My family had an unpleasant experience the past few days which made me question whether it is really feasible to prepare to "ride out" a pandemic. My plans for dealing with a pandemic have always been of the "bug-in" model. I stockpile enough food, medicines, and other supplies to allow my family not to need to leave our home for several weeks, if necessary. My wife and I each have the ability to telecommute, and we have sufficient computers at home for us both to work at the same time, though childcare would be an issue.

All of this assumes, of course, that we know it is time to "bug-in" before we get sick.

When I went out for an errand in the late afternoon Saturday I heard a report on the radio that NYC emergency rooms were seeing an influx of people with severe gastro-intestinal troubles. Perhaps if I had heard this report in the morning, we would not have gone to a birthday party for a one-year old that morning, but quite frankly, I doubt it. (Can you see where this is going?)

Sunday was a great day. The boys' grandfather came for a visit and we showed him around our new neighborhood. He took us all out for pizza, and headed home at around 3pm when our two-year old went down for his nap. At around 3:30 my wife told me she didn't feel well, and by four she was vomiting with regularity. At 4:30 I heard a blood-curdling scream come from the two-year old's room, and I ran upstairs to find him sitting in bed covered in vomit. Uh oh.

My wife and son continued to vomit on a regular basis for the next six to eight hours. They each tried to drink fluids to stay hydrated, but were unable to keep anything down. My wife became dehydrated to the point that she could no longer nurse our five month old.

My son's pediatrician suggested that I limit their fluids for an hour or so to give their stomachs time to calm down, and then limit them to just a few sips at a time until they could keep that down. He also assured me that I was going to get sick too. Apparently this bug was spreading like wildfire through the city. I did my best to wash my hands constantly and walked around with a bottle of purell in my pocket to try and avoid transferring whatever bug they had to me or the baby. However, the truth is that I was covered with my son's vomit, as all he wanted to do was sit in my lap, and he could not recognize the signs that he was about to throw up again.

Eventually we put out a call for help and my mother (bless her) drove out to the house with formula for the baby and pedialite for my dehydrated wife and son. We isolated her and the baby as best we could from the rest of us. The pediatrician was correct, and by 4:30am I was throwing my guts up too. This was not a simple bout of upset stomach – I spent several hours curled up on the floor of the bathroom alternating between shivering cold and sweating hot. My wife and I were unable to care for the baby in any meaningful way once the vomiting started, and luckily there was a twelve hour window between when my wife got sick and I did, and that my mother was able to rush out and help us.

I was amazed by how quickly we went from having a happy weekend to all being very sick. I'm guessing that my wife and son picked up the bug somewhere, and then I picked it up from them. It's possible the baby picked it up first, but I tend to doubt it. We were never in any real danger – a fully functional medical system was just a 911 call and / or a short drive away, and the pediatrician called within ten minutes of my paging him, but it was eye opening indeed.

What did I learn? / Questions for the group:

1) If this had been a pandemic flu – or something worse – we could all be dead. And we'd likely infected my mother and father as well, before we even knew we were sick. While we probably would have managed this without my mother's help if we had to, if the illness had lasted longer we would not have been able to.
2) You cannot rely on the news media to let you know it is time to put "universal precautions" in place. By the time I heard there was a bug going around, my family was likely already infected. What clues are others looking for to warn them of a severe illness making its way through their community?
3) Caring for sick family members is emotionally draining. My two-year old was literally begging and crying for juice (pedialite) and I had to withhold it from him to get his stomach to settle. We were about two hours away from our deadline for him keeping fluids down before we were going to head for the hospital to get him an IV. (At that point he would have been vomiting for twelve hours)
4) Things happen when you least expect them to. Most of my "stuff" was still at our old apartment, including the emergency supply of baby formula, thermometers, and most medications. I need to make sure I have more comprehensive supplies with me whenever we travel.
5) You can get sick FAST. My wife went from feeling perfectly fine to being completely incapacitated in about 30 minutes.
6) We're not the only ones. Two of my colleagues were out sick on Monday, and one of my clients had a trip to the ER for an IV yesterday.
7) Where do you draw the line? If I had known there was a stomach bug going around, would I have kept my family from going to a birthday party? What if it was the flu? Other sicknesses?

Anyone have any thoughts or wisdom on preparing for a pandemic, and more importantly, on the "bright lines" that will cause you to implement your action plans?