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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To wonder what the hell has happened to colds?

83 replies

Mumoftwoyoungkids · 09/02/2014 13:34

I have a cold. Remember colds? Feel a bit rotten but carry on with your day as normal with the help of lemsip?

Not this cold. I can't get out of bed. I hurt. All over. My temp is so high I am alternating between shivering and wondering if My face is going to set on fire. I had to crawl to the loo. I have a cough that make my wonder if my lungs are going to explode.

How has this happened? Are colds worse these days? Am I getting old? I'm only 34 - surely too young for "bit of a cold but it has floored me".

OP posts:
NellysKnickers · 09/02/2014 15:03

No doubt some kind soul will be along soon saying you can't possibly have flu if you can type! Hope you feel better soon OP, there are some nasty bugs around at the moment. Have some Cake

meddie · 09/02/2014 15:09

I work on an ICU . Have noticed a big increase in patients testing positive for rhinovirus ( usually just causes a head cold) but they are arriving with really nasty chests needing ventilation. Definitely a nasty strain doing the rounds this year

Original poster
Mumoftwoyoungkids · 09/02/2014 16:00

Sorry to hear about everyone else who also has whatever this is.

I've just been thinking about my weekend - I've spent the entire time in bed with my books and IPad while dh looks after the kids just bringing baby ds up for feeds and dd occassionally turning up to show me her drawings / dancing / singing. Dh even brings me meals on a tray!

Being ill would be brilliant if it wasn't totally ruined by feeling awful!

OP posts:
Trills · 09/02/2014 16:05

There are definitely illnesses that are worse than your average cold but not as bad as the "wanting to die" flu, with many of the symptoms of both (snot, aches, etc)

fridayfreedom · 09/02/2014 16:07

We've got it here too. Been going round at work and DH had it last week so Dd and I were sitting targets.
She is alsleep on the sofa, I'm on the other sofa.
Had to cancel a day out in london yesterday. Not happy!

Musicaltheatremum · 09/02/2014 16:13

'Flu is a viral illness caused by the influenza virus. There are other viral infections which give cough, high temperatures etc which may not be flu but they still make you feel bloody awful. (Adenovirus, rhinovirus, parainfluenza virus) the influenza virus just makes you feel worse generally.

ohfourfoxache · 09/02/2014 16:42

So glad I've found this thread Blush

I thought it was just me getting old - the "cold" I've got at the moment doesn't feel like a normal cold that I used to get. It's definitely not flu - I also just wanted to die when I had flu.

Please, please tell me that there is some hope that I'll be ok tomorrow? I'm on day 3 today but I have a bloody exam tomorrow Sad

Thanks and Brew to all those who are feeling crappy

LaurieFairyCake · 09/02/2014 16:46

Its a bad cold most likely.

I had 5 colds last year and 2 we're stay in bed bad.

Not one this year yet, probably going to get one that kills me

Pipbin · 09/02/2014 17:37

I think part of the problem is that no one wants to call into work and say 'I've got a bad cold' so 'flu is used as a cover all to make it sound more serious than it really is.

ohfourfoxache · 09/02/2014 17:52

The trouble is that people who say they have got the flu when hey actually have colds have absolutely no idea what it is like to have flu. And by claiming they have flu it sort of minimises the experience of having flu.

It's the same with people saying that hey have a bad back - because so many people claim to have a bad back it is no longer taken seriously

bumbleymummy · 09/02/2014 17:54

Not all cases of 'flu completely floor you and make you unable to get out of bed. The fever does make it sound more like flu than a cold.

For those who said they can't have flu because they've had the flu jab.

  1. The flu jab does not cover every strain of flu
  2. the flu jab is only around 70% effective iirc

So, you may have a strain that you were not vaccinated against or the vaccine may not have worked for you.

Hope you all feel better soon!

PavlovtheCat · 09/02/2014 17:55

colds don't exist any more actually, it's only the flu. And really bad flu at that.

Although, TBF, it sounds like you probably do have a horrid virus. I would lean on saying probably not the actual proper flu, as, at least iME, proper flu has the effect of rednering you incapable of nowt but laying in bed groaning, possibly puking, for days before things like communicating even on t'internet. Although you say you have been sick for a few days, so possibly you are over that stage now?

Get better though, as it sounds like you are Proper Poorly, rest, MN and drink fluids, that is the proper cure.

echt · 09/02/2014 17:56

What's this about getting old?

One of the admittedly few advantages of getting older is fewer colds. For myself I've had barely a sniffle in the last five years. I'm 59.

Flu is different, had that twice in my life. Very horrid indeed.

expatinscotland · 09/02/2014 17:59

I've had flu, tests to prove it, and got out of bed because I didn't want to piss in it. That was it, though.

expatinscotland · 09/02/2014 18:01

We all had swine flu, again, were all tested as DS was a baby, and it didn't floor me as bad as the other two types of flu I had.

homeanddry · 09/02/2014 18:01

I have it too. Had a miserable weekend aching, sneezing and coughing, shivering then boiling etc.

Much worse than other colds I've had. Urgh.

BalloonSlayer · 09/02/2014 18:02

I've had some corkers of colds like that. You are right though OP, if you don't think you're going to die, it ain't flu.

I think the trouble is that people don't think that they'll get any sympathy if they say "I have the most dreadful cold and I feel terrible." So they HAVE to have flu instead.

bumbleymummy · 09/02/2014 18:44

I really wish the 'if you don't feel like you're dying/you can get out of bed/you can MN it isn't flu' myth would die! You can have mild flu! There are lots of different strains and some people are more badly affected than others.

Methe · 09/02/2014 18:48

I have just got over this after feeling rotten for 10 days. I'm still coughing rubbish off my chest and still feel knackered :(

It wasn't flu but I certainly couldn't have just gone about my day as normal.. Even with that lovely apple and cinnamon lemsip they've brought out.

ohfourfoxache · 09/02/2014 19:07

10 DAYS? Fuck. That is not good Sad

Littleen · 09/02/2014 19:22

fever + pain = flu. the rest are symptoms in both colds and flu :)

PavlovtheCat · 09/02/2014 19:29

little that's rubbish! I have had a good handful of bugs that have given me fever for a day or so, achey muscles, feeling terrible, but passed within two three days max, enough to get back to work. That is so not the flu. Something yucky, but not influenza.

ohfourfoxache · 09/02/2014 19:33

If you have the flu, you know about it. It's not just a cold with a temperature and pain, although you do get both of these with flu.

Thankfully I've had flu once but bloody hell did I know it.

AllowedButSometimesNotChosen · 09/02/2014 19:54

I really wish the 'if you don't feel like you're dying/you can get out of bed/you can MN it isn't flu' myth would die! You can have mild flu! There are lots of different strains and some people are more badly affected than others.

Me too! (I wish it would die I mean!)

During the swine flu epidemic there were households where it turns out all the family members had had it but only one or two actually were ill, the others had much milder symptoms like a cold. Different symptoms, same virus.

justtoomessy · 09/02/2014 19:58

I had that cold last week before last and it was utterly awful especially when I got the shits too. Sneezing and coughing when you've got the shits is not fun. I and to have the whole week off work and just trudged around feeling dreadful and so very very tired.

Still slightly snotty now but as least I can think now and have the energy to get out the house. This is the second cold like this I have had in the past 3 months and I never used to suffer that much just 24 hours of feeling crap and that was it.

Hope you feel better soon.