Flu - tell me I'm not alone

Flinty997

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120043047#Comment_120043047

I think that fatigue you describe, where you are completely wiped is most likely a flu.

While I know a lot of people who have got this winter cold/flu none of had COVID as far as I know.

Gusser09

Why in the jaysus would anyone go to the gp with a flu ffs. What do they expect. Rest and fluids is the only thing that will help.

Lockdowns? Nah. They are part of the reason immunity again these doses is dow. I understand the need for the first lockdown thought.

Shank Williams

Dosed since day after I got off, cough ,aches all over body, sinus pain. Think it’s that RSV- thought I’d got away with it as was around and living with people who had various bugs and got away with it over past month.

personally blaming my pre Christmas socialising - think I’ll watch that next year

magicbastarder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120043137#Comment_120043137

to claim annual leave back, maybe. the only time i ever had the proper flu, i was on annual leave, and only found out after that if i'd produced a sick note, i'd have been able to claim my leave back.

Flinty997

Also in some places public sector etc very limited uncertified sick leave. So will need a gp note for certified sick leave etc.

Graces7

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120043228#Comment_120043228

When I was in teaching it was three days only without a drs note.

Dyr

Cast your mind back over the last few years and the low incidence of flu with every gimp going on about how great that was, thanks to lockdowns

Apparently you lot didnt know that this would be the result.

Flinty997

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120043262#Comment_120043262

Some places it's 2 with limitations around weekends and holidays. Also sometimes there's a rolling cap in a single year or across 2 and 4 years. So if you think you might need more than 2 days, or have no uncertified left you go to the gp.

The point is it pushes people to the GP. It's just how the system works.

Flinty997

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120043287#Comment_120043287

It's also known result of socialising when it's flu season. But that's life.

Graces7

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120043317#Comment_120043317

And folk were so weary of restrictions.

John_Rambo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120043287#Comment_120043287

I actually remember you predicting this exact scenario on boards.ie three years ago.

Actually, I don't.

odyssey06

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120043287#Comment_120043287

If you look back on boards to late 2019 you will see threads about a terrible dose going around then... that was before covid. That was before lockdowns.

People have short memories.

Graces7

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120043289#Comment_120043289

And flu often is a far more seriouus illness than many here seem to realise. It is not a version of a cold. I learned that the hard way. Many need medication not available at a pharmacy.

RetroEncabulator

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120042386#Comment_120042386

It's very simple really : short days, cold nights, big winter festival (Christmas), tons of visiting, pubs, restaurants and shopping i.e. being northern hemisphere socialising humans tends to just spread respiratory infections and there are a few particularly nasty ones going around at the moment, COVID is really bad and this year seems to have a rather rotten version of the flu and also RSV (Respiratory syncytial virus).

We've a lifestyle of being stuck indoors most for most of November - March.

Miserable colds, flus and so on are just part of life for humans.

COVID is just another layer of more respiratory virus misery ...

For most of it it's just a matter of sucking it up and getting vaccinated. We could improve ventilation systems and so on but... that'd be expensive and meh!

Cluedo Monopoly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120044224#Comment_120044224

All absolutely true but I wonder if getting off the merry-go-round of work and all its stresses has an impact too.

Flinty997

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120044274#Comment_120044274

Yeah, I'm always just tired by Xmas.

odyssey06

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120044274#Comment_120044274

I remember reading something a while back to the effect that your body can only run "full shields" for so long... when you get downtime, either it has to redirect attention elsewhere or it can hold an infection in check for so long.

phormium

Well I got that awful dose, started two weeks before Christmas Day, bed/couch bound practically for first week, went to doc first Sunday, got antibiotics as was afraid it was going to develop into pneumonia which I have previously had few years back and the coughing and crackling felt similar, it was like I had a cat purring in my throat. Was just about upright for Christmas week, zero appetite which is so unlike me, ate a small Christmas dinner but didn't really want it, haven't even opened the chocolate Kimberleys yet!

