Please, please, stop calling it the flu if it's not.

javaboy · 24-11-2008 12:08AM

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

You've obviously never had influenza. :rolleyes:

+1. I think we should stop all use of the word flu and insist on using the nastier "influenza". I don't think people would be as blasé about bragging about having influenza. It sounds like something you catch in a third world brothel.

jiltloop · 24-11-2008 12:20AM

Yeah I got the flu about 5 years ago, before that I used to say I had the flu when all I had was a cold. I don't think many people have ever had the flu or realise how bad it is. I was bedridden for nearly 2 weeks and I had feverish dreams and hallucinations. I think I went 5 days without eating simply cos I didn't have the energy to eat. Give me the sniffles any day!

~Rebel~ · 24-11-2008 12:30AM

Have had flu properly twice in the past 2 years, praying i dont get it again. The first time wasn't as bad (though still pretty bad), but developed into bronchitis which sucked. The second time, which was April this year, I was pretty sure I was dying. Could barely leave the room for nearly 2 weeks. Couldn't sleep properly, couldn't eat, couldn't move, was in agony, feinted in the shower just from prolonged standing. Even when I was getting a bit better i walked home from the doctor (he had asked me to come back to check how i was doing after my first visit), I stopped in the shop on the way home to get some cereal as I actually felt like eating for the first time in a while. Carrying a bag which just cornflakes and milk for 5 minutes when i just collapsed on the ground and covered in a cold sweat. Couldn't continue for bout 10mins.

In Summary, Flu anally violates cold and laughs while cold cowers in the corner crying. (theres some nice alliteration)

Savman · 24-11-2008 12:33AM

I once flu AirCypria. Never again.

Newaglish · 24-11-2008 12:51AM

javaboy wrote: »

+1. I hate people who exaggerate their ailments. Am I wrong for wishing the real flu on people who are up and about with a runny nose whining about the flu? I don't think so.

Cold -> Flu :mad:
Headache -> Migraine :mad:
Cough -> Chest infection :mad:
Sore throat -> Larengitis/Tonsilitis :mad:
Indigestion/Diarrhoea/Upset stomach -> Food poisoning :mad:

Don't forget:

Nothing at all -> Back pain :mad:

javaboy · 24-11-2008 12:58AM

Newaglish wrote: »

Don't forget:

Nothing at all -> Back pain :mad:

Ah back pain. The perfect ailment.

Doubting Boss: You say you have a cold. Show me your snotty tissues.

Doubting Boss: You say you have a chest infection. Show me the phlegm.

Doubting Boss: You say you have diarrhoea. Let me smell your bathroom.

Doubting Boss: You say you have back pain..... I guess I'll have to take your word for it.

Galvasean · 24-11-2008 01:05AM

Had a cold a while back. Granted it was a fairly bad one, but people kept telling me to go to the doctors to get anti-biotics. Waste of about €70 right there when staying home and resting will do the job.
The amount of people who get over the 'flu' in a couple of days astounds me.

Dudess · 24-11-2008 01:07AM

Oh a bad cold can be miserable too - enough to keep you in bed for a day or two.
But the flu is like another dimension...

Galvasean · 24-11-2008 01:11AM

Typical phone conversation:

Me: "Wanna come out for a few pints?"
Mate: "Nah man, I've got the flu. I'll see ya tomorrow."
Me: "No you bloody well won't you cretin!"

javaboy · 24-11-2008 01:12AM

Dudess wrote: »

Oh a bad cold can be miserable too - enough to keep you in bed for a day or two.
But the flu influenza is like another dimension...

FYP

Stheno · 24-11-2008 01:12AM

Galvasean wrote: »

Had a cold a while back. Granted it was a fairly bad one, but people kept telling me to go to the doctors to get anti-biotics. Waste of about €70 right there when staying home and resting will do the job.
The amount of people who get over the 'flu' in a couple of days astounds me.

€70! Is that all?

Had a chest cold last Feb, went to the doc, (€50) he gave me a scrip, went to the chemists, told €110 for the two drugs on the prescription.

I suddenly felt better, didn't take anything, and went back to work two days later (my doctor MUST be in the pay of the drug companies)

It's the willingness to believe that you need antibioitics/drugs to get better that is fecking people up, we'll all be resistant to everything soon.
I've never had real influenza, but I have had pneumonia, and if influenza is anything like that then a cold is nothing compared to it.

kincsem · 24-11-2008 09:12AM

I had the flu twice - 1980 and 1996 (?). Its different gravy. You don't forget. And the last time I had the old hallucinating dreams. Unfortunately, all I saw was Excel spreadsheets endless recalculating - that's how bad the flu is.

watna · 24-11-2008 10:18AM

This annoys me so much too. I get migraines - I only get very bad ones once or twice a year but when I do I can't function and can only lie down in a dark room. It annoys me when people at work say they have a migraine. If you did, you wouldn't be here at all. Even a mild one means I have to be away from other people, noise and light. I can't stand around chatting about how bad my migraine is.

