to not know the difference between flu and a cold!

[usernameishistory]

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!

Coronavirus is a novel virus, so can't have previously also be the common cold. How can that be?

Also, did you rtft? About the flu/cold incidence rates, and expression? So what you say goes against the medically researched evidence.

A “Coronavirus” is a type of virus, not a specific virus, iyswim. Like all Swine flu (h5n1) was caused by a flu virus, but not all flu viruses cause Swine flu. 2019-nCoV (Covid19) is a new specific virus, and so a new disease, for humans, but colds are caused by rhino viruses or corona viruses in general. I hope that makes sense.

I think the corona line is a derail frankly.

Its unrelated to this discussion

It wasn't intended as a derail. Yousaid you couldn't tell the difference between the cold and flu. Lots of people seem to think the flu is always worse than a cold and yet a new variant of a class of viruses that cause the common cold is killing thousands of people in China right now. Meanwhile only 70 people have died of the flu this winter in the UK so far, a far lower death rate than we usually see.

How to tell the difference: a lab test.

Otherwise, you guess, based on severity of symptoms. If you feel going to the ensuite is on par with climbing everest, and you have to crawl on your hands and knees to feed the cat, you call it flu. It might be a cold virus, but you might as well call it flu, because that's how it's affecting you. Language is for communication and telling people you have a cold is miscommunication as they'll expect you to be capable of getting out of bed.

If you feel snotty and bad-tempered but you would rather go to the shop to buy food than lie in bed hungry, you call it a cold. It might be a flu virus really, but you may as well call it a cold.

Well I'm calling it flu. I just want to cry

Sounds pretty much like flu to me. I've had it twice, in the "would have left a £50 note in the garden" level.

I always suffer really badly with normal colds, horrible fevers and so on, but then had the flu and it was clearly different. Had to crawl up the stairs to use the bathroom as I couldn’t stand. It was brutal.

Or maybe that was just a really bad cold and one day I’ll get flu and think “oh this is the flu!”

It could have just been a really bad cold, yes.

I know two people who had swine flu. One of them was a healthy man in his forties, non smoker. The other a bloke in his fifties with asthma. The asthmatic bloke only knew he had swine flu because he was tested for it due to his underlying health condition. Prior to that he just thought he had a cold and didn't feel particularly ill but got checked out due to advice at the time. He had flu. He kept on working. He could certainly have picked up a £50000 cheque had one been available.

The other bloke. Well, he died. That's what flu did to him.

It's really not always a neat dividing line.

If you feel ill, express how you feel in whatever way best conveys your meaning, I reckon. If you feel worse than you would ordinarily with a head cold, call it flu. You won't know either way unless you get tested and neither will the people droning on about £50000 cheques.

Get better soon, OP.

You are definitely not unreasonable for not knowing the difference.

I thought I'd had flu.... Until I actually got the flu. One of the key differences is the rapid onset. I was out in London at 6pm...By 8pm I was sweating, in unimaginable pain in the middle of a West end show. I don't recall how I got home but I know that I didn't leave my bed for a week and a half when I eventually did get home. Took months to recover. Horrendous!

Did you get tested @OhBigHairyBollocks?

Get better soon OP 💐 lots of fluid, and rest!

I've had the flu. I couldn't get out of bed for a week. Trying to stand up caused severe pains in my head, horrendous dizziness and I couldn't bear the light. The only way I could get to the toilet was by crawling on my hands and knees. Appetite totally went as well.

If you have flu the house could be burning down and you wouldnt be able to move ...or even care
I went from feeling fine to be led flat out in 10 mins
Ive had plenty of times when i have had flu symptoms and felt like death but never as bad as the times ive had flu ( twice)..,the 2nd time i had it I couldnt get up to be sick due to the amount of gunk i was vomiting up...i just did it where i led

I’ve had many colds, some of them bad, but I’ve only had flu once.. 40 years ago.
Oh I was so ill, I actually hallucinated....thought my parents were going to kill me with a knife!!! I was in bed for nearly two weeks. It took about a month to feel human again.

Someone's probably said it already, but the usual way to tell is, if you think you have the flu, then you have the cold. If you think you're dying, you have the flu.

For me, flu was:
Sweat pouring off me but freezing cold.
My hair hurt. In fact everything was super sensitive and ached.
Head thumped
So weak, I crawled into the bathroom but could not manage the stairs
Nauseous
Not hungry
Thirsty but drinking water was exhausting
Big weight loss
Jelly joints
Took weeks to recover

Colds
Sneezing
Achy
Sweats
Sore throat
Clogged sinuses
Three days later, I feel slightly better

Colds often knock me for six too; fevers, terrible coughs, streaming eyes and nose, feeling really, really dreadful. I often need a day or two in bed to recover. I used to wonder if I'd ever had flu - then I actually got it in January last year! Came on in an afternoon and just like that couldn't get up for nearly two weeks! Getting to the en suite to pee and drink a mug of soup now and again was huge effort, drenching sweats every night, could even read or watch television...was HORRIBLE (lost a lot of weight though, small bonus!).

Good grief. What possesses people to write such utterly uninformed ignorant shite about 'flu?

The difference between colds and 'flus is the difference between two species of highly related viruses.

Now mostly people in Europe in the current century have a harder time with 'flu viruses than they do with rhino virus. BUT, the challenge your body has fighting off any given virus is very much dependent on your history with closely related viruses and the strength of your immune system.

I have had colds that laid me out for a week, I had swine flu without noticing and only discovered I was carrying it when it got picked up during testing for something else entirely.

If it helps you could think of rhino virus as frogs and 'flus as toads. Now mostly toads are bigger than frogs....but some frogs are bigger than most toads, and some toads are smaller than most frogs....also, unless you are an expert, you may have difficulty working out if a specimen amphibian is actuall a frog or a toad.

In summary

YOU CANNOT TELL IF ITS FLU FROM THE SYMPTOMS.

(also who the fuck cares which virus you have? IF you can't get out of bed then can't get out of bed. The genetics of the virus aren't actually important)

Well I feel better for getting THAT out of my system...also viruses are pretty aren;t they?

I had flu once, I was in bed for days. I couldn't do anything, even talking hurt, I couldn't eat, barely walk and had to be helped to the loo.

My poor daughter had to fend for herself as I couldn't think straight, she's 12 so was able to bring drinks and fix herself something to eat.

If you have ‘proper’ flu you are literally out for weeks. Cannot get out of bed even if you are awake. I had it a few years ago and really appreciated how it would kill off the elderly. I was in bed for two weeks, not up for anything literally just sleeping sand briefly waking feeling horrendous, on the third week I could get up in the morning but would be asleep again afternoon. Worst I’ve ever felt. Had an annual flu jab ever since.

I’ve been bedridden for a week with flu twice in my life. I also had what I would have called a flu a month ago. Fever etc. hot/cold but I could function and was fine after 3 days. They were all flu I’d have thought?

M3lon, they are very pretty for such nasty little bastards!

I don't know if this is how it works, but if I'm sniffly with a fever, headache etc but still able to get around even though not feeling great, then I call it a cold. If it's, fever, can't get out of bed, hurts to blink or make any movement, then I call it the flu. I think as pp have said, the flu seems to hit you out of nowhere, very rapid onset.

On here you will be told that you only have flu if you cannot function at all.

However this is not true.

Flu is a different virus to a cold. It's not just a really really bad cold. It's different with some similar symptoms and some different.

It has been proven time and again that Flu, like a cold, also affects people in different ways. You can have flu with limited symptoms and be able to get up and about. It can also be very severe and can lead to other complications such as pneumonia.