Ebola

With all the Ebola Virus nonsense going on here in the USA it has made me wonder more about infectious diseases--how they spread, how quickly they spread, and especially the fear of others that it brings.

As a family with small children we've had our fair share of infectious diseases. The kids have had hand, foot, and mouth (and legs, necks, tongues, so on and so forth), stomach bugs, and just general colds. They tend to get sick in groups. Thankfully we are rarely sick with them and are just left cleaning up the vomit they somehow manage to get everywhere because honestly, is it that hard to make it land in the bowl/toilet/bathtub you're currently standing in because you just puked all over your pillow, sheets, and blankets.... not to mention yourself. Oh look, now it's in your hair because we had to pull your shirt over your head, I'm just going to start cutting their clothes off next time.

We recently got over a nasty bout of a stomach bug. By we, I mean the kids. My in-laws were taking bets on which one of us parents would get it next, thankfully we didn't succumb to the nastiness that plagued our children.

Back to the topic at hand though.

With the recent Ebola case(s?) here the media has blown it way out of proportion with the fearmongering that they're throwing around. I really don't think it's worth the hype honestly. I think that this will be our Polio moment all over again. We'll come up with a cure/vaccine and 3rd world countries will finally have it, if they can afford it of course.

I do think that it will be something similar to a virus/disease that will end up leading to our inevitable downfall though. We over medicate our children with antibiotics which can cause immune deficiency problems, we are such germaphobes that their bodies aren't getting the necessary natural immunities to things and therefore they're getting sicker more often.

Antibiotics are a touchy subject for me. I don't condone the overuse of them but I also have a toddler that has to take daily doses to prevent UTI's. He's got a somewhat common problem known as Renal Reflux. His urinary tracts are a bit wonky and he should outgrow them. But what would happen if we met our apocalypse? What about our daughter who has the rare and elusive asthma attack?

Revolution made me think of asthma since the main character's brother has it and was having an attack in a field with what I can only assume is hay flying around. It was scary to think about. The show has definitely made me think about what lengths would I go to in order to protect my family. Would I kill? I think that if it were a kill or be killed/have my kids taken by some creepy stranger, I would do it. I would give my life for them now, why not when the world is going to hell in a handbasket?

Would you kill if you had to? Really think about it.

I should learn how to shoot a bow and arrow just in case..... not just because it's badass but because you never know when it will come in handy.