How can you really tell if it’s a cold or the flu?

[Greenbutterlfy566]

How can you really tell if it’s a cold or the flu?

What is the major difference between them?

@RafaIsTheKingOfClay
It came on overnight. Absolutely fine Saturday night, couldn't get my head up Sunday morning.
But I still don't think it's flu. I feel clogged up in my head, but my nose is clear. I think it's more likely cold gone to my sinuses.
I got up and managed to do things today so my conclusion is I feel bad but isn't flu as it isn't bad enough.

You can tell the difference by looking inside your pants.

If you see a penis, you have the flu and possibly pneumonia or bubonic plague.

If you see a vulva, you have the cold. Take a paracetamol and go to work / get on with the housework / pick the kids up from football training.

HTH

Had it when I was 13.

Spent a week on the sofa and my mum had to support me to get to the loo.

Dr came out twice (back in the days if house calls!!). He saw me day 2 and day 6. The plan was hospital on day 7 if there wasn't a marked improvement (thankfully there was) but it was another week before I was able to go to school and probably a month before I was back to normal.

Bloody hell it sounds horrendous does flu

Crikey, crunchy

If you've had the flu, you won't need to ask!😂

I had flu 3 years in a row and it was awful. My dh had to do everything as I couldn’t get out of bed, it was horrible. I had no energy and was completely helpless.
I’ve had the flu jab every year since.

It really is so sudden too. I had norovirus and basically moved into the bathroom because I was going 100 times a day, was grim. On day 3 I woke up and thought "oh I don't feel sick. Ow, the duvet hurts" and bang, flu for 2 weeks
I did lose 22lbs which was a minor bonus but never do I want noro followed by flu again. And I had no paracetamol in and nobody to get me any so I basically burned up with a temp

My dd had flu 3 weeks ago. She had over a week off school, barely ate (literally less than a days worth of food over 7 days), temp, slept for much of the day-having a bath was tiring enough to make her fall asleep before she’d even managed to get her pyjamas on, she could only cope with about 10 minutes of tv before she fell asleep. Aches, headaches etc.
She still hasn’t fully got her appetite back 3 weeks later and is still suffering from headaches.
Evil illness!

I've had the regular flu and swine flu. When I had the ordinary flu I felt like I could actually die, I was ill for a good 3 weeks before I started to feel normal again. Hit me like a lead brick.

The swine flu really wasn't that bad, the tamiflu made me feel worse than the swine flu itself.

It can affect different people in different ways but I've found that you know if you've got the flu. If you have to ask, it's a cold.

I’ve never had flu but had mastitis which I gather feels similar. Came on suddenly. Just about had the energy to crawl to bed and collapse. Couldn’t move and was really worried there was something seriously wrong with me. With a bad cold you feel miserable but you don’t feel like your body is shutting down.

At least antibiotics sort out mastitis whereas they obviously don’t work on flu.

I've had flu once. I was about 9. I remember sitting down to do art class in school, suddenly started shaking and felt very unwell. By the time my mum came to get me, she practically had to carry me to the car, I was in bed for two weeks.

The only other time I have felt close to that was 2 years ago when flu was going around my work. I didn't get up for 2 days, I missed my son's birthday party. I'm not sure if it was flu but it was the closest I have felt to it since.

sqirrelfriends

Also I have to add that since having the flu shot I've had far less "bad colds" than in years past.

^This! First year of flu shot here, people dying of ‘bad colds’ all around me for the past two months and I’m here like:

...I simply don’t know why it took me so long!

I get shooting pain in my limbs and neck - that's apparently the first sign of flu for me based on this time two years ago. I agree with the suddenness. I was also confused - the day I was coming down with it (I didn't know it was flu, I just thought I was fighting a cold off) I went to meet my then-boyfriend for dinner at a regular haunt. I walked about 50 metres the wrong way from the tube and couldn't find my way back. I called him almost in tears! Luckily he realised something was wrong and took me home, because the next day I was totally non-functional. Thank god I have a pharmacy literally over the road and my doctor's surgery a few doors down, otherwise I'd have been screwed.

