Here are some t-shirt ideas:

• H1N1 — I1!
• My family survived swine flu and all I got was this crummy t-shirt.

Yes, our house was just visited by the so called Swine Flu, also known as H1N1, and recently pronounced Hini (hiney) Flu by Jay Leno. Pronouncing H1N1 as "hiney" does offer a glimpse into certain side effects of the flu.

H1N1 is so prevalent right now that most people are expected to just stay home and deal with it. Only severe cases should require a doctor or hospital—such as uncontrollable high fever or difficulty breathing.

We have one pregnant mom and two kids under two (our twin boys), and they fall into a high-risk group (along with very old flu victims and children under five). So, they did get special attention.

The twins got TAMIFLU and antibiotics for ear infections. My wife got TAMIFLU, I.V. fluids, and some time on the internal fetal monitor to check our soon-to-be-born son's heart rate and to make sure he wasn't going to pop out right then and there.

D_Diagram_of_swine_flu_symptoms_EN.svg">Image via D_Diagram_of_swine_flu_symptoms_EN.svg">Wikipedia

When I picked-up the prescriptions for TAMIFLU for the twins (20 months old), I found out that the liquid children's version is on back-order! So I waited while the pharmacists made us a liquid version out of the adult tablets. The next day at Target, while shopping for over the counter medicine to help with fever, I was surprised to find the Tylenol and Advil shelves completely cleaned out. I knew a lot of people must be suffering the same as our family.

For us, the sore throat plagued the adults and the high fever hit the younger kids. Our 3 1/2 year old boy and 5 1/2 year old girl had minor fevers and symptoms. But the worst, for us, was the hoarse, dry, persistent cough. While sleeping or trying to sleep, the coughing would get so violent that it would wake us up. So, sleep was hard to come by.

Nonetheless, we survived. Ha! And now I am a little full of myself—hence the pompous t-shirt ideas. Really, though, we are glad to be alive. It was kind of fun to be sick together as a family. We bonded in snot and hacking phlegm. Maybe we won't need a vacation for a while!

Good luck battling the H1N1 if it comes your way. Let me know about your experiences with this flu.

If you get the soar throat, I recommend ginger. You can cut a small bit of the ginger root and chew it in your mouth for a minute or two, and swallow those healing juices. Then spit out the ginger root instead of swallowing it. Or, shred the ginger root, finely, into a pot of water and boil. Strain the tea through cheese cloth, or just a paper towel, and sip lovely ginger tea, which is said to heal your mouth, throat, esophagus and stomach.

If you have other tips and remedies, please post them in the comments.