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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to get annoyed at hypochondriacs?

138 replies

Ilovesunflowers · 19/12/2012 19:39

A cold does not = flu.
A sore throat does not = tonsilitus.
Going out in the cold weather does not give you a cold.
You are not dying when you have a cold. You will feel like shit for a few days but you aren't that ill.
You do not need to go to the doctors for everything. Sometimes just waiting to see if something clears up on its own is the best course of action.

Rant over!

OP posts:
ViperInTheManger · 20/12/2012 00:37

I am 52, I have had flu once and it floored me.

I cannot believe people who claim to have mild flu / a touch of flu. Either you have it or you don't and, believe me, if you have flu you will know about it!

kickassangel · 20/12/2012 00:47

I had the opposite one time. I cam home from work feeling VERY ill & flu-ey.

I rang dh to tell him this at about 11 am. Then I spent the next several hours awake, but shivering/shaking so much and so weak and pathetic that I couldn't even phone dh, even though the phone was next to me in the bed. Eventually fell asleep and slept for a couple of hours.

Around 6 pm phoned dh and asked him to get me every cold/cough/flu remedy he could find.

When he got home, he got all cross with me that I hadn't drunk anything all day (there was water by the bed) & told me that having flu wouldn't make me too ill to sit up and drink.

Don't know what he thought was wrong with me, or why I would spend a day with water right next to me but not drinking it, unless I did have something nasty. He seemed to think that even if I did have flu, I should still have been doing things, not staying in bed.

Ummofumbridge · 20/12/2012 00:52

What about people who say their darling little Jonny has 'split his head open' when they actually mean 'has a cut on his head'.
That one really really grates.

SPsFanjoIsSantasLittleHoHoHo · 20/12/2012 00:59

I have the flu from standing outside smoking. I honestly feel like my head is going to blow up. I might have to go to A&E if my nose doesn't unblock soon! The cough is bad too. Some antibotics are needed but I know my doctor won't give me any, I'll have to move surgeries as he obviously isn't doing his job right.

I had pins and needles earlier and I literally thought my arm was going to fall off. I should have rang a ambulance tbh.

CalamityKate · 20/12/2012 01:05

YANBU but.... Before I had kids, if I got a cold I got it BAD. Not proper flu, but I would just feel absolutely dreadful.

Since having kids, I get "normal" colds. I'm convinced having kids has changed my system somehow. Oddly it seems to have worked the other way for my friend; she used to give me the face before we had kids when I'd got a cold and was dragging myself around, moaning gently and dying by inches all over the place.

Now when she gets a cold she gets it far worse than she ever used to and she's said to me "Now I know how you used to feel".

There's colds and there's colds.

EllieArroway · 20/12/2012 01:13

@SPsFanjo Grin Grin

kickassangel · 20/12/2012 02:39

I always think that having a cold can feel like 9/10 on the crap-o-meter, but it's only 1/10 on the chances of it killing you-meter.

Original poster
Ilovesunflowers · 20/12/2012 02:47

Sorry if this thread has offended anyone. It was not intended to do so. I certainly didn't mean people with genuine health anxiety and it was meant in a light hearted way after getting tired of friends moaning about flu and tonsilitis when all they have is the same cold as me and a sore throat. Apologies again to anyone who is genuinely very ill.

OP posts:
AhCmonSeriouslyNow · 20/12/2012 03:00

There's the 20 Quid Test to determine if you have a cold or the flu.
If you would still pick up a 20 pound note on the ground, then you have a cold. If you wouldn't, it's flu. Simple!

I've had 'flu twice. The second time, I realised I really was feeling yukky after having done some grocery shopping so went into Boots to pick up some cold and flu remedies. I passed out while paying for them. THat was a bit over-dramatic of me but I didn't do it on purpose!

corblimeymadam · 20/12/2012 06:21

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

corblimeymadam · 20/12/2012 06:26

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

TeeElfOnTeeShelf · 20/12/2012 06:31

I'm tired of people using mental health as a reason to come onto threads like this, which are supposed to be light hearted and fun and a general bitch session, to moan about their mental health and how we have to respect the fact that you're ill. No. We don't.

I have several mental health issues. They are annoying to other people. Especially ones having to do with anxiety, which I have, which is what hypochondria is.

Get some help if you need it. Don't ruin the fun for the rest of us.

BTW, I read the entire Hitch-hikers Guide when I had the 'flu at Uni. I don't remember it as I was so ill, but you can read when you have the 'flu! I would hate to see what I would have posted if the internet existed back then. Worse than any drunk thread I'm sure!

Marzipanface · 20/12/2012 06:43

You wouldn't be leaving the house if you had 'flu. It doesn't go away in a just a few days, and a lemsip doesn't make you better, just alleviates some of the symptoms. You can't get out of bed with flu.

Some cold viruses can be horrendous, some pretty mild.

Going out in the cold can suppress your immune system making you more susceptible to cold and viruses.

toofattorun · 20/12/2012 07:50

Did someone say co dydramol??

