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S U N D A Y , N O V E M B E R 23 , 2014
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WWW.TUSCALOOSANEWS.COM
LYDIA SEABOL AVANT
THE MOM STOP
Be prepared for the flu to fly fast in family
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t often starts with a runny nose, the sniffles or perhaps a whiny child who just doesn’t feel well. Before you know it, the germs brought into the home by a toddler or young child can break a family down to a useless group of sicklings, going through boxes of tissues and bottles of children’s ibuprofen faster than the local pharmacy can stock them. It’s cold and flu season. For families of young children, that means it’s time to hunker down, because there is little that can be done to prevent kids from bringing home the viruses. Unfortunately, even with lots of disinfecting, day cares, preschools and kindergartens are breeding grounds for germs. No matter how much you coach your kids about the basics on preventive health care, chances are they’ll still drink after another child, wipe their noses on sleeves, furniture, or other kids, cough without covering their mouths and generally spread sickness faster than the rest of the human population. Despite anti-bacterial liquid, washing hands and generally spraying down common surfaces with Lysol, my house got hit hard this week: It was the flu. It started with my daughter, who came home from kindergarten with a fever for a couple days — about a third of the kids her age at her school were out with some sort of virus that week. Soon after she recovered, we received a phone call that our 3-year-old son had spiked a fever, but he was also suffering from a cough and a runny nose. After the fever didn’t go away, he tested positive for the flu. I am a staunch believer in the flu vaccine. As a reporter covering health, I’ve heard too many horror stories of what can happen when the flu takes a turn for the worse. With the H1N1 flu strain causing a record number of deaths in healthy adults in 2013, and now that I’m four months pregnant, I wasn’t going to risk skipping vaccinations for our family. But the flu hit anyway, the second time in three years that my kids have had the flu. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 5 to 20 percent of the U.S. residents get the flu each year and more than 200,000 people are hospitalized with complications from the flu. The flu season typically starts in the fall and peaks in January or February, and hits specific groups harder than others — namely those age 65 and older, children younger than 2 and people with chronic health conditions. Women who are pregnant are also considered at higher risk. According to the CDC, getting a flu vaccine is still the best protection against the flu — it generally has a protection rate of around 60 percent. And according to the Alaba ma Depa r t ment of P ublic Health, there are 10 basic steps you should take to protect yourself and your family against the flu: ■ Get vaccinated. ■ Wash your hands. ■ Cover your coughs and sneezes. ■ Stay home if you have a fever. ■ Stockpile supplies. ■ Clean and disinfect surfaces. ■ Know your office emergency plan. ■ Learn home care. ■ Call your doctor if symptoms get worse. ■ Stay informed.
Reach Lydia Seabol Avant at 205722-0222 or email her at lydia.seabol avant@tuscaloosanews.com.Visit www.tuscmoms.com to read her blog, meet other moms in West Alabama and to share photos, videos and more.
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-TOWN HANKS
Readers respond with top reasons to be thankful we live in Tuscaloosa By Mark Hughes Cobb Staff Writer
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e asked for your thanks, and got them. Specifically, we asked readers what they feel thankful for in fall 2014, things specific to our community. One respondent wrote in a fourpage epic poem, which would have taken up all our space, but thank you Bonne Morris for your loving ode to the Druid City, to Bryant-Denny, the Tuscaloosa Amphitheater, the River Market, the Moody Concert Hall, Denny Chimes, Lake Tuscaloosa, the Battle-Friedman House, the Quad, the Drish House, the Bama Theatre, and to Crimson pride and Tuscaloosans’ resilience. Tweets came in ( #ttownthankful) with those, and more, as well. So what are you thankful for, Tuscaloosa? Life, family, friends, chances to stretch my mind. There’s a LOT that’s good; I hate to miss any of it. — David Kopaska-Merkel To say thank you to a place like Tuscaloosa is to say thanks to some semblance of madness, as Tuscaloosa giveth and taketh away in the form of the most beautiful roll tidings and a pork shoulder smoked by the Archibald family, but can also knock down a home for a hotel without a blink of an eye. And yet, this is where I live: a town that took me in when I was way too young to know better that I needed Tuscaloosa — how I almost blew a tire on a Queen City circle one of
my fi rst nights in town — how I now lived in a place where oak trees grew out of the middle of the road without a second thought. And yet I’m thankful for the roadblocks; of how deviating slightly from a path you thought was safe can send you to where you should be — hugging strangers in dimly lit bars, writing about how the town cascades toward the river, assembling as many people as possible to live, eat, cheer, share, work, and love together — that this is what growing older means: to be thankful for every tree, for every road that leads to every home made in this, our town of towns. — Brian Oliu
We could not do our work without the support of individuals and businesses like these. — Lindsay Turner I’m thankful for the small but energetic arts community in Tuske caloosa. I’m inspired by people like arShweta Gamble, Tony Bratina, Sharth ron Rudowski, Caleb and Ruth O’Connor, Kerry Kennedy, Chris Davenport, Mark Hughes Cobb and several more who, through their works, participation, support, generosity and education, shine a light on T-Town’s arts community. Proud and thankful for all of ’em! Maybe I’ve been under a rock, but I haven’t seen this level of arts activity/ participation except in the last few years. — Tony Brock SEE T HANKFUL | 7E
(The Druid City Garden Project) is thankful for all of our fantastic community supporters, including the Cypress Inn who, this week, have brought their cook trailer to two of our schools for a very special lesson. Students were able to prepare and eat vegetables growing in their garden alongside Cypress Inn chefs, while learning about nutrition, food preparation, and what it takes to be a chef, all in a professional kitchen on w he el s !
STAFF ILLUSTRATION | ANTHONY BRATINA