What does bad flu feel like? Can you share your experience?

[AbsentmindedWoman]

I know covid 19 is NOT flu, but for those who will get it moderately, it seems to be compared to a very bad bout of flu. I don't think I have ever had a really bad flu, I've had some nasty doses that made me feel shit but nothing that had me in bed for 2 weeks. So don't know what to expect, how I'll cope.

As a type 1 diabetic, I am worried in general, but worried specifically that if I start out with a mild/ moderate version of coronavirus I will be so ill I won't be able to manage my diabetes properly. I'm trying to keep diabetes management extremely tight and that means dozens and dozens of calculations and problem solving several times an hour and worried I just won't be able.

So if you have had a bad flu that really knocked you - were you hallucinating? Were you able to do anything apart from sleep?

Could you focus mentally enough to eg use the calculator on your phone say?

Could you eat?

Couldn’t do anything could stagger to loo but only just. Gave my 10 month old to my uncle by marriage as we literally couldn’t look after her. We were so so Ill. Lasted this bad for 4 days then felt normal ill ie rubbish but functioning. Took about a month for our energy levels to get back. Think new baby sleep deprivation damaged our immune systems neither of us been that ill before or since.

I've only had flu once, always have the jab
It started one new years day and I thought I had the hangover from hell despite not drinking much. I didn't get out of bed except to use the toilet. It carried on and I realised it wasn't a hangover. Your whole body aches and you feel like you are dying. It's horrible
Tired afterwards and it takes time to build back up. If anyone tells you they have flu and are out or at work they just have a cold

Normally when I'm ill I'm still relaying instructions to DH about lunchboxes and clubs etc. When I had proper flu I was in bed over a week - I assume the DC went to school in that time but I genuinely had no idea.

But this virus seems to not always affect people severely. I'm trying not to worry too much.

Mine came on one New Year’s Eve. I’d be feeling chilly and sneezing at work during the day and then went to a friends to go out and ended up barely being able to drive myself home.
I think I was in bed for 4 days and literally all I could do was sleep. My mum even had to call work for me. I’ve never felt so ill in all my life

Have had flu 3 times. First two times me and dh had it same time. So so poorly. It comes on suddenly and leaves you aching and sweating then freezing. Everything hurts. Barely move let alone get out of bed. Dh couldn't even swallow his own saliva last time. Last time I had it DH was working away my DM came and took me back to her house and arranged for my MIL to look after my youngest. I was hallucinating and constantly sick. Desperate to see someone my DH. Honestly I woulsnt wish it on my worse enemy which is why catching coronavirus scares the life out of me if it is worse than flu. Honestly flu is wicked. I'm not surprised it kills. I felt like I could have easily died had I been older and less fit xx

I've only had the flu once. Randomly in July on holiday in the South of France.

Was pretty fecking awful. Chills, sweats and didn't eat, talk or leave bed for three days. Then felt crap for a while afterwards.

I've never had the flu jab though. So