AIBU to have only just realised what people meant by a cold is defo not the flu !

[Bringbackdrifterbars]

I am early 30s no massive health issues and would not at all be deemed vulnerable.
I have always known the difference between a cold and flu as in one being influenza but suppose really didn’t listen when people said trust me you would know if you had the flu over a cold.
well I caught the flu and as a healthy adult ended up admitted in to
hospital for the first time in my life because of influenza A !
maybe this year is a bad strand or something but is it usual for it knock out healthy young people ? 🙈🙈

@Flipdiddle yes to check my phosphate levels.

Yabu.

Flu CAN be awful, but like most infections the severity can vary enormously. I don't understand how people are still parroting this crap when we've all just lived through the last couple of years and seen very clearly how an infection (COVID in this example) can vary from death (including in previously healthy, young people) all the way through the spectrum to asymptomatic.

So no, unless you've had a test for influenza virus you don't know if what you've had is a cold or the flu.

I think this depends on your overall health and the strain and whether it’s actually flu or something else (if you aren’t tested how do you know you had flu?). Due to family members health I’ve been tested alot to check if I have flu and 9/10 I’ve tested positive when I’ve had no symptoms (and never developed symptoms). It’s the same with Covid.

The people who thing they just have a cold so it couldn’t be the flu are the people doing the flu spreading. If nobody could function if they had the flu it would die out pretty quickly.

Hope you are feeling completely better soon OP. Severe flu (that requires hospitalisation) can be nasty. If they admitted you, you will have needed it. Nowhere is likely to have enough space to admit people who don’t need it at the moment. Don’t forget to rest a lot. It can take much longer than you think to get over.

I'm 52 and had flu once, 25 years ago. I was weak as a kitten for a month afterwards. I tried to go to work and they made me go home immediately.
It kills people and it's soooo not 'a cold'.

Apparently symptomless flu normal

Norovirus wiped out my entire family one at a time.

DD2 had it, seemingly started to feel better and then DD1 started being sick. I ended up having to call my DM in the night to help because neither DH or I could look after either of our DDs because we were both being sick. We started to feel better and then my DM got it. Then MIL after we’d had to call her to look after our youngest when we went back to work. Then my DF got it from my DM and FIL got it from MIL. Even BIL got it in the end.

All of us had days of horrendous D&V and unable to keep anything down. DM now affectionately calls DD2 the germ bomb. 😂

Oh how scary for you all. I’m glad he pulled through.

It’s important that those working or spending time with vulnerable people get the flu vaccine for this reason - you absolutely can have a mild flu, just like you can have a mild cold or mild chickenpox.

edit - quote facility not working - this was a reply to the poster who said her ds nearly died

Perpetuating the myth that you can’t have flu without being unable to lift your head from the pillow etc is a great way to get people to pass it on to vulnerable people though — I’m not ill enough for it to be flu so it’s safe to go and visit granny.

I’ve had it once, a few months post partum and I was SO ill I got to the point where I was telling OP I thought I was likely to not wake up the next day and muttering about a will. The next day was the tipping point where I started to get better. So when during Covid people were talking about day eight a lot and it either getting better or a LOT worse, I understood.

Yeah once you’ve had it a £10 flu jab looks like a bargain 😂

My 29yo dn had type b last year, collapsed in a+e and was on a drip. Flu will kill you and you’ll feel awful for months if you survive. The people around dn, their partner, their mil and me all have flu jabs and didn’t catch it off them.

As far as I know, I’ve never had the flu. I have had to have days off work for ‘flu-like symptoms’ but they’ve only lasted a few days. Cold, shivery, achy and unable to move. Maybe I had mild flu. 🤷‍♀️

My DM had the flu when I was a child and she was off work for 6 weeks. She is much more prone to chest infections and pleurisy, etc. now.

I’m not sure if mine was even severe or if was an absolute wimp 🤣
it did feel at the time I was legit very sick but I was good after fluids and Tami flu and a little oxygen 🙈

I’ve only had proper flu once when I was about 8. I remember waking up one morning and feeling a lot better and asking my Mum if I could go to school and she said no, it’s Saturday. I thought it was Thursday, I’d lost a couple of days somewhere in a kind of fever dream!

Do you generally get quite a bit of muscular pain?

Have never had flu (despite working with people who were forever having a day off here and there with "flu"!).
OH had it once and said the best description is that you see a £50 note on the floor but don't have the strength to bend down and pick it up.

Yep, hate it when people say they have flu but still up and about. I felt worse with flu than covid.

We’ve had this happen twice around Christmas when the whole extended family are staying in one house. The post noro exhaustion is unreal.

Cancel the £50 note...

I always describe it to people as Harry styles could have walked in my room and offered it to me on a plate and I'd have turned him down

It really is exhausting! It took well over a week to even feel normal again.

🤣🤣🤣 ( Harry styles comment )

It’s always irritated me when people say they have flu when it’s a cold, yes ok a bad bad cold, but not flu.

I had flu as a teenager, 35 years ago now, my dad had to carry me to the loo, my parents ended up employing a nurse to care for me, the doctor called twice a day. It took me weeks to recover. That’s the flu.

I had covid last year, and I was completely knocked off my feet again. I would say there was very little difference between the two.

DH said last week he had the flu, yes he was ill I made him hot lemon and honey, and waited on him whilst he died on the sofa, but when he said he had the flu or maybe covid ( he’s never had either, but he did nurse me with covid ) I laughed, and pointed out that he had got up, had a soak in the bath and is now in the living room watching tv - that’s a cold.

If you have the strength and the breath or even simply care enough to tell someone you have the flu, then that’s a cold, with flu you can barely manage to roll over in bed.

@Flipdiddle me ?
no

This reminds me of having swine flu in 2009 ! Had no energy to wash my hair or dry it!