To hate when people say they have the flu? (Lighthearted)

[MeepMeepVrooooom]

I have absolutely no idea why and I think I'm a bit mental for this however...

I hate when people say they have the flu when they don't. It's a cold, man up a bit. I have every sympathy for people who do have the flu and are really ill.

You don't have the flu if you are sitting down the pub having a pint, or at work not looking like you are about to pass out, or going shopping. You have a bloody sniffle.

Does this annoy anybody else or should I get a grip and a large glass of wine and ignore it when anyone says it in future?

Yes, I'm with you. And as a migraine sufferer I hate it wen people with a headache insist they have a migraine.

So the correct answer when someone complains they have the flu is 'If you have influenza you should really stay at home, don't come near me please'.

Still would like to know the difference though, it can't be just temperature.

"you will be literally unable to get out of bed"

Not necessarily.

Looks like I am going to have to google this.

well ok perhaps not 'literally' as in you can get to the bathroom.
I have had real flu twice in my life, once at the age of 20 and once in my thirties and it was horrendous, real illness, light spinning head, temperature, no appetite, like bed is the only place you can be. There is no way you could dose up and get through it.
so when i meet someone snivelling a bit and a touch red eyed at the till at lidl (as a recent example) who tells me they 'have the flu' i just say aww poor you and walk off rolling my eyes a bit.

Until I'd had the flu myself I admit to being one of those people who'd moan that I had it when it was just a heavy cold. But it feels totally different, I got out of bed one morning feeling fine, went to work fine. Mid morning I felt a bit achey and tired. This got progressively worse as the the day went not until I went home. I went straight to bed and didn't get up for a week. I just couldn't. I couldn't eat, I literally did nothing apart from drift in and out of consciousness.

Every single bit of my body hurt, from the tips of my toes to the top of my head. I had to be helped to the loo and that took every ounce of my strength, despite the bathroom being right opposite my bedroom.

Then when I was starting to feel slightly better I developed the most agonising chest infection as a complication. Whenever I coughed, which was often, I'd feel as though someone was knifing me in the ribs. It was awful. I was off work for a fortnight and didn't feel fully back to health for about six weeks.

People die of the flu, and when you've had it you'll understand why. No one has ever died from a cold ;)

Ive had flu twice. Once was when my ds was 3 months old. He was breast fed and refused to take a bottle. Thismeant 2 things. I still had to look after him, and as I was feesing I couldnt take anything. I actually wanted to die at that point. I disnt eat for a week. Couldnt take anything but tiny sips of soda water for some reason. My throat was so swollen I could barely breathe and I had to be carried to the toilet. Ds had to he held to my boob to feed most of the time as I didnt have any strength. I could not physically get out of bed for 10 days. My body felt like it was on fire. Was ill for a month in total.

Second time was this winter. About 6 weeks ago. It didnt last as long but bloody hell. Dp and I all of a sudden felt sick and dizzy at the same time. Up all night feeling ill and then the next day we coupdnt move. Cannot describe the acheing!!! Had no one to look after hyper 2.9 yo ds so was bloody awful. It was real real flu....but I HAD to get out of bed and carry on with life. He needed feesing and changing and generally to be looked after although tv was our friend. Somethimes you do just have to get on with it. We felt bad for 2 weeks and kept gwtting a bit poorly for a while.
Weve also had the mother of all colds this winter. Cough blocked nose sore throat for weeks and weeks. Not nice and really hard to gwt motivated to do exxciting things.....but not the end of the world.

I said this until I had it, fine 1 second (at a concert) physically couldn't drive the Dcs home the next a friend had to take us as I was physically shaking and fainting.

DDs (1 and 4) got it next and both we're hospitalised with rigors, bleeding, breathing issues it was fucking horrendous. So now I do have to point the difference out!

Allergy thing annoys me too sat at an awards do with a woman running the kitchen ragged with her "allergies" fair enough until she demanded a different dessert then "ooh I'll just have a bit of your chocolate one it can't hurt" to her mate.

No love if you are allergic to dairy and cocoa it can fucking hurt! liar.

But if your feeling a bit off you can't just abandon work and quarantine yourself just in case. It's attitudes similar to this that cause national hysteria and clog up our healthcare system which does result in deaths of people who really are ill.

I think it's common sense, if you are feeling really ill you stay home. If you feel well enough to get out and about, it's not that serious. If really mild strains of flu do actually exist then how does the person who has it know that it is flu and not a cold?

Sorry I stand by my earlier statement. If you haven't been silently planning your funeral in a darkened room hardly able to move, it is not flu.

www.nhs.uk/Livewell/coldsandflu/Pages/Isitacoldorflu.aspx

There is very little difference except that flu comes with a very high, very sudden temperature and there are only 3 flu viruses but 200 cold viruses. Whether that is significant I don't know...

It's not simply that flu comes in two types, bad which knocks you out and can kill you and good that will make you feel a bit poorly. The exact same virus can make one person a bit hot and sniffly and kill the next. As per a zillion MN chicken pox threads, you can be feeling absolutely fine with chicken pox after a couple of paracetomol, but that doesn't mean it's a weak virus and you shouldn't quarantine.

This annoys me as well. I have a good friend who is always having migraines and flu - I am aware that you can get visual migraines but she is referring to a headache. I know this for certain, she knows as well - she has seen me in the grips of a migraine where I can't open my eyes, look at a computer screen or even talk.

I also don't think she had flu when she was at work, she had a snotty nose and was tired but I genuinely don't think it was flu. I also don't think she needed to see a doctor but I didn't say anything.

'But in the context of a pandemic, this "if you're not praying for death then it's not flu" dogma means that people who are lightly affected by a dangerous virus will fail to self-quarantine, and infect the vulnerable. Pandemics are always a tightrope between shutting down services by over-quarantining or spreading the virus too widely by under quarantining, but spreading misunderstanding doesn't help.'

Said Lady ^^ - surely people will fail to self-quarantine purely because they don't feel ill enough? Not because others have told them they aren't ill? I'm sure most of us have dragged ourselves to work when feeling ill, or to the shops, or even to the chemist. I don't think this is because we're afraid of what other people might say

I'm on week 3 of a heavy cold that has totally knocked me off my feet. I daren't say it's flu due to all the nay Sayers. But suffice to say I've never had a cold hit me this hard before.

People might fail to self-quarantine appropriately because they don't believe they have flu. It's important to know that if you've been exposed to flu and you feel poorly but not on deaths door then you might indeed have flu, and shouldn't visit granny in her nursing home, or your mate the intensive care nurse. How well you personally feel is not always a good guide to the severity of your virus - see also Chicken Pox.

About a third of people who get the flu have no symptoms at all. So, OP (and the rest of us) aren't actually talking about those people.

For those who do have symptoms, the almost universal one is extreme fatigue & muscle ache, which is what really distinguishes it from a cold. The key word here being "extreme".

I'm quite sure it's possible to have flu and only feel mildly unwell - but there's no question that there are loads and loads of people who clearly and plainly have colds but claim to have flu to sound a bit more dramatic.

Most doctors will say that, as a general rule of thumb, if you cannot get out of bed except in a dire emergency, it's probably flu. If you can go about your business more or less normally, even if you feel crap, it probably isn't.

I don't know if I've misremembered this, but I'm sure a doctor once told me that flu always begins with a painful throat, while a cold usually begins with that unpleasant scratchy feeling at the back of the nose.

People claiming 'allergic', when they mean 'not keen on...' get on my tits, too

Yes, my children claim to be 'allergic' to vegetables.

Incidentally, Lady, during the Swine Flu hullabaloo, most of the medical advice being given to people to help them distinguish between a cold & flu was all based on how bad they felt. The "£50 rule" was quoted endlessly. So I'm pretty sure it's not entirely irrelevant.

my dad recommends the twenty pound note test - put a twenty pound note on the bedroom floor of someone who might have flu - if they get out of bed to pick it up it is probably just a heavy cold.

YABU and I totally agree with the other posters saying everything is on a spectrum and it is impossible to determine what somebody has based on the severity of their symptoms.

As it is the symptoms themselves and not the name of the disease that causes the suffering and lack of ability to work etc. there is no need to discuss the nature of the disease at all.

I usually go with 'I am too unwell to come into work today' if it is true or don't bother mentioning it if not.

So what about stomach flu (aka viral gastroenteritis) - has this got anything to do with influenza?

This is what I have at the moment. Last week I was laid up in bed all day as my glands had swollen up so much I could hardly walk. I didn't have muscle pain, just couldn't move much without pain and overheating and being breathless. Then I was a bit better and now I can't move because my stomach hurts every time I do. Can only drink black tea. Could it be that I fought off the virus last week but I was weak and caught another one or would this be the same virus?

With swine flu it was important to know and get tested - at least for a bit. And the symptoms in most people were pretty similar...for general flu that isn't true. People get wildly different levels of reaction from the same virus.

Influenza can give stomach upset (not usually though). Stomach flu is a different virus.

Your body can certainly react to the same virus in a series of different ways over time. Also if you massively changed your diet because of illness that might be causing repurcussions in your digestive system now.

I think its one of those things where you really don't know you have had it, until you have had it. I remember filling out back to work forms in my early twenties and writing flu (for some horrible virus thing, not just a sicky!!)

Then I got the flu when I was 32 - jesus I actually thought I was going to die and cried down the phone to NHS direct because I couldn't stand up!

cock that was probably flu both times....it doesn't have to be the same each time....