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?

I'm a member of the gang on here that had flu once and now gets a jab every year.
During covid I had to find a private GP and pay about £70 for it. Vaccine was so scare that year I am not in a vulnerable group. Even then I decided the money was was it.
Like everyone here who has had flu badly its not something to treat casually. Obviously flu does affect people differently but I'm not running an experiment to see if a different flu would be as bad as the first one!

Check out the list of nhs conditions that get you a free flu jab, it’s how you know if they expect you to be more at risk if you do get it or your close family eg you have a partner with moderately bad asthma or your bmi is over 40.

Real flu is awful. My mum had it once when I was a child ..she literally was in bed for two weeks...she never went to bed before when ill so kinda surprised me as a child...I remember her not being able to do anything...she had her flu jab every single year since. Hope you better soon x

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/cheap-prescriptions/#:~:text=If%20you%20don%27t%20qualify,£9%2D£20).

This is a good resource.

I've had real flu twice.
Basically if someone had said get out of bed and ill hand you £1000 I'd have had said no thanks.

Why do people keep repeating this when it's been proven that flu can be asymptomatic and with mild symptoms too?

I've had real flu twice.

🙄

As opposed to that old fake flu which SCIENTISTS have said can be mild or asymptomatic. Has the presentation of Covid - you know, a virus - taught us nothing? Surely we should all be experts now?

FFS.

But if someone is out and about saying they’ve got flu, they won’t be saying it because they’ve been part of a study and tested positive, will they? Highly unlikely. Much more likely they are doing that thing people do of beefing things up whether it be for sympathy/justify being off work/because they think ‘a cold’ sounds weak, whatever. And it is crap when people do that, when flu can be so awful. It waters down everyone’s perception of what flu is.

So while I think you are technically right margotrose, I also think, with respect, you’re missing the point of what some posters are saying.

you ok hun? Inbox me

I’m on antibiotics

phlegm is now yellow, the brown I described was a very light brown not a bloody/dark mucus

no shortness of breath

no chest pain when taking a deep breath just a general heaviness in my chest that is painful now

managed to sleep all night without waking shivering and needing paracetamol

managed to get downstairs and make myself and toddler breakfast today

back in bed now

so I would say small improvement not getting any worse

Also I mentioned everything to nurse at my GP surgery over phone and she said I should be able to manage this on my own without being seen/antibiotics but prescribed them anyway in the end - didn’t seem that concerned

This sounds positive. Glad you’re feeling slightly better. Sleeping through without waking for meds is a really good sign.

Hopefully you’ll turn an even bigger corner very soon.

One positive about flu; the feeling when you come through and feel better is like nothing else.

@eastegg god I hope so. I’ve spent this year in bed depressed and anxious and was just getting up and about again so this has been a real blow

I'm so pleased that your illness isn't as bad as I was suspecting OP. It's great to hear that you're feeling a fraction better today, and hopefully you'll soon be back on your feet, telling people who say they've got flu, that unless they're knocked off their feet that they actually only have a cold!😂

But if someone is out and about saying they’ve got flu, they won’t be saying it because they’ve been part of a study and tested positive, will they?

But why does it matter? People say they've got a cold or hay fever or a migraine without needing to be "part of a study" to prove it, so why should flu be any different?

So while I think you are technically right margotrose, I also think, with respect, you’re missing the point of what some posters are saying.

I'm not missing the point at all, I just think it's silly that some people feel the need to gate-keep the word "flu" like they do.

I’m not asking anyone to prove it. But going around saying you’ve got flu when you’ve got cold symptoms is appropriating an illness that you very likely haven’t got, and have no reason to think you have got. I’m not happy with that for the reason I said in my earlier post in a part that you didn’t quote. I can see plenty of others on this thread feel as I do. You’re fine with it? Cool.

I've only had 'flu once and was too ill to have had either the inclination or ability to log onto Mumsnet and post about it.

@eastegg I did read your post, I just see things the opposite way around, I guess.

I don't think most people say they have the flu to get sympathy or because they think a cold sounds "weak", I think it's because colds generally aren't taken seriously (despite COVID) and even though they can leave you feeling absolutely atrocious.

I really don't think you can say it's "appropriating an illness" either - both flu and colds can be totally debilitating or relatively minor. I've had colds that have knocked me off my feet for days.

Good for you. My husband was still using YouTube 4 days before he died of cancer while being tube fed and on oxygen 24/7 with lungs full of cancer mets.

You were obviously far more ill than him if you couldn’t navigate mumsnet.

Sometimes I think it's a requirement of registration here. It can't be more than a week since we had the last thread where people repeatedly trotted out that auld bollocks about fifty pound notes.

Can I hold up my hand and point out I've been swabbed for and tested + for flu twice (once for swine flu and once at uni when helping with research). First time, I had very mild cold symptoms and second time, I was asymptomatic. I could have confidently told you I had flu and then happily gone on a run, climbed/cycled, carried on as normal. The Real Flu brigade would have had a conniption.

But then I didn't see a Mumsnet doctor who could use the "would you get out of bed for an undisclosed sum" test. Probably only had Flu rather than Actual Flu or Proper Flu.

You've missed my point @StarlightLime

One, research tells us about the 75% ( I linked the research up thread ).

Two, my point was that rather than the trotted out "Proper Flu is recognisable by its severe symptoms and inability to move to take twenty quid from a quack doctor", it is a spectrum. And not even with most people sitting at the severe end. Three quarters don't even know they have it. Many more will just have cold symptoms.

In general terms, flu can be more severe than the common cold for example, as a population level trend. But if the vast majority will have nary a symptom, we simply can't keep saying ohhhh you'll know it's flu as it's terrible. Nor can people say "oh I've only had it once". Because it's a viral spectrum and you may well have had it many times with no idea. And that really horrible virus might not even have been flu.

I think we just need to be more aware of the facts and stop dismissing other people's experiences with our own blanket experience.

I had flu around fifteen years ago. I honestly thought I was dying.
I had no strength whatsoever, no appetite, just trying to drink fluids was an enormous, exhausting effort. My husband went and bought a lidded toddler cup just to try to tip fluids into my mouth without it spilling everywhere.
Opening my eyes was sheer effort and made my eyes hurt.
If I could have gone to sleep and never woken up again, I wouldn't have cared at the worst point of it.
I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

This. Proper flu is horrendous, prob the worst illness I've ever had. I was almost delirious & don't remember much of it. It is not a bad cold. I have only had it once.

Cancel the proper flu cheque!