To get the RAGE when people claim to have 'flu - Yohan Blake I am looking at YOU

[BalloonSlayer]

Blake ran 100m in 9.69 this evening. (WR is 9.63)

Interviewed afterwards, he said "I've been fighting off 'flu all week."

DH thinks I am being unreasonable to scoff and sneer and invoke the concept of manflu. Apparently "people can have 'flu and not know they have got it."

I maintain that if you have Influenza you cannot get up the stairs to the khazi without thinking you are going to die.

I totally agree with you - that is not flu, it is a mere sniffle Plus, I didn't realise that 'beasts' got flu

I always remember hearing Dr Hillary saying the following years ago:

Imagine there is a £50 note lying in your front garden - if you can get out of bed to go and get it, you have a cold. If you can't manage to get out of bed to get it, you have flu - so very true!!

Ha! I watched the Diamond League tonight. I am a huge athletics fan.

You are both right. I am 42 and had the flu some years ago. I cried. It was terrible. I did microbiology and know influenza and a common cold aren't the same! The only time in my life. I hope I never get it again.

Tyson Gay run well tonight. Can we have a track and field section on mumsnet?

One of my sisters is always saying she has the flu! I have had it once a few years ago and lost almost 3 weeks of my life when I had no idea how poorly I was and it was 5 weeks before I could venture back out to work.

I had flu last year, I honestly thought I was dying. One minute it was hyperthermia and no amount of blankets could warm me up. The next I was being boiled alive. Took me a good 8 weeks to get back to normal.

YANBU

My DH says this every time he has a cold (about twice a year). He says because he doesn't often get ill it hits him a hundred times worse than me because in his mind the germs know he doesn't get ill and attack him more than anyone else I personally think he is just a drama queen and a weirdo.

I had the flu at the start of this year and it floored me for about 3 weeks and I was weak and tired for another 3 weeks after that. I got zippo sympathy from DH as he 'had the flu last month and still got on with it'. Makes me rage too.

YAsoNBU. Annoys me too.

YANBU

I had flu a few years ago. I could barely lift my little finger. I made dh write a list with my asthma drugs on and my penicillin allergy in case I was rushed to hospital
I could no more have taken a leisurely walk downstairs with flu than he could run the 100m in that time. He did not have flu.

I woke up with a headache (unheard of for me) and told DH that I had the flu and that he needed to stay off work to look after the DCs. He said "I would if you were really ill . . . "

I said not to worry, I had Yohan Blake's flu.

This started him off again, saying that there are levels of 'flu. Aaargh! No there are NOT.

He gets this from the new plan to vaccinate all children against flu because some people, children in particular, can have it without knowing they have got it, and therefore go to school infecting others. He has extrapolated this into meaning some people get it "mildly."

What really pisses me off is that he has had 'flu, with a chest infection, thought he was going to die, was ill for weeks etc etc and it doesn't annoy him when people say "Oh I had that 24 hour flu, but I struggled into work."

YANBU. For years if I wanted to have the odd day off at work i would phone in and say I had a touch of flu.

Then one Christmas I got the flu - I was bedbound for three days and it was all I could do to drag myself to the toilet. I felt so heavy and weak and ill.

I mentioned it to my doctor months later and he said that the difference between a cold and the flu was that if you knew there was a fifty pound note on your doorstep you would not go and get it if you had the flu because you would feel too ill. I understood exactly what he meant.

On a brighter note I lost half a stone that Christmas!

YANBU I hate it too.

I had flu about 12 years ago and it was awful. I was a single parent at the time and I know this is horrible but my son got it at the same time and I was relieved. There was no way I could have looked after him.

We were ill for about 2.5 weeks and then it took about 3weeks more to get my strength back up. I have never felt so poorly before or since.

and yes it took me a good thee weeks before I felt anything approaching normal

three

Yadnbu - I could barely get out of bed when I had the flu. I sincerely hope I never get it again.

My bugbear is people calling in sick at work with 'flu' on a friday saying they'll be back on monday. Wow, that must be that amazing new 3 day flu that informs you when it's going then?

Someone like Blake will have top notch medical attention, especially around major competitions, and may well have been blood tested. Sometimes flu is very mild - it depends on the strain (think back to swine flu pandemic, and the estimates for how many had it with no worse symptoms than that of a cold).

It is very variable, so I don't rage. But I agree that I dislike the casual underestimation of the symptoms of influenza.

I floated this hypothesis to my (American) work place last year, citing the 50 pound note example. They laughed themselves silly, and still bring it up as an example of me 'not understanding things', ARGH THE RAGE I AM RIGHT DAMMIT!!

EdithWeston are you my DH?

Silly people. YOU ARE RIGHT MOCKINGJAY

My GP told me you can still get varying degrees of flu if you have had a flu jab. Had mild flu at Easter & GP said would have been far worse if I hadn't had jab. I still felt awful & lasted just over 3 weeks.

Thankyou zookeeper. I will chant that to myself next time the mocking starts . What's worse is I work in a microbiology lab!!

balloonslayer Only if your DH isn't male!

I had flu once. My DC were 19 months old and 7 months old. My DP could not take the time off to take care of us. The poor little mites spent most of the day in their highchairs having snacks and drinks thrown at them. I spent the day on the sofa too out of it for most of the time to even feel guilty. DP was off the next day, so I got to stay in bed!!

Funny thing though - my other half came down with Swine Flu and said it was horrible, the most ill he has ever felt in his life. Ever. I got a mild sniffle and didn't even think about it.

When pregnant with DS the midwife just mentioned in passing that I must have had it. I told her I hadn't and she explained that my blood tests showed antibodies to it, and that I must have had it but not developed any symptoms!

Is a shame my yearly chest infection doesn't show symptoms.

i thought he said he had been fighting off flu

i am sure though being a top athlete in prime physical condition he can fight it off and cope with the symtoms better than most

I had flu two years ago. It was awful. I just lay on the bed, thinking I was surely just going to die any minute. It felt like I was so tired and in so much pain that even breathing exhausted me. It took me a couple of weeks to feel back to normal-ish.

So no, he did not have the bloody 'flu.

I'm a viral immunologist and may I say while I agree with you entirely - there are levels of flu. There are A, B and C strains - As are the nasties but Bs can make you feel a bit shite too.