That shit is great!

cory · 20/12/2012 07:56

I would have picked up the 20 pound note when I had full blown pleurisy- because we were poor and 20 pounds meant a lot to us. Now I might just lie there with a severe cold. So not really a test of anything much: 20 pounds doesn't mean the same to different people.

I did manage to get baby dd safely home from town when pleurisy struck. If something is important enough, even a dying person will try to do it.

IneedAsockamnesty · 20/12/2012 08:09

One of the reasons why people get no sympathy when they have real proper flu, is because of all the drama queens who think a cold is flu.

They know there winging they know they are milking it, so they judge you by there standards and think you are as well.

IMHO the milkers have extreamly limited ability to offer compassion to those genuinely ill.

sudaname · 20/12/2012 08:45

Yes Cory my dad that l posted about last night - when he was in the final stages of bowel cancer - and l mean the last few days and he also had it in his liver by then, so you can imagine how weak he was - he fell twice by getting out of bed to go to the back door to have a ciggie. He must have literally crawled there as he had absolutely no strength by then. It was only the threat of going into a hospital or hospice if the paramedics have to be called again that stopped him. In the end we gave him a cigarette in bed under supervision obviously as he was really craving one and we thought he's dying, why not sod the landlord and his rules.
Made me think,wow what a strong addiction smoking must be.

cinnamonnut · 20/12/2012 08:48

YANBU, hate it when people have a tiny little sniffle and moan about having flu!

Jingleallthejay · 20/12/2012 08:53

MHO the milkers have extreamly limited ability to offer compassion to those genuinely ill.

I agree with you some people moan and groan and think they are going to take their last breath have very little sympathy or compassion of others they can't see past their own noses sometimes,

Offred · 20/12/2012 09:13

Eh.... YABU...

Health anxiety is horrible (my brother and dad have it really badly) and it can cause physical symptoms. It is mean to moan about it because it just doesn't have any effect on you what someone else feels about their body.

People moaning about anti-bs, flu or going to a&e etc are often just poorly educated about health and it isn't really their fault but their doctor's fault for not actually explaining the situation properly or fobbing them off with a half truth. If the doctor doesn't communicate adequately the patient gets worried and seeks more treatment or doesn't take prescribed medicine etc.

Personally it annoys me that although most people are in school for a really long time out of their lives it seems they learn little which may be of value in their actual life such as how to manage their health, how to manage their money etc

Allergictoironing · 20/12/2012 09:18

I'm with you OP. A nurse mate once told me that the definition of flu they used was if you were in the house and there was a £50 note at the end of the garden, if you could go and get the £50 note you didn't have flu (this was many years ago, when £50 was a LOT of money). There are loads of viruses about with similar symptoms, but if I have "real" flu then the energy it takes for me to just drag myself to the loo leaves me shaking & sweating.

I have a mate with who's a complete worrier about illness. Had an ache in his knee, rather obviously a slight strain & loads of people told him so, he'd even asked his doctor about it & they told him not to worry & how to treat it (which he ignored). After a couple of weeks he's panicking to me on the phone because "as he's just found out he's diabetic, might it be a blood clot"! WTF? Apart from the fact that the 2 conditions have absolutely nothing to do with each other, why would an ache that started just after he'd been doing furniture reorganising be a blood clot? This was just the most recent in a loong list of similar incidents of him assuming that some very minor complaint must be life threatening.

kakapo · 20/12/2012 09:23

Well a lot of them are probably at the doctors because they need a note for work! I was there earlier this week, to get a sick note for what I assumed was a cold. The doctor said it was flu and to go to bed and wait it out. Which I would have been doing if not for the note that I needed.

freddiefrog · 20/12/2012 09:25

YANBU, but I have a cold at the moment and I feel like death. I know it's only a cold but I feel shocking.

I've had flu once too, my mum had to take me to the toilet. It was awful. I now never say I have flu, when it's clearly a cold. My GP always says, if you see a £50 note on the floor and you can get out of bed to get it, it's just a cold.

Groovee · 20/12/2012 09:32

I remember being off school for about 10 days as a child, Don't remember much about it but my mum told me I'd had flu when I returned. One girl turned round and said "I had flu and only had 2 days off!" So I told my mum I couldn't have had flu. She told me the girl probably had a cold.

Earlier in the year, my team at work all had colds. But they all kept telling me I sounded really ill. I just kept saying I had a cold. Turned out I had a chest infection which being untreated was making it worse. But because all the staff had similar (or so I thought) it made me think it wasn't anything else.

FryOneFatChristmasTurkey · 20/12/2012 10:05

We've had the £20 pound note test as Mum's regular definition of flu.

I had flu as a child and once as an adult and it was horrendous, I was so weak, the sweating, etc.

I used to regularly get colds, don't get them so much now. I have once or twice been prescribed ABs for a secondary chest infection but I've long known ABs don't work on a virus. It's amazing how many people don't know, or if they do, see the AB as a wonder drug to cure anything.