Not ready to board ourselves in quite yet...

I used to never get sick.  Maybe a cold here or there, but not usually something serious.  I think one reason I don't get sick is that I just can't handle it.  I am perhaps the world's biggest baby when it comes to being ill.  Unfortunately, getting sick seems to be one of those things that happens to me more often when I travel.  I have been to Arizona four times.  Twice in December, once in May and once in June.  Both trips that took place in December resulted in a 24 hour like illness that was far from pretty.  Especially that first time when I was meeting my husbands family for the first time and I almost threw up in my sister-in-law-to-be's car and monopolized my other sister-in-law to be's bathroom for the better part of one day.  That sickness was perhaps the worst I've ever had as being in someone elses home only seemed to make it worse.

The next two times all was fine.  Then the last time we visited I got sick once again.  It was like Deja Vu except we were in Ikea and not a ski shop when the illness came on unexpected.  I suspect I got sick on the plane being December and high flu season.  We haven't been back to Arizona since but we leave three weeks from today for Arizona and I must admit ever since we have started planning the trip I have been a tad bit nervous about getting sick.

I have already had the flu twice this year and I had flu like symptoms a third time but it could have been morning sickness that was really bad.  My point is though, my immune system seems particularly weakened.  Next to flying with toddlers seated in my lap for five and a half hours getting sick is my number two concern when it comes to flying next month.  I had bought Airborne chewables but it turns out they aren't recommended for pregnant ladies.  So to say the leasy I was already a little worried when I started reading about the swine flu. 

Now I know we aren't travelling to Mexico but we are travelling to the state with the second highest number of confirmed cases, California, the day after we arrive in Arizona to attend one of the most crowded places in California,  Disneyland.  Now at first I was trying to keep this in perspective, there are millions of people of which only a handful are sick with this condition.  I mean the regular flu kills approx. 36,000 people a year.  But then I read this and I just became even more worried.  The more I read I don't know if I should be worried or if I should just curse the media under my breath and move on. 

With talk of school closings and the report that a 23-month old died in Texas I am becoming, I must admit, even more worried about our upcoming trip.  I would hate to cancel a trip almost two years in the making, especially since there is a lot involved (seeing Todd's father who is flying in from Germany, seeing his grandfather who is 84, meeting nieces we've never met, introducing the twins to a lot of family they've never met) and we really don't know when we'll be able to travel again (hence the reason for going through with this trip in a bad economy at 26 weeks pregnant).  So at this point I don't want to cancel our travel plans, however, we have two toddlers and a pregnancy to take into consideration and I am beginning to stress even more than before.

The hopes of a vaccination early next month don't thrill me much either as apparently a swine flu vaccination in 1976 might have caused more harm than good during a previous swine flu outbreak.  So do we just sit back and carry on as normal or do we start considering a trip revision?  Or should we wait and see if it gets worse and then make a decision?  I am afraid I might be losing sleep over this issue.