Anyway I wasn't at work, I wasn't socialising, I wasn't doing anything that involved meeting a lot of people, no public transport etc but it still found me! Went to an afternoon tea with member of houshold Monday 12th, very small numbers there, practically empty, got home around 7 and felt fine, by bedtime I was shivering etc and so it started. Still not right but thankfully definitely getting better and a bit stronger every day, never felt as weak for so long in my life, normal colds etc would knock me back for maybe a couple of days but nothing like this beast.

Danzy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120042849#Comment_120042849

Yet they may have had the flu, influenza.

Influenza is a serious issue, and a killer and I can think of several I know it killed well before their time.

Yet not everyone who gets the flu has such a dose.

Cluedo Monopoly

It does seem like there is a lot of flu around. I think it's impacting people differently depending on immune system. Some seen to be able to shake it in 3 days, others 10 days with secondary complications. I wonder is the current prevalent strain covered in the flu jab which is 20-60% effective in any given year I believe. I think we reached the high 50s in recent years on average as they got better at predicting the dominant strain of A.

odyssey06

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120044679#Comment_120044679

An antigen test for flu and more information on strains v vaccine would be helpful.

I can find news articles re: The CDC in US 3 weeks ago saying the vaccine was a good match.

Cluedo Monopoly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120044692#Comment_120044692

They are definitely getting better at predicting it.

Mad_maxx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120043637#Comment_120043637

I only experienced Flu once and that was in June 2001, I was bed ridden for a week and ate nothing but a half a slice of toast daily for the entire team, not only was I weak as a kitten, I was hallucinating

PsychoPete

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120043581#Comment_120043581

I had something very similar to what's going around now over the Christmas in 2019, was in bed for the week

ottolwinner

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058277322/flu-tell-me-im-not-alone

Try the Neil Med Sinus rinse, I use it quite a bit if I feel like that with the pains in teeth and face.

Had similar for 48 hours over 23-25th. I got started on Exputex and increasing preventer inhaler to reduce the risk of too much coughing and keep the lungs in best shape as possible. Out the right end of it now but have been text but with the abover mentioned. Best of luck to all feeling the misery of it.

Rmgblue

I am on deaths door. It’s day 3 and both today and yesterday (day time) I stupidly believed I was over it and getting better. Iv now woken up frozen and shivering despite the heating been on. Took a lemsip and now I’m sweating again

.Donegal.

I hadn’t been sick in a couple of years until this December. Got sick 3 weeks ago just your standard head cold was grand and got sick again on Christmas Eve, cough runny nose etc but no fever or body aches. Almost every time I got the cold in the past I’d have aches and pains but none both times. So I obviously didn’t get the flu either. So many different doses going around.

I get the influenza vaccine every year, since the time when I had to go on immune suppressant medication. Before that I recall getting influenza about 7 times in my life, each occasion memorable for its sudden onset in that I remember what I was doing when it hit me. Generally I was out and about, and being swept down with an abrupt fever, nausea & profound weakness, barely able to get on a bus to get home. The illness would be horrible, I’d be bed bound and hardly able to get to the toilet. One time when returning from the bathroom I suddenly blacked out, landed with an almighty thud, my mother finding my face covered in blood from a nosebleed. I’ve had hallucinations when my temperature would hit a peak and the bone and muscle pains Would try and match the ferocity if the pounding headache.

Since I started getting the vaccine, none of that particular scenario. I know of an occasion where I had been in the close company of someone who was developing influenza, a day later I went down with a sudden fever, propelled to the bed. Thought I was in for it only less than 20 hours later I started to recover and 2 days later I was completely normal. The vaccine very likely had curtailed a dose as my immune system knew how to deal with the virus without going into a prolonged overdrive.

Kalimah

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120045502#Comment_120045502

God love you. I hope you’ll feel better soon. It seems everyone I know is sick as a dog between covid and flu. I’m just over covid myself but wasn’t hit as badly as others. I’ve had flu a few tines years ago which was horrendous. Hallucinations etc.

ottolwinner

I was in a chemist yesterday and the shelves looked bare. Chemist said they had sold out of cough bottles and only had calpol for infants in stock at the time.

I think people are just consuming what ever meds they believe will give them some relief right now.