Can flu make you feel this bad

[Ihaveaquestionn]

Woke up Sunday am very early feeling sick and achy and haven’t got out of bed since. I’ve had chills, aching muscles similar to contractions (literally just as bad as mine were anyway) and fatigue that cannot be described I.e walking to the toilet involves holding onto walls and having to sit down briefly on the way there. I’m coughing up brown phlegm and have a pain in my chest like knives being stabbed in me.

I suffer terribly from anxiety so have dizziness and fatigue issues anyway, so on top of all these symptoms I am not able to get much rest mentally - I can’t sleep much so am laying tossing and turning day and night. I know this is absolutely not helping things but my anxiety revolves around the dizziness and fear of not functioning properly for my toddler which I obviously can’t right now!

This is day 5 - can it really be this bad?

Yes, influenza is absolutely atrocious and most people who say they have flu don't.

Proper flu is horrific. The one time I had it I was bedridden for a fortnight and it took another three weeks after that before I started to feel properly well.

A healthcare professional once told me that the way to tell the difference between a cold and flu is the £50 note test. Someone puts a £50 note on the floor just by your bed and tells you that you can have it if you pick it up. If you've got a cold you'd do it. With flu you likely wouldn't.

Flu really can be awful - brown phlegm can be a sign of a bacterial infection so worth a call to your GP.

Yes, flu is very bad, although it sounds like you may have a chest infection as well

I was in what I can only describe as a hallucinogenic fever for a whole fortnight last time I had the flu. If I made it to the loo once a day it was a miracle.

Forgot to mention I spoke to GP and she thinks chest infection too so am on antibiotics for that. How I managed to get them prescribed over the phone I’ll never know but I was way too ill to get to the surgery!

Hope you feel better soon ❤️ chest infections are horrible

They don't spend thousands upon thousands of pounds on a vaccination for something mild.

I hope you turn the corner soon op.

It sounds like you may well have a chest infection - if the stabbing chest pain is only when you breathe in then that may be pleurisy from the infection

Flu can kill people. My friend died of it when she was 14 - it's horrendous.

You can have both at the same time so AB are a good plan.

Flu jabs aren’t expensive & all the risk groups are free at local pharmacies.

That would be unusual for an otherwise healthy adult though .

Yes. I've had proper flu twice and it's awful. Hope you get better soon

@Ihaveaquestionn flu is hideous. I've had it once, when I was early 40s, very fit and healthy, but it developed into a chest infection and pneumonia. Spent 5 days in hospital when the pneumonia was discovered by a chest X-ray and had 7 weeks off work - if you continue to feel terrible please go back to your GP.

Flu can be anything from asymptomatic, mild virus symptoms, severe symptoms, through to hospitalisation and death (although obviously a healthy person dying would be very rare).

But like covid it really goes from unnoticeable to awful, depending on the person.

Covid for me was much milder than flu. I couldn't get out of bed without difficulty with flu but could manage reasonably well when I had covid.

I'd just got a new puppy and came down with flu a day or two later. Even now it gives me the horrors, housebreaking a puppy, while having flu in Feb is still a low point in my memories! I'm now eligible for the vaccine so haven't had flu since that occasion.

Three quarters of people who have flu have zero symptoms. Others have mild, cold like symptoms. Some feel utterly despicable.

I hope you feel better soon op. Sounds miserable.

Most people who claim to have the flu just have a heavy cold.

Real flu is horrendous.

But I would say that if you continue to feel ill you should seek further medical help.

I had flu 7 years ago and the virus attacked my heart, I ended up on life support with endocarditis and sepsis, and it turned out I had an undiagnosed heart condition I didn’t know about.

But at the same time I had the flu the majority of my family had it as well, pure coincidence as we don’t live in the same area, but both my mum and sister spent ten days in bed and there are no underlying conditions there.

Any chance it’s Covid at all? Had it here last month and sounds really similar except had sore throat and really bad cough too

I've had it once before around 18 years old and it was exactly as you describe, without the chest issues. Would rather give birth than go through flu again! Hope you're feeling better soon

Flu definitely can be that bad. When I had flu I had to stop for a lie down on the way back to bed from the toilet. I ended up just lying down on the floor until I'd have strength to crawl back to bed.

Proper flu is beyond awful. Most people who say they've had it/got it really haven't. I've only had it a handful of times and I've fainted just trying to get from my bed to the toilet.

I agree, a lot of people say they have flu when they just have a cold. Flu has its own set of symptoms that you don’t get with a cold, and it’s much more debilitating.

It’s also possible to get a bacterial chest infection secondary to the flu or a cold, which seems to be what’s happened to the OP. It can take a really long time to recover.

I have had flu once. I managed to make it down the stairs to make myself a drink. I got as far of the sofa I lay there for 2ishh until my mum got home who found me shivering even though there was a blanket on the other side of the sofa but getting it was beyond my ability that day.