Another thing is appetite. With a cold I'll still eat. When I had flu I was ravenous but as soon as I picked something up I just didn't want it. I'd manage maybe a couple of bites.

Literally all I could do some days was take more ibuprofen and try to sleep. Even Netflix was too much effort.

I've only had flu for definite three times; once about ten years ago then two years ago I had a bad run of two bouts within a month (or it was maybe the same bout but it just thought it would make a meal of it).

I have had some pretty bad colds where I've wondered if they may be a mild flu, but without a test at the doctor's it's impossible to know.

So I think it may be possible to have flu and not know it. But believe me when it's full blown flu you will know!

www.nhs.uk/conditions/flu/

Please follow this advice.

If you have to wonder which it is, it’s a cold.

With a cold you can still post on social media, with flu, you can't.

Proper flu can easily knock your stuffing right out for 3 weeks or more.

I've only had it once. Even after I was miles better, when I went to walk the dog with a dd, and she said, 'Mum, can't you walk a bit faster?' - I had to say, 'Sorry, I just can't.'

Also, after SO much endless coughing, my pelvic muscles were so strained and weakened that even for quite a while afterwards a cough would mean I would often fart and wet myself a bit at the same time. And I was a lot younger then. . Sorry, too much info I know, but it's honestly nothing like even a bad cold.

I went down with flu right in the middle of the swine flu epidemic.
Sore throat, then bam! High temp and ache all over. I did take tamiflu and alternated paracetamol and ibuprofen which did take the edge off. On day six I coughed up a lump of mucus the size of s fifty pence piece. I was ill - solid temp for four days followed by three days of waking up ok only to have my temp rise again in the afternoon.
I didn't feel like death though, just unwell.
Last January I had flu.
Again, just a sore throat and then a few hours later my temp spiked. We had guests coming over so I dosed up to the max on analgesics and sort of coped, and then gave up and refused to move off the sofa.
This time I had six days of fever, constant. Felt worse than swine flu. Awful. Then I had the same thing of waking up ok only for my temp to rise later in the day.
I eventually felt better enough to do the school pick up run, which my mum had been doing. I managed it once.
Got a sore throat and then three days of 40°c fever that nothing touched.
Took me ages to come back from that. I don't know if either of those bugs were actually flu or a "flu like" virus but they both sucked and they weren't colds. I think how I felt was also dependant on taking paracetamol and ibuprofen regularly. They do take the edge off the fever so you don't feel as bad.

If you worry that you are going to die, it's not the flu. If you honestly do not care that you are going to die, it is the flu.

Only had flu once when I was 18.

Passed my driving test. Got dropped home and sat down happy and chatting to family. Five minutes later I was upstairs in bed and didn't leave (except toilet breaks - although I can't remember them) for about a week. The hallucinations were the worst.

As others have said, you can usually still function with a cold. Flu you're in bed - and not just for a day.

I always laugh when they say on Strictly that they've not been able to train for a day or two in the week because they've had flu and on the Saturday they're there dancing as right as rain.

That wasn't flu!

I've had flu twice that I can remember - 1999 and 2005. Both were horrible and I was ill/getting over it for weeks. Actually, despite what I've said on other threads I might actually go and get the flu jab if it's a good match this year. Superdrug is offering it for £10.

Ohh god these stories are awful...im 45 and never had the flu....how on earth do you cope if you are on your own with kids?

I had flu a couple of years ago. I was at my dad's for the day, got a headache about noon, went to lie down for an hour and got up a week later. I was hallucinating- I could hear someone walking round the garden talking to themselves about shooting us. I saw giant ladybirds falling from the ceiling. I couldn't eat and couldn't drink unless someone helped me. Never been so ill in all my life. I lost over a stone and was weak for a long time after.

@myusernamewastakenbyme , you have the flu jab and hope it's the right strain.