"If you had the flu you wouldn't be sat in front of me now"

[Plumty]

I have been VERY under the weather for three weeks now. Went to the GP surgery as I suspect I now have a chest infection (I do). I asked about this Super Flu and was told “if you had the flu you would be in bed and not in front of me”.

Am I right in thinking this is just nonsense? I am extremely depleted. It takes me 3x as long to walk. I HAD to go in so pushed myself.

I’ve had Covid twice and both times I mustered strength to walk my dog. 7 mins at most once a day (the dog is normally a handful but totally mellowed out as he knew I was ill).

Whatever I have now is 5x worse than my experiences with Covid.

I just think the GP was really dismissive for saying that. I’m on my knees but we all push ourselves when absolutely necessary

I’m just getting over flu, in second week off work I had to get a sick note and so had to physically go to an G.P appointment so like you I pushed myself to do this. If it had been the previous week I’m not sure I could have physically gone.

Have you tested?

I had flu and I couldn’t even sit down in a chair after 3 weeks in bed, the chair hurt me too much. I couldn’t have gone anywhere, I crawled to the en-suite and back to bed

Would the treatment have been any different?

No but it would be nice to be treated as an individual and not have health workers rely on broad sweeping generalisations.

If you had proper flu you wouldn’t be able to get to the GP. People think a bad cold is flu. A good test was said to be that if you are lying in bed and you a see a £50 note in the garden, if you’ve got a cold you would get, if you’ve got flu you wouldn’t be able to. Some people have never had flu so don’t realise the difference

Clearly the GP isn't a poster on here or she/he would have been bombarded by the asymptomatic flu contingent 😁

Yanbu

The nhs is a mess and number of the GPs who are left couldnt give a shite if their patients live or die

Hope you get well soon girl 🥰🎄

I hate people saying stuff like that, we’ve all had times we’ve put one foot in front of the other to get through a day literally pushing through, while others eg take a day off because they said they didn’t want to risk getting worse. Everyone has different thresholds etc. What a load of rubbish!!

I had swine flu confirmed by a swab. I felt terrible. I absolutely could get to a GP and I also had zero choice but to look after a toddler until my dh was able to fly back to the uk. I did actually get admitted to hospital towards the end of the virus once he hot home, but I could still pick £50 up off the floor.

GP has probably had a run of patients all speculating they have “super flu”

what Was the treatment prescribed?

I have to say when I had the flu I couldn’t have got to the doctors, he has a point. I think I was on week 2 where I genuinely thought I was going to die and was talking about writing a will. Then thank god I started to feel better again.

If I did think I had the super flu
given how contagious it is, I probably wouldn’t have attended the surgery

Exactly. When I had Covid I had to walk my dog as he won’t do a number 2 in the garden. I was taking actual baby steps and stopping every 30 seconds. But I had no other option (I had just moved to a village in the middle of nowhere - not even a takeaway to get me by).

I was 6 months pregnant ( 2009) and I was very unwell. DH called a doctor who visited me at home and suspected it was swine flu and told DH to ring for an ambulance. Ambulance arrived asI was walking down the stairs. Paramedic said... "nah you don't have swine flu, I've seen grown met not being able to stand with it". Convinced me I should go back to bed because there was no point waiting in a packed a&e to be sent home anyway.

About five hours later DH brought me to the hospital. I tested positive for swine flu and spent 7 days in isolation. Not a nice experience.

Everybody in my opinion handles pain differently and it's not always outwardly visible how unwell you can be.

You are clearly unwell, I hope you recover quickly.

Proper flu is debilitating, the only time I've had it I had to be carried by my boyfriend and his step dad into A&E, I was bed bound for 3 weeks and couldn't even open my eyes properly for about a week in the beginning.

Well I asked for a home visit as I obviously didn’t want to be a superspreader. Not bad enough apparently. I explained what was going on and was told I needed to be seen to be prescribed medication for chest infection. The receptionist told me to wear a mask. Not much more I could do. I sat away from people and washed my hands 🤷‍♀️

Sorry for typos... grown men not grown met

Well its nonsense anyway. Flu can cause mild illness as well. Just like some people tested positive for Covid but had mild symptoms.

Thank you x

You asked for a home visit??? But oh come on.

You went to the surgery desire thinking you had super flu. So putting lots at risk. And you weren’t wearing a mask already before the receptionist asked you to?

so you have been prescribed medication?

You can get mild flu, but given there's no cure does it matter whether they think its flu or not?

My DF said I didn't have flu but I know I was very unwell and had flu. People just get funny about it especially of they have once had the worst flu themselves.

Hope the antibiotics work soon. I had them after the flu and am much better after 7 days.

I've only had flu once and wasn't able to get out of bed other than to the toilet and that was a real struggle. There is no way I could have got myself to the doctors. On the other hand I've had many very bad colds where I've felt dreadful but was able to function (to a certain degree).

This is such nonsense. My daughter had the flu last year (tested positive). She was fine other than a fever for a couple of days.

You seriously think that your GP doesn’t care if you “live or die” @Plumty ? Else why are you thanking this poster for making such an horrible and hyperbolic statement