How long does it normally take you to recover from the flu? And what do you do to boost yourself?

[ASockofFleagulls]

I came down with the flu last Thursday. Full on aching all over with hot and cold sweats/shivers, diarrhoea, feeling so nauseated with terrible acid (still have the acid) so have hardly eaten, no sleep etc. The aching and temperature has gone down but I now have cold-like symptoms with sneezing, blocked nose and a phlegmy cough.

I have overcome the awful fluey feeling but my stomach is still so off (I do have IBS which is always extra unsettled after something like this), I have zero appetite and am feeling constantly knackered, I feel as though I could sleep 20 hours a day atm.

The last time I had the proper flu was in December 2016 and I remember that I didn't feel fully well and recovered until 3 months later.

I have not been feeling great for many, many months (years if I am honest). I have endometriosis, constant digestive woes, suffer from depressin and anxiety and am neck deep in perimenopause. I am also under chronic stress from helping to care for my elderly mum who has Alzheimer's and breast cancer. I feel this flu has set me back even further.

What can I do to help speed up my recovery? I have to be so careful what I eat due to my digestive issues (lots of fruit and veg wreck my guts).

Sounds horrendous. Rest and more rest is important and plenty of good nutritious food.

I'm 61 and have never had the flu. I count myself very very lucky. I started getting flu vaccines in 2009 (health professional)

So not great advice but hope you feel better soon.

Rest more, if at all possible. Eat well and avoid junk food. Lots of antioxidants like black and blue or red coloured fruit and veg. Or apples, apparently. Protein to build you back up. Try to sleep as much as you can at night. Poor you.

Oh bless you, it sounds really horrible, and you sound at the end of your tether.

I find the physical symptoms can linger - particularly a cough, which can hang around for a couple of months (but if not improving, and coughing up gunk, be sure to get checked that it's not become a secondary infection).

The tiredness can take about 3 weeks I'd say, and it's vital to ensure sufficient rest again to avoid it becoming something more chronic. I'd definitely be off any exercise for that time.

The food thing is harder given your co-morbidities, but initially I'd be eating whatever I could stomach (after nausea, BRAT or plain jacket potatoes/pasta/crackers etc are what I can face). Once appetite is back, I'd be trying to eat nutritonally well, which may help some of the peri/IBS issues. Can you eat things like live yoghurt, nuts, seeds, try to reduce ulta processed stuff that isn't providing much nutritonal value? Are you on HRT as peri could also be what's affecting your mood?

Hope you do get well soon x

Ive just had the flu. Shivers and fever for an afternoon, evening and next day were pretty rough but better a day later.
I didn’t eat a thing for the first 12 hours as I always remember that saying about starving a fever and had no appetite anyway.
I’ve taken vitamin d since Covid so I can’t say if my quick recovery is down to that or not but it is meant to help.
If you need to rest, then rest. I listened to audiobooks and drifted in and out of sleep a lot.
Have soups and hot fresh lemon drinks to give yourself a vitamin boost.

I definitely think I’ll need to start thinking about a yearly flu jab, I don’t want to go through this too often.

Thank you marmaladeandpeanutbutter

EmmaStone
I’m slowly eating very small portions, hopefully I can build things up. Sadly I do not tolerate dairy well but do try and eat some coconut/vegan yogurts. I have tried various forms of HRT but it made the endometriosis worse so I’ve been advised by my endo specialist to avoid it.

Speedy recovery to you, sounds as though you are doing all the right things.

I was taking vit d religiously until a couple of months ago but ran out and didn’t bother restocking as I wasn’t sure it was helping but seeing that I’d managed to get through the winter without any colds/flu despite my teens coming down with various ailments probably shows it was helping so I’ve just ordered some more.

I've had flu 3 times in my life. Each time I've been acutely ill for around two weeks but had horrendous fatigue etc for a good few months after. Rest really is the best thing you can do, do NOT try to 'push through'. Last time I got flu i was signed off work for two weeks then spent another four weeks on phased return, doing half days and sleeping all over. I returned to work full time at the 6 week mark but still needed to sleep for an hour every day after work

Obviously focus on nutrient dense food, little to no sugar etc and get your vitamins in, maybe echinacea too. But rest most of all