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I remember the spring of 1998 well. At the time, media called it the Beijing flu - all I remember is the horrible 10 days our family was incapacitated.

Our son James was just seven months old, our daughter Kristen just turned 10, and Kathryn wasn't even a thought at that point. We lived in Iqaluit. We had returned from Florida a month or so earlier.

Up until that horrible spring, we had never even batted an eyelash when health-care professionals would promote the seasonal flu vaccine.

That spring changed everything.

Kristen got sick first. She came down with a fever we couldn't seem to control. Constant diarrhea and vomiting meant she spent a lot of time in the bathroom. We actually have a picture of her sleeping with her head resting on the toilet seat waiting for her next 'round.' We felt helpless. All we could do was keep the children's Tylenol coming, try to keep her comfortable, keep the bathroom clean and be vigilant in washing our hands. In the end, as much as we tried NOT to get sick, our efforts weren't good enough. Her 'day four' of battling flu became my 'day one.' My day two of the flu became my husband and son's 'day one.'

It was at that point that we moved everyone into our bedroom. Kristen slept on a cot at the end of our bed, James slept between us.

The master bedroom became our ICU. We made sure everything was in reaching distance ... diapers, change cloths, Tylenol, bottles of water, Kleenex, buckets, cough drops, facecloths"¦you name it, it was in our room.

We all faded in and out of sleep and when we did sleep, had fitful rest. We all experienced cold sweats - being cold, piling on blankets, waking up sweating, taking off blankets, waking again cold, throwing blankets back on. It was a vicious cycle.

We had headaches and sore muscles - my daughter cried because her back hurt. We all experienced dizzy spells, and we couldn't keep food down. I don't think the lack of food bothered us much ... we weren't feeling all that peckish.

As Kristen began getting better, we continued to get worse. My husband and I would take turns dragging our weary bodies down the stairs to the kitchen each morning to make bottles for James (I had stopped breast feeding six weeks earlier - talk about bad timing). We'd also make Kristen breakfast and then assemble something for her to eat through the day. Most times it was sandwiches for lunch and something we'd opened and put in the fridge that she'd be able to microwave at supper.

We'd bring baby bottles upstairs for the day; keep them cold on the windowsill with the window opened a little. Even though it was the end of April, Baffin Island springs are much like Maritime winters. Having the window opened a crack meant the bottles stayed as cold as they would in the fridge.

We had a pretty efficient little system in place. We'd keep one bottle on the night table to get it up to room temperature. When we fed James, we'd take another bottle off the windowsill to start its 'warm up' for the next round. That week he couldn't finish eight ounces. Most times we were lucky to get half a bottle into him.

We didn't do much moving around through the course of the day. I remember being thankful that the main bath was directly adjacent to our room. Ten feet was all we'd walk a few times a day.

Later in the week James became wheezy and Tylenol didn't seem to be working well to keep his fever down.

We made a few calls to the nursing station at the local hospital and were told we were doing what we needed. Unless he was having serious difficulty breathing, we didn't need to bring him in. We have a picture of poor sick James lying in our bed with a washcloth on his head ... his eyes puffy, his nose runny.

Sadly, as I write this, I figure I must have thought a camera was 'needed' equipment in our room at the time as well.

Mid-week we called friends and asked if they could get us some infant Tylenol. We had run out. We were also low on toilet paper and juice. At that time we only bought what we needed when it came to groceries.

On my day number five, I could stand without feeling dizzy. I didn't need Tylenol to keep the fever at bay. I ventured out for milk, formula and bread. The proprietor at the local convenience store noted how pale I looked. I told her we'd been sick with the most horrible flu and I hadn't been outside in a week. She laid the change on the counter instead of placing it in my hand.

Kristen lost approximately five pounds off her then 80-plus pound 10-year-old frame. I lost just under 10 pounds. Shortly after our flu bout, James was scheduled for a public health appointment. When he was weighed we discovered he'd lost two pounds. When you're seven months old and only weigh 20 or so pounds, losing two pounds is a big deal.

Our family getting sick was a huge wake-up call for the family. Me being able to recount with such detail should tell you what an impact it had. We weren't prepared. We didn't have enough food and toiletries on hand, we didn't have a good back up plan for us being sick and kids being well and them having proper things to eat, we didn't even have enough basic fever medicine in the house. We also had never gotten a flu shot.

As people started to talk about this flu and a possible pandemic, I knew what I had to do to be prepared. We have extra toilet paper on hand, there's juice and milk in our freezer. Those supplies sit frozen beside extra bread and some microwave dinners that can be easily heated by our children. I've done some baking and cooking and placed a few things in our freezer. We've got a decent supply of ibuprofen and children's motrin on hand. I'm not talking huge stockpiles to get us through the winter, but just a few extra ... enough that if we ran out and couldn't get to a store for a week, even two, we'd be fine.

My husband and I have also decided to take the precaution of getting both the yearly flu shot and the H1N1 shot this year. Our kids will be getting those too - and yes, we'll be standing in line to do it.

I understand some people are skeptical of getting vaccinated - people fear the unknown - but what I fear more is the known.

We've had the flu and it scared me. I've been told that the H1N1 strain is a much more serious threat to our children ... and after spending a few nights praying to God for my children to be okay, I'm not taking any chances.

After catching the Beijing flu, I know that if my children were to get sicker than they were during those awful days in the spring of 1998, things will be very bad.

Some of my friends are convinced they and their children don't need the vaccination. I respect their decision. They're basing it on personal conviction and knowledge. I'm basing my decision on knowledge and personal experience.

I just hope that after all is said and done we don't have any regrets and, pray God, we get through this flu without incident.

Theresa Blackburn is a wife, mother and New Brunswick Community College instructor who lives and diets in Woodstock. You can email her at thereas@mybigfatlife.ca, or join her group, Big Fat Life, on Facebook.