Fluvuku Mariyadhai !

I would like to quote Superstar (originally arjun) at this point “ Kanna panniga dhan kootama varum – singam singlea dhan varum”

The topic is none other than the much hyped Swine Flu(SF). There are about 1500 cases in Australia with Victoria alone with over 1000 cases. It has made people ...ahem ME paranoid. When a McDonalds branch was closed in one of suburbs following SF, we were frantically researching the internet to make sure it wasn’t the one where our little mighty toddler had her weekend treat the previous day. Since then we haven’t visited any Mcdonalds or any of these fast food places and little one is pretty much putting up with my cooking.

Anyway last week when i was hit by this terrible flu and little girly had cold/fever for like 2 weeks , we got scared. Hubi was non stop googling the symptoms of SF. This made us more paranoid as the symptoms are not very different from normal flu, so we decided to take the next step - visit the local hospital. Hospitals are actually better than seeing your GP, you get to meet an actual paediatrician, but the trouble is the waiting period. I have waited for several hours in the past. But we took the challenge. Stood in the queue for 10 minutes to be seen by the triage nurse, who usually does the initial assessment and then let you join the mob of waiting patients. It takes 2-4 hours of waiting before you are called inside !

Anyway the nurse gave one look at me and my girl, and the minute we said we had flu like symptoms, she came back with 2 face masks, and got us to sit in a special room and not the normal waiting lounge. We were very excited to be let inside straight away with the fancy masks and we took family photos(hehe) in the mobile camera. 5 minutes later a pedeatrician walked in to check on the little girl. Then doc confirmed it was swollen tonsils for the kid and I was asked to go to the adult clinic. When hubi went to get the floor plan for getting to the clinic ( it was a pretty huge hospital and you could get lost without a proper floorplan) , the nurse panicked and backed off. She said "no no stay there " and sent the floor plan through another nurse. She was not willing to come anywhere near us.

Anyway after 30 minutes wait in the adult clinic, an initial assessment by the nurse, then by the doc came theSWAB kit. They told me that the swab sample was to be taken from the back of the nose and not the throat. I was like ‘Wouw….do you really think I have THE flu’. After 5 minutes of beard scratching discussion between the doc and nurse, they decided they could let me go without any terrible sample taking process ( No! they did not say I was a ‘medical miracle’ like in our movies). This process cost the hospital/ government – 5 face masks, 3 pairs of gloves, and 3 aprons - just to decide that i do not need a test !
Yenna kodumai sir idhu !