When will this illness end! At my wits end with it!

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A week last Monday I was hit like a train with flu symptoms. After 4 days I had to drag myself to the GP as I was so unwell with breathlessness, coughing and gurgling in chest. Was given a 5 day course of antibiotics.

I finished these on Monday and I’m slightly better but so weak and fatigued all the time. I’m still coughing a deep, chesty cough and is sounds like there’s loads of congestion in there that coughing can’t get to. I have to keep sitting down to recoup after the smallest of jobs, if I don’t I feel weak and shaky.

Ive been signed off work for two weeks from Monday just gone and if I take all this time I will have been off 3 weeks! It’s ridiculous to be ill for so long.

I sleep during the day still, my chest is still itchy and sore on the inside and my back aches. If I exert myself my face gets really hot and I get a headache.
Has anyone else had this? I don’t know whether to go back to the GP however I do feel that the infection has gone. I just don’t understand how I’m still so shaky and tired.

Any recommendations for things to take to speed up my recovery?

After 5 weeks I am just starting to feel 99 percent normal. Had 5 days off but did feel unwell and no energy for the next 4 weeks.

Id go back to the GP personally

Sorry to tell you it took me two months to fully recover. I spent 26 days in bed. And I am a fit and healthy person usually. This year's flu really is so bad. It annihilated me.

Dh is 16 days in and I'm a couple of days behind
On our second lot of antibiotics and just starting to feel better.
Coughing and snotty still but mildly better!
Plus side is I've lost 4 lb as I can't taste anything and lost my appetite

In the modern world we expect to be ill for three days, tops, then bounce to our feet, fully recovered, and ready to crack on. In the old days, you went to bed for several days when you were ill (instead of pouring Lemsip down your throat and dragging yourself off to work) and then had a period of convalescence afterwards, when it was OK to sit by the fire in your dressing gown, eat milk puddings and taking short, gentle walks in fine weather. Your body needs time to get well. Listen to it. It still thinks it's 1805 and it expects you will look after it, although you don't need to feed it calves' foot jelly.

Thanks all, I can’t believe how long it’s taking to feel back to normal. I don’t feel too ill in my body now but the sheer exhaustion is awful. If I stand and cook a meal or do some housework I’m physically trembling with the effort of it afterwards.

Lots of healing to everyone with flu, it’s bloody awful.

I had it for 18 days. The mucus was horrific, suffocating as it was blocking my windpipe. Day 20 and I have had my first proper walk with the dog. I also felt very depressed due to the lethargy.

Hope you get well soon OP

I got flu in November thanks to my partner and I was 2 days behind. It took us 8 weeks to recover xxx

I'm two weeks in and still feel wretched. I have asthma, so that's not helping.

I have four friends who are on weeks three and four.

Oh god I’m so depressed at the thought of this rattling on for weeks. Despite the fact I’ve been signed off another week I’m planning on going back to work on Monday. 2 weeks off is bad enough but 3 weeks feels really excessive.

It doesn't sound like antibiotics are helping to speed up recovery at all. I seem to have recovered at the same speed without them.

Most flu doesn’t need antibiotics, they are given for a secondary chest infection and breathing difficulties.

This is unfortunatley what real flu is like, hit by a freight train and very sudden and then weeks to recover. I have had flu twice in my life and it is absolutely the worst and does takes weeks to recover. My Mother always swore by taking a tonic which is basically liquid with lots of vitamins and minerals in after major illness.

You need to do as little as possible, if you try and do stuff before you are ready the overall recovery rate will take a lot longer.

Ive got it just now, its brutal. Im coughing like a heavy smoker.
Hope you and I feel better soon op

I didn't go to drs, dont think antibiotics will help, my chest is ok

Hope you feel better soon. Rest, rest, rest is the crucial thing.
If you are only ill for weeks you are one of the lucky ones.
Advocate for clean air. Everyone trying to carry on in a high levels of airborne infections world with no air filtration and any public health is going to perpetuate high levels of suffering.
There is no help if you don't recover from a virus. The Long Covid clinics being closed is just the most recent example. ME has had decades of neglect and gaslighting.

Jumping back on to see how everyone is? I’m very slowly improving, still coughing as my chest feels itchy and irritated on the inside. My head feels swimmy and I get tired really quickly.

Hope everyone is on the mend, it’s been a full two weeks tomorrow since the onset of the flu and it’s surprising how long it’s taking to get over it.

Im surprised how long its taking me to get over it too, im starting to feel better but when i try to do too much i feel awful.
Rest rest and more rest is the answer i guess.