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?

It’s an annual tradition sarahandquack. You can’t have a flu season without this thread.

That is true.

I've had colds where I couldn't get out of bed before. People under estimate them, there are many different types of cold virus, some are mild where you can still function, some require staying in bed for days. Flu will have a high fever with it, that's how you know. Body aches and high fever is usually the determining factor for me.

Two years ago I had flu. I lay with my eyes closed, variously sleeping and hallucinating on my sofa or in my bed for five full days (20-25 December). Thankfully my ex was able to have DS the whole time and brought me a stash of paracetamol but it was awful. Painful skin, eyes, whole body aching, high Temperature and only able to drink orange squash which I made 5l of in bottles at a time to save me having to keep getting up. No strength. Crawled from the sofa/bed to the bathroom to wee. Hardly ate (thankfully I had filled the fridge with party food the day before getting ill) and by the time I got DS back on the 27th, was just about recovered enough to travel to my mum’s to be looked after for the next three days before going back to work in the NY. Most horrible non-Christmas ever.

I'm just recovering from flu at the moment. I don't believe I have ever had it before.

I went into work one day last week feeling like I was coming down with a cold. A couple of hours later I wanted to come home (and did). By that night I was in bed with a temperature of over 39 feeling absolutely awful. I had no appetite, was constantly nauseous and could hardly move to go to the loo. I lost three pounds in a few days. I'm feeling a bit better now but still weak and have this awful wheezy hacking cough that nothing seems to help.

I remember thinking I once had the flu (it was a horrific cold/sinus infection) and my mum telling me "trust me, you'd know if it was the flu" she had it once and said she couldn't lift her head off her pillow. She honestly thought she was dying.

Flu... if someone knocked on your door and said they had £1 million for you, but you had to come to the door to sign for it...you would tell them to give it to someone else as you just couldn't make it to the door!
Cold...you would run to the door, take the money and book a holiday and recuperate in the sunshine.

I think just the fact that you've been able to write that post indicates that it's unlikely to be flu! Hope you feel better soon

Nonsense.

As is the if you see a £5 note and wouldn't get up to reach it type comments.

People really do need to become more educated about health and medical conditions, and how different viruses can affect people in different ways at different times.

All this playing down of other people's illnesses - not this thread but many others including lots of A&E threads is become worrying. At best it's just not finding out about stuff. At worst it could be really dangerous.

I had it last Christmas/New Year. Fever, hallucinations, crying, hurting, a cold, no voice. DH took me to hospital day after boxing day. Wheeled in on a chair😕 as I couldn’t walk. But lost a stone😃 in weight!

I barely got out of bed, and not even looked at my phone!

If you are wondering whether it's a cold or flu,it is probably a cold. If you have the flu,believe me,you will know it. Raging temperature,shivering,burning up,aching all over,no appetite at all,possibly feeling sick,and no strength to get out of bed. Even just getting up to visit the toilet is a major feat. Plus it takes at least 2 weeks to feel anything like normal again.

Meant to add,contrary to what a lot of people think,flu is NOT just a bad cold. It is far worse than the worst cold you have ever had.

It is far worse than the worst cold you have ever had.

Not always. It can vary. Just like any other virus.

In 53 years, ive had flu once. I got DH to call GP out,thinking i must have somehow broken every bone in my body. I was bed bound and silent for 5 days. Awful.

I've had flu only once in my life and I seriously wouldn't have cared if I'd have died at one point.
I could scarce open my eyes, had zero appetite, even sipping a drink was a huge effort.
Trying to speak was also a huge effort.
My body ached like I had never ached before and a couple of times I actually wet myself just trying to get to the toilet which was only around 10 feet away from my bed due to the effort of trying to put one foot in front of the other while my husband tried to hold me upright.
I never ever want to go through that again, it took months to completely recover to 100% full health.
I wouldn't wish it on anyone.
Give me a cold any day over that.
On a side note, it was great for weight loss.

I remember when everyone had swine flu in 2009.

DD2 nearly ended up in hospital.
DH was in bed for several days with sweats and feeling horrible.
DD coughed a bit.
DS sniffed a couple of times.

All swabbed and confirmed as having H1N1.

A pharmacist once told me they are taught if the person is standing in front of you telling you they have flu... they don't.

This thread is as funny as it is infuriating.

The most interesting and informative post on this entire thread is DecemberSnow's. To repeat: THREE QUARTERS OF PEOPLE WHO BECOME INFECTED WITH THE FLU HAVE NO SYMPTOMS.

So frankly, if you've told us all about how you once had 'real flu' and couldn't get out of bed for a week then you're just a soft lily-livered southerner who had it coming to you. Or something, I'm so going to have a bad viral infection this winter now.

A pharmacist once told me they are taught if the person is standing in front of you telling you they have flu... they don't.

You'd hope a pharmacist would be at least clued up and know that what she was saying was untrue wouldn't you?!

Flu - couldn't get out of bed. Had to summon help yo look after me & DTs then age 3. Was in bed for for a week & if youd offered to shoot me I'd've said yes.
Cold - feel like shit but life goes on.

Harold, there are plenty of people on this thread who’ve staggered into work, done the school run, and generally kept the show on the road with milder cases of (swabbed, diagnosed) influenza. I’m pretty sure that all of them would have got up off the sofa to collect that million quid pretty sharpish, although they might have moaned a bit as they did it.

The logical fallacy of “this case of flu was really terrible therefore anything that is not really terrible can’t be flu” is breathtaking. It’s up there with “I thought my chihuahua was a dog but then I saw a Great Dane and realised I was wrong”

The other thing I wonder is why my GP’s surgery is festooned with signs saying DO NOT COME HERE IF YOU HAVE FLU when there’s a pandemic on, since according to half the posters on this thread they couldn’t get there anyway.

A pharmacist once told me they are taught if the person is standing in front of you telling you they have flu... they don't.

Odd - when I sent DD into the pharmacy to collect her Tamiflu the pharmacist seemed to think that if a doctor had diagnosed her with flu and prescribed her Tamiflu then... just possibly... she had flu.

I had swine flu in 2010. I was at work and fine in the morning, by afternoon I had a sore throat and feeling tired, by the evening I felt like I was dying. I couldn't hold any food down and I couldn't sleep. The next day was the same but I was hot also. I never slept for the next two weeks and I could only manage water. I constantly felt hot even when it was freezing outside and I could barely lift my arms. I remember actually thinking I might die. I had no choice but to go to the doctors as they asked me to come in. Once I started taking the proper medication I was better within a couple of days (they had been shut over Christmas previously).

I had diagnosed (by a medical professional) swine flu, and it hit a lot faster than a cold did. I was fine at lunchtime, by 2.30pm I was sweating and shaking in bed and can't really remember much about it other than my mum trying to get me to take paracetamol and ibuprofen regularly and drink. It hurt to do anything.
I've had heavy colds that have needed paracetamol/ibuprofen to get temp down and have really laid me low, not as bad as the swine flu but worse than you'd expect for your a average cold. I now cope far better having had my tonsils removed, I would start with a cold and end up quite ill which I don't get now, just 'normal' colds.
If you're ill you're ill - what does it matter what it's called? You should be observing good hygiene anyway,even with a mild cold, and if you're really poorly you'll isolate yourself by being too ill to go out.
Aren't you contagious before you're symptomatic with most illness that's airborne anyway? Though I may have dreamt that!