It can’t be flu, can it?

I totally agree with this

Whatever it is, lots of people have it in Toronto where I am. Buy some cold and flu medications turn on a cool mist vaporizer, rub some Vicks on your throat and chest and get snuggled up with a blanket. I started wearing a mask when shopping and spotted several others wearing them and quite a few staff. This time of year nobody wants to risk getting sick. Hope you are on the last leg of it. 💐

General rule of thumb is if you are laid out flat with no appetite, its full on flu. If you are able to get up and have an appetite it's a bad cold or viral infection.

It spreads because people spread it before their symptoms fully develop. I agree with others description of flu. I have had it twice over the decades. I could only get out of bed to slowly stagger to the loo, holding onto furniture as I went. It’s horrendous and there is no question that you have it.

It's flu, my family and I have had it for the last week (same symptoms).

Also had the flu jab, it's not 100% effective.

I had “mild” flu a few years ago. I had a headache, mild aches and mild fever but could function and do things round the house. DS also had it. It was confirmed influenza A by a lateral flow test.
flu is just like Covid. People have it with differing severities.

This just isn’t true. You can have flu mildly any doctor would tell you that. My children both had it recently, confirmed with testing. One was only mildly unwell. Both vaccinated.

There IS such a thing as mild flu, even asymptomatic flu, but the myth that it never can be anything but mild is perpetuated ("you'll know it's flu if you can't even get out of bed to pick up a £5 note", that old chestnut ) all the time on mumsnet, despite NUMEROUS rebuttals!

IT CAN BE MILD!

Does it matter? Bad cold or flu,
treat the same with paracetamol & rest. Don’t think you should be working in a hospital spreading it around whatever it is though - nobody’s indispensable

I would say not flu but most likely a horrible cold virus. Colds can make you feel very poorly too.

The reason I say 'not flu' is that you describe feeling rough with varying symptoms over the course of the last week and then sore throat, etc. With flu, the symptoms come on very suddenly and you can pinpoint exactly when you knew it was flu. It almost always starts with a fever. I know there are asymptomatic flu cases, and a spectrum of severity, but it still holds.

I have had hundreds of colds and some of them have been absolutely horrible and left me completely wiped out for weeks (CFS). I had flu in 2018. It came on over the course of a few hours when I was working my shift in ICU. I was 8 hours into my shift when I started feeling tired and achy as I changed bed sheets and 4 hours later a colleague had to drive me home because I wasn't fit to drive. My temperature was 38.5°c and I slept for most of the next 10 days, bed ridden and crawling to the toilet.

Flu can be asymptomatic or mild or horrendous.
You've got a viral illness OP. Really doesn't matter what you call it. Just keep away from other people

If you are able to sit typing on a SM forum then it's not flu.
Might just be a bad cold.
If you had flu you'd know.

I dont understand what the lie is?

If you work in a hospital (with medically vulnerable people?) surely you are allowed to stay at home when you are sick and highly infectious? Whether its covid, flu or just a generic viral infection, you deserve to rest when youre sick - both to recover and to protect others

Because people are infectious before they are fully ill.
Cold are totally rubbish and csn make you feel lousy.
Flu equals unable to function other than the bare basics of walking/crawling to the toilet

I think it highly likely that you've got a mild version of the flu OP. My DH who has also had the vaccine, has had full blown flu this week, and been in bed barely able to move or even breath for the last 5 days. I thought I had got away without getting it, but now I appear to be suffering the exact same symptoms as you, right down to the ear pain.

I only lost my sense of smell the first two times I got covid.
With headaches and cough I’d put my bet on it being that.
No such thing as mild flu. If you get it, you know it !

There is. It's not helped by Beechams etc hawking "Cold and Flu" tablets for the headache/stuffy nose aspect, which makes people refer to a bad cold as "flu".

"Proper" flu is an infection, accompanied by acute fatigue and myalgia.

As for spreading - you are infectious for 24 hours before symptoms even begin.

I’ve had the same symptoms for 3 weeks now, i too have had a flu jab. There are a number of viruses going around at the moment so all you can do is treat the symptoms. You can ask your GP, pharmacy or 111 for advice.

You can’t have mild flu. Flu is when you can’t get out of bed or function

If it’s proper flu, your world won’t have much say in the matter.

If you had flu you would know. I am 52 and have had it once it my life -20 years ago. It is horrific. If someone had set my bed on fire I would have struggled to get out of bed. I certainly couldn’t have typed a coherent sentence. DH had it at the same time - he was hallucinating.