By Keri Groen, Reporter
The nurses’ office at Kaneland High School is more crowded than usual because of the approaching flu season, and students are being more cautious about getting sick.
“There are definitely more students coming in,” Jackie Mueller, school nurse, said.
Mueller said she believes students are coming in more frequently because it’s flu season and people are scared that they might have H1N1.
“Many students come in with headaches, a cough or sore throat, but no fever,” Mueller said. “Students have come in and said ‘I think I have swine flu,’ but when checked for symptoms, some just have a stomachache because they didn’t have breakfast.”
Swine flu is circulating at Kaneland, however. Freshman Danielle McCormack is one of the KHS students who came down with the H1N1 virus.
“I went to the Rush Copley Medical Center and my doctor offered to get me tested for the swine flu, although he had already diagnosed me with it according to my symptoms,” McCormack said.
McCormack said her family served her at the dinner table, but she wasn’t allowed to talk to friends or family in person in order to keep them from getting sick as well. Junior Kayla Burns hasn’t come down with the flu yet, but she is taking precautions anyway.
“I stay home when I get sick to prevent those at school from getting ill because that’s the fastest way for something to spread,” junior Kayla Burns said.
More people are being sent home with the rush of students coming in at KHS. State regulations made last school year require nurses to send home those with symptoms of swine flu, including a fever and cough or fever and sore throat. McCormack and Burns stay healthy by washing their hands, taking vitamins and staying away from others that are sick. Mueller said that getting enough sleep and eating a healthy breakfast before school will help students stay alert and help them fight sickness.
“I am very paranoid about getting sick, so I try to avoid people that are coughing,” Burns said.
Neither Burns nor McCormack have gotten the vaccine for swine flu or intend to with flu season coming.