Trying to decide whether to take my son to the ER.

My 17yo son has been feverish for three days.  He has mostly ran a fever in the early morning and late afternoon, evening hours.  However, when he takes ibuprofen or Tylenol, the fever breaks and he feels fine.  However, this evening he spiked a fever to 102.  He took four 200 mg ibuprofen and the fever came down to 99.4.  But within an hour, it shot back up to 101.7.  He took more ibuprofen (without my knowledge!) and his fever his still hovering at 101.2.  He is also having shaking chills and has his winter coat on and is lying under a sheat, comforter, and an electric blanket and still shaking.

I am about 90% sure it is the flu as his best friend and his girlfriend have been sick and the girlfriend has had a confirmed positive nasal swab for influenza (not sure if that was H1N1 or just seasonal flu).

We've all had flu before and have gotten through without Tamiflu or going to the doctor.  I figure flu is flu and there's really not much you can do about it, but suffer through.  Also to be honest I'm broke and can't afford the copay for an office visit and figured if he got sick enough, we would go to the ER at the hospital I work for. 

With this year's H1N1 and all the scary stories and deaths, I'm concerned especially since my son had childhood asthma that has been quiescent most of the time until he catches a cold or gets sick and then it's not uncommon for him to have an asthma attack.  He's not really having much of a cough right now and he says he's breathing fine and his chest doesn't hurt or feel heavy, but then he's a 17yo tough guy, ya know?

So should I call in sick for the rest of shift and take my son to the ER or should I nurse him myself?