurse showed up and took him into the bathroom and he said he would call me back when he was out of there. I found out later that he had fallen, pulled the “help” string, and then left laying on the floor for TWO HOURS while the light at the front desk and outside his room beeped for help.  We had him out of the place as quickly as the paperwork could be pushed through.  Well… actually… they would not let us have him (excuse me!?!?!?) so we got permission to take him home on visit for Christmas and … oh dear, did we forget to bring him back? Well, where was that paperwork to let him out of there that we had filed?
• Bed sores.  Mom discovered that he was repeatedly having trouble with bed sores and started taking care of those for him since the nurses did not.
• Dehydration caused heart attack.  Yes, when he was first let out of the hospital and sent to the first of several nursing homes we were to find out were lousy he was not given water.  He had a heart attack, that the doctor said was caused by severe dehydration.
• Ignored when in need of help. This one really got me – My mom and I were beside dad’s bed helping him most of the day and night.  The only time we were not there was for a few hours to sleep at night.  One night we were leaving and his new room mate, who had arrived a few hours earlier, asked me how to work the call button to call for a nurse so he could use the bathroom.  I helped him (very very nice old man that my parents got to be good friends with very quickly)… anyway, I helped him out, then as I was leaving a bit later the nurse still had not shown up so I detoured to the desk to let them know he needed the bathroom.  I pointed to the room and said, “the gentleman in there needs some help getting to the restroom.”  The nurse looked at the room, snorted and said “Oh him, he’s *always* pulling the string, we usually just ignore it.”  My mom was thankfully close enough to drag me off before I choked the nurse.  She was talking about my dad, who the staff never had to lift a finger for.  What the hell did they think about the people that they really were expected to help?  It was no wonder I was beloved by the people in the home that I would go out of my way to help with little things – like how to use the buzzer, getting a blanket or pillow that was out of reach, refilling water pitchers…  ::shaking head:::
• Fellow in bed next to my dad was yelled at for wetting his depends during the night – then made to sleep in the wet depends through the rest of the night.
• A woman in another nursing home not far from where my dad was was beaten by the staff.
• I almost left my dad’s room in one place to cross over to where a elderly woman was literally begging for help.  She never said a word, was happy to just sit and work on (think it was cross stitch), but she was "*BEGGING* for help and they were ignoring her.  I finally stepped into the hall where I caught a nurse and made them go see what the trouble was.  Poor woman had to get in the bathroom and based on what I could hear from across the hall had not been able to wait for the staff to finally get off their backsides and come help her into there.  Staff that had been chatting with one another several yards down from where she was begging for help.

That IS NOT the way I want my loved ones to be “taken care of”.  I certainly do not want those nursing homes to be given even more ability to do that kind of neglect and get away with it.

And these are the people that the government pays for caring for the elderly.  It is their job to make sure the elderly in their care are taken care of and given a dignified end to their lives.  It makes me cry to think that even when they are paid to be kind to the elderly – they still mistreat them, abuse them, cause them harm.  56% of nursing homes in a three year study “caused harm” to their care recipients.  56%.  While they were being watched by state and federal officials.

This law needs to be changed.

And to the sibling that had repeatedly told my mom that our dad should be placed in a nursing home because it would be easier – He will never be in a nursing home again.  Not while I can still draw breath into my lungs.