Did you get swine flu?

[NotAnotherNoughtiesTune]

Was discussing this with someone not long ago. Myself and a fair few friends got it but this person seemed to think barely anyone had it? Were we just really unlucky?

DD1 caught it at Reading festival Luckily on the last day. By the time her sister got her home she was hallucinating had a temp of 105. It was scary to see. Hers was confirmed and she was prescribed Tamiflu but couldn't even swallow for a few days. She was bedbound for a week and her chest was awful for months...and she was a fit 18 yr old!

It was 2009/10, wasn't it? There was a horrendous strain of flu in late 2008 - I caught it from a colleague, spent almost a full week asleep/hallucinating and lost three dress sizes, all in the month before my wedding. DH nursed me beautifully, even when I cried because he wanted me to eat a single spoonful of yoghurt and I couldn't focus enough to open my mouth and swallow while he held a spoon.

On our wedding day he had a scratchy throat which he put down to nerves but went down with it the day after and we had to postpone the honeymoon by six months. He's immunocompromised anyway and if i had understood then what I now know about sepsis I'd have phoned 999 for him at 4am one morning when he was clearly dreadfully ill.

At least two other guests at our wedding one from Manchester, one from Swansea, we're from London) had had it beforehand - they didn't know each other and hadn't seen us in the preceding weeks so it was clearly quite widespread.

When swine flu was first in the news I often wondered whether it was somehow connected. The strain we had was unusual in that on days 1 and 2 we felt appalling, then felt much better on day 3, then back to appalling for another 2-3 days - which is actually a great way of spreading the virus when you think you're recovering and venture away from your sickbed briefly.

Yes.
Myself, DH and both our sons got it.
I thought my head was going to explode. I've never had a headache like it.
Both boys couldn't get out of bed they were so dizzy. D H wasn't as bad as the rest of us but was still very ill

I had it.
We'd been having a picnic followed by a walk. Halfway round, walking up a steep hill, I suddenly couldn't walk any further, I hurt too much. Dh went for the car and took me home, I went straight to bed, gave instructions in case he had to call an ambulance (he didn't, but I felt like I was dying!), and stayed there for three days.
It took two - three weeks before I started feeling normal again, and I think I had it quite mildly.

Yes I caught it in 2009,10 days after a full hysterectomy.I also hallucinated for days and felt like my head was going to explode.

Everyone in my immediate family got it.

DD was nearly hospitalised. DS had a slight temp. The rest of us were somewhere in between.

I had it in 2009 and it was the only time in my life when I thought I might actually die.

@L238
This is the study I was thinking of. www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21194090

Blood tests for antibodies suggest that 25% of people had it, and 50% of school age children. Obviously most were not severely ill.

It's still doing the rounds, but many people have a level of immunity now, so it's less of a worry.

Yes we both had it at the same time and list both Christmas and New Year.
DH took to his bed which is most unlike him.
It was the most ill I've ever been in my life, developed pneumonia and as previous pp said I also hallucinated believing I was a French Dalmatian called Spot!! I remember doctor asking where it hurt and I said my earlobes and under my feet - no one could make any sense of what I was saying. I had brain fog for weeks and it took about six weeks to feel remotely well.

No.

I am on the statistics of having it though and was prescribed anti vitals.

I do wonder how many people are the same, as so few people were actually tested and had it confirmed. I suspect many people had other strains of flu and viruses, rather than specifically swine flu.

When they initially said I had swine flu I was taken into hospital and placed in an isolation ward, and everyone who came to see me had to wear whites and a mask, and needed permission to even come into the ward let alone my room.

However, further tests said that it wasn't swine flu. I had pneumonia and was very poorly for a while, but I didn't have swine flu. When I said in passing to the doctor that 'at least it's not swine flu' he laughed and reminded me that swine flu would have been better and far less risky, and that pneumonia was far more serious for me at bat time. Yet, based in the way hey treated me in hospital thinking it was swine flu you'd have never guessed!

Was 2009/2010 for the main strain in the U.K.

Yes, some people had it with minor symptoms. So assume some people don't even know that they had it.

Mind you, I've only ever had flu once in my life. That was just 'normal' flu but I was still floored and unable to function for days and took ages to recover. I hallucinated, couldn't really eat or drink, couldn't sleep and hurt all over. I don't think people really realise how horrible even real flu can be.

Likewise I don't think some people also realise that sometimes with flu you do only get mild symptoms too.

I had it. I thought I was actually going to die, I've never felt so ill.

I didn't have it but was working in a hospital medical admissions unit at the time, it felt like all I saw for a couple of months, and we had to split half a ward off to make extra High Dependency Unit beds.

I had a cold that just wouldn't go away, not too bad but so much phlegm and I was constantly blowing my nose and feeling run down.

Kept going into work thinking it would pass.

Finally - after nearly 3 months - went to the doctor who did some tests and said that I had a strain of the swine flu and that I might not feel 100% until another month or so.

My boss still jokes occasionally about how I never take time off work not even when I had swine flu

No idea how I got it, don't know anyone else who had it.

I'm pretty sure that the DC and I all had it. It was quite late in the outbreak and they had stopped individual testing except for bad cases by that stage, but we were all very mild anyway so I didn't even report it. It could have been a different virus, but we were living in Tower Hamlets at the time which I think had one of the highest concentrations of cases, plus several of DS's classmates had confirmed (mild) cases, so it was most likely to have been that.

Yes. Pretty sure we had it in April 09, just as it was kicking off.

I had it and I had never had flu in my life. It was awful! My temperature was sky high and according to my now ex DP, I kept laughing/hallucinating. I could barely get up the stairs one day I felt so bad.

No, and I'm immunosuppressed too

Friend of a close friend died and so did her unborn baby I think they delivered the baby early but didn't pull though. That poor man lost his wife and only child in their first year of marriage. Lived in south east where it seems it was fairly prevalent.

Yes and had to take the Tamiflu meds.
Was fine one minute, mentioned I felt hot and dizzy and then don't remember the next 3 days.

Yep I had it. In the middle of my 3rd year teaching practice. The worst days were over the weekend then I had one more sick day but was under a lot of pressure to go in after that. Took years to recover. Got post viral fatigue as I was already in an extremely tiring and stressful environment.

Crikey @RandomMess that's awful :(

By the time I got an appointment that I could get to, they gave me Tamiflu but said it would only knock a day off the end.

No idea how I got it, don't know anyone else who had it.

I've had flu twice, once the swine flu and once the non swine flu.

BOTH TIMES, I got it the day after going to Strensham services on the M5.

I never ever go there any more and now that Gloucester services is open, I don't need to!

Reading this I'm glad I got the injection now. At the time there was a lot of talk about it all being a scam.