I've never had the proper fly but I have had tonsilitis and it is nothing like a sore throat. The second time I had it I didn't move for 4 days. I stayed in exactly the same position in bed because I didn't have the energy to move at all.

Fingers crossed I never get the proper flu. I'm not the healthiest person in the world but fly or really bad cold is something I haven' caught, despite being around people who were quite sick.

seamus · 24-11-2008 10:33AM

I don't recall ever having the flu. Though when I was a kid I had plenty of sicknesses, stay in bed for 3 days kind, some of them were pretty bad. I did have meningitis, but I don't remember that.

I never understood people calling headaches, migraines. Migraine itself implies a severe pain. When your headache goes away after two neurofen, it's not a migraine. I managed to get migraines a couple of years back. I still went to work. I was very unhappy. It felt like someone was putting a hot poker in the top of my head and twiddling it about. Turns out I'd changed the position of my monitor in work and whatever way I'd put it was putting some sort of strain on my neck/nerves, which was causing blinding (literally) pain in my head. Once I moved it back, the pain went away in about 24 hours.

kevpants · 24-11-2008 11:02AM

I had it about 10 years ago. Xmas 98.

3 weeks in bed. Didn't go to the doc until the end of the 2nd week, hate going to the doctor, I always come out with something worse than I went in with.

The experience was unreal. The weakness, the sweating, the INCREDIBLE gunk coming out of my chest/sinuses. You know when your mucus gets kinda pungent when you've a cold? Well when you've the flu it smells like a rotting corpse. Blowing your nose is enough to make you gag.

I remember the pain in my sinuses around my forehead being so intense I used to actually bellow in the middle of the night.

The doctor said if I hadn't gone to him I wouldn't have gotten better. It was spreading and at that point it had infected my chest, throat, both ears and sinuses. My sinuses were scarred by the infection and to this day a crisp cold breeze can make them ache.

Riddle101 · 24-11-2008 03:59PM

watna wrote: »

This annoys me so much too. I get migraines - I only get very bad ones once or twice a year but when I do I can't function and can only lie down in a dark room. It annoys me when people at work say they have a migraine. If you did, you wouldn't be here at all. Even a mild one means I have to be away from other people, noise and light. I can't stand around chatting about how bad my migraine is.

I've never had the proper fly but I have had tonsilitis and it is nothing like a sore throat. The second time I had it I didn't move for 4 days. I stayed in exactly the same position in bed because I didn't have the energy to move at all.

Fingers crossed I never get the proper flu. I'm not the healthiest person in the world but fly or really bad cold is something I haven' caught, despite being around people who were quite sick.

Same with me as well, i get migraines atleast once or twice a year too and it kills me because i puke as well, so when i i'm trying to sleep i either get a sharp headache around my eye or have to go to the bathroom to get sick. Luckily enough i got prescription medication for them but i've yet to get one.

Anyway it annoys me when people claim to have migraines as well, my mam dose it all the time and i try to tell her that it's not a migraine but she won't listen

ZzubZzub · 24-11-2008 04:15PM

I'm doing Nursing over here, and this patient told me she reckons she has MRSA because she has the sniffles!!! A slightly runny nose and she thought she had MRSA.

It turned out she had.....
the sniffles.

She's one of the few that dont have MRSA in my ward! ITS EVERYWHERE!!
PANIC!!

Ginny · 24-11-2008 04:18PM

I have the worst immune system ever, I've had pneumonia twice, bronchitis a couple of times and I had a lovely month of it about 2 years ago pharangitis, laryngitis, bronchitis and an ear infection at the same time, took me 2 weeks of practiaclly consistant sleep and Horse antibiotics to clear it up.
I've had the flu once, people claiming they have flu when they have a cold is like people claiming they have the Winter Vomiting bug when they have a bit of a hangover.

Right now I'm smothered with a head cold, ears, sinuses, throat, nose all stuffed up, the shivers and sweats, the feeling sick have started and I sound like Mariella Frostrup, great stuff.

mollyoh · 25-11-2008 07:43PM

HOw to tell if someone has the flu is if there is 10 grand in cash downstairs and they are in bed they could not get up to get it. Or if the sexiest man in the world was waiting for you in another room you wouldnt be able to go in.......Am a nurse manager and the amount of times people ring in sick saying they have the flu is ridiculous especially when they arrive into work the next day!!! Thats why we encourage all staff to get the flu jab every winter... And to be brutally honest its always men that come in or phone in saying they have the flu when all they have is a snotty nose!!

javaboy · 25-11-2008 07:50PM

mollyoh wrote: »

HOw to tell if someone has the flu is if there is 10 grand in cash downstairs and they are in bed they could not get up to get it.

I've had influenza a good few times and I could definitely get up for 10 grand.

Or if the sexiest man in the world was waiting for you in another room you wouldnt be able to go in.......

I wouldn't pass up the opportunity to meet my clone because of a bout of influenza.

eirebhoy · 25-11-2008 08:24PM

I've been bed ridden with colds. I had one last week. Couldn't eat for almost 48 hours. It was bad but I was still capable of happily watching TV after a few pain killers, walking to the doctor (out of breath pretty quickly). The flu is a different level. I've only had it once and hopefully never again.

sinjin_smythe · 25-11-2008 08:31PM

only ever recall having it once, in January of last year. I was constantly in bed trying to get up but couldn't, shaking with all my clothes on in bed (including winter jacket), and also dillusional, didn't know who was around the room at times. After that i knew the flue is definatly a different ball game from your winy colds. I think its only people who have never actually expierenced the full force of the flu that are the ones claiming to get it like 5 times a year.

Ginny · 25-11-2008 08:50PM

Yahy!!
I'm currently posting from bed, t-shirt and sweatshirt on, trackkie bottoms, 2 pairs of socks and I'm freezing!
My bones are aching, my head is 10 tonnes, my sinuses have cleared but now I have a shooting pain in my head everytime I breathe through my nose, and there's phlegm, nice. I can't eat a fecking thing as I feel pukey as soon as I eat.....I hate winter and dublin bus, I'm blaming this on some icky commuter.

xOxSinéadxOx · 25-11-2008 08:56PM

javaboy wrote: »

I've had influenza a good few times and I could definitely get up for 10 grand.

I wouldn't pass up the opportunity to meet my clone because of a bout of influenza.

Well when I had the flu I definitely wouldn't have been able to get up for it. I couldn't even reach to my bedside locker to get a drink

javaboy · 25-11-2008 09:01PM

xOxSinéadxOx wrote: »

Well when I had the flu I definitely wouldn't have been able to get up for it. I couldn't even reach to my bedside locker to get a drink

€10,000 is a very powerful motivator no matter what's wrong with you.

25-11-2008 09:15PM

Had it once, bedridden for about 2 weeks, fever. Christ it was awful
Have never since been tempted to call a cold the flu and get annoyed when anyone tries >(

Ann22 · 25-11-2008 09:20PM

I know someone who always says she has the flu when it's clearly only a cold-how annoying:rolleyes:. Like some of you I suffer from migraine(with an aura) for 25yrs now. I've known so many people who claimed to have migraine headaches but yet are walking about, chatting or whatever. I've also heard folk say on tv programes 'i've such a dreadful migraine' when they clearly don't appear to be that ill...boll*x..boll*x..boll*x:mad:
To all you other sufferers out there, the best and most informative book I read stated that the most important thing in migraine attack prevention is a balanced blood sugar level. This doctor maintained that other typical triggers all stemmed from a low blood sugar root cause like for example- oversleeping- with the typical weekend migraines (skipping breakfast). Chocolate (eating chocolate on an empty stomach or low blood sugar is lethal, it causes a rapid rise in insulin which naturally leads to a big drop in sugar. Always eat a savoury snack when caught out when you're hungry). Exercise (have a wholegrain snack or a banana before exercise). Following these pointers has made such an enormous difference to my life. I know that it takes more than one trigger to bring on an attack but being aware of not letting myself go hungry had really made a difference.I was getting migraines at one stage every two weeks, now I can go two years without one. I always can identify the cause. I'm always more prone to them when I'm pre-menstrual, at this time of the month the blood sugar is usually unbalanced, lots of women crave chocolate at this time. Another thing...for those who are in a bad way and need to break the cycle, I can really recommend Feverfew, I took it for a few years a long time ago and didn't get one migraine and that was before I found out about the blood sugar cause. However for child bearing women, be careful not to get pregnant when on it. It takes 3 wks to start working.
I apologise if this isn't fully keeping to the topic.

Firetrap · 26-11-2008 12:50AM

Yeah, it's annoying. Some people seem to think that a cold is a trivial thing and that flu somehow adds gravitas to how rubbish they're feeling.

The OP does lead onto a hobby-horse of mine though...the rubbish hours that GPs open for. In an ideal world, A&E would be for people who've got illnesses/injuries that involve being admitted into hospital. For less serious things like ankle sprains and cuts and chest infections 'n stuff, why the hell should you go into A&E if you've got the misfortune to fall ill outside of office hours?

Please, please, stop calling it the flu if it's not.

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