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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to not know the difference between flu and a cold!

253 replies

usernameishistory · 17/02/2020 22:45

I spent the night not moving because I felt so ill, freezing cold, despite many (many!) layers, and needing a pee all night but feeling too ill to have one, despite it eventually really hurting by about 3am. I didn't sleep all night because I just felt too bad and freezing. Is this a cold?

Why can't I tell? Cold the night before, cold again tonight, feeling woozy and wobbly, cough, and pathethic!

OP posts:
Bobbiepin · 17/02/2020 22:46

If you have a fever it's possible that its flu but you'll really feel like a bus has hit you. Hope you feel better soon Flowers

kaela1992 · 17/02/2020 22:48

Sounds like your have a fever and that indicated flu symptoms.

MedSchoolRat · 17/02/2020 22:49

Fever above a certain threshold is the key difference. WHO definition of influenza-like illness

to not know the difference between flu and a cold!
Frenchw1fe · 17/02/2020 22:51

You'll know if you've got flu because just going up stairs is like climbing a mountain.

practicallyperfectwithprosecco · 17/02/2020 22:52

I've just had flu - I literally couldn't move my head off the pillow for a good few days

TorkTorkBam · 17/02/2020 22:53

With a cold you can pop out to the shops and buy some more teabags but you'll feel shit while you do it.

With the flu you cannot quite remember what a cup of tea is and you sure as hell cannot get out of bed to make one never mind go to the shops.

Instagrrr · 17/02/2020 22:54

Sounds like a bad cold, I’ve had fevers with most of my colds. Had what I think was flu once when I was 16, I was floored for a week or more

BillyAndTheSillies · 17/02/2020 22:57

Thankfully only had proper flu once. Have had some pretty epic colds, but the flu was a totally different kettle of fish.

Couldn't eat for a week because I physically couldn't lift my head off the pillow. Had to keep a bucket by the bed because my body ached so much I couldn't get to the toilet in time. Raging temperature but feeling deathly cold. Just horrendous and took me weeks and weeks to recover. I was at uni at the time, before social media and mobiles and my flat mates just thought I'd gone home because they hadn't seen me for a week. I didn't have the energy to open my door to let someone know I was there or call out.

Dontsweatthelittlestuff · 17/02/2020 22:59

If you don’t know the difference then you have never had the flu.

Zilla1 · 17/02/2020 23:00

In my experience (dozens/hundreds? of colds, 'flu three memorable times in my life), 'flu hits quickly - in an hour from feeling fine to feeling like death and that death would feel welcome. 'Flu has extreme fatigue (as a PP said, stairs feel like a mountain and a high temperature. Before I had 'flu for the first time, I'd say colds were 'flu. After I first had 'flu, I realised what a joke I was for thinking that.

'Flu tends to take a long time to recover from. If what you've got feels like the same universe as a cold then IME, it's not 'flu.

It makes me laugh when (mostly) blokes at work talk about having 'flu but soldering on when they clearly have a cold.

Hope you feel better soon.

FlamingFreezing · 17/02/2020 23:00

I’ve had flu twice in my life. Once in 2001 and last week. Extreme chills which were torturous in the later half of the day. Extreme sweats the other half. No energy, dizzy if I got up and a temp of 102-104f for 5 days. I had no runny/blocked nose or sore throat but the puke inducing cough kicked in on day 4!

Major indication that this was definitely flu was that I didn’t go to the gym for a week!

maddy68 · 17/02/2020 23:01

A cold you feel awful, flu you feel like today is your last day on this earth

Tunnocks34 · 17/02/2020 23:02

When I had the flu, I was seriously, seriously ill. For two weeks I was too weak to walk down stairs, to stay awake for longer than three hours. It was the worst I’ve ever felt in my life - I’d rather go through labour

FlamingFreezing · 17/02/2020 23:06

We’re all different though. I’m back to normal on day 10 except for a horrible snotty cough which disappears for hours then suddenly appears out of nowhere and almost chokes you.

Agree it comes out of nowhere. I started feeling freezing and within 2 hours I was done for!

Branleuse · 17/02/2020 23:13

It sounds like you have flu to me.
You can be pretty ill with a bad cold, but when you have the fever and shivers and feel like you can barely move that usually means either and infection of some type or flu

chuck7 · 17/02/2020 23:15

I’ve had a cold so bad I’ve had half a week off work. But I’ve never had flu. I remember my dad having flu in 2000 and he barely left the sofa in a week and lost over a stone. I’ve had really really bad colds but I know I haven’t had flu.

I find colds more odd. Some barely touch you and others have knocked me for weeks.

happinessischocolate · 17/02/2020 23:16

The difference between a cold and the flu

If someone put £500 by your front door whilst you were on the sofa, if it's a cold you'd drag yourself off the sofa and take the money

If it's the flu you wouldn't move even if it was £1,000000

cowboy · 17/02/2020 23:17

Trust me, if you have flu then you will know - it is nothing like a cold

Candymay · 17/02/2020 23:17

If you had flu you probably wouldn’t be able to chat on here. It’s a really awful illness and you never forget it. I’ve had it 3 times in my life. (Im in my 50s now). It’s something I absolutely dread because it’s so severe. One of the main differences about flu vs a cold or other virus, is that flu hits you very suddenly. So you don’t get the day or two of a sore throat or feeling slightly unwell, you just suddenly become severely unwell. Everything hurts. I had it in 2008 and started crying in the street. I had gone out to do some shopping at Christmas. Then suddenly I was so ill that i couldn’t get up a small step in a shop to leave and get back home. Awful illness. It affects the lungs, which affects everything else.

steff13 · 17/02/2020 23:19

The flu can be very mild. Just because you don't feel like you're dying doesn't mean it's not the flu.

Candymay · 17/02/2020 23:22

And yes, I agree with others here who have said you feel like you will die. I honestly felt that I would not make it. I have memories of being on a monitor in A&E on Christmas Eve but I’ve no idea how I even managed to get to the hospital.

EL8888 · 17/02/2020 23:27

COLD
-coughing
-sneezing
-tired
-sweaty / fever
-sore throats

FLU is above plus;
-watching tv or reading etc is too hard
-going to the bathroom is a challenging and difficult task
-massive body aches e.g. duvet touching body can be agony
-you can’t go to work / college / Tesco etc

Bufferingkisses · 17/02/2020 23:33

All this flu makes you feel like death stuff really annoys me. Flu has many levels, just like colds. It's actually really difficult to diagnose between one and the other. Sudden onset (over a few hours) and sustained fever being the main clues. Flu, like most things, has strong and
Weak strains. People experience those strains differently.

EL8888 · 17/02/2020 23:35

@Candymay good point. Flu comes on oh so quick. Like you l went shopping, l was out for a couple of hours and was dying on the way back. Virtually needed carrying home

yolofish · 17/02/2020 23:35

DD1 and I spent 10 days together with swine flu whenever that was... we both thought we were dying. It was absolutely awful. Luckily DH was around to sort out DD2 and the animals etc - and we have enough space so they could stay well away from us.

With flu, you really can't cope with any single thougt. And you certainly couldn't post on tinternet!