We had a busy fall and holiday season in the office so I’ve neglected to blog about anything for a few months. We have not seen any influenza yet this year, although it is not infrequent in this area to see it February or March. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that flu immunization has a high success rate this year and that we don’t have a bad influenza epidemic at all this season. Having said that, the CDC recommends immunizing through the month of March. So if your kids (or even you) haven’t yet been immunized, please come in ASAP. On the illness front we are mostly seeing cough, cough and more cough. Although we’ve seen some cases of pneumonia, most of what we are seeing is more like very long lasting bronchitis. It can sound harsh and last a few weeks, but most often is not associated with a fever and is more of a nuisance than anything. Coughs that are associated with fever could be pneumonia and should be seen in the office. Otherwise, most of these illnesses will go away on their own – unfortunately usually only after a few weeks.
On a different note, I have now started training for the Boston Marathon and am starting to do some longer distance running again. This morning I did 17 miles – it was bitter cold but I still love to be out running for a couple hours at a time. It is usually on a run that takes awhile that my mind finally “quiets down” and gives me any ideas to blog about. So I should have plenty of material between now and April 16th in Boston. Stay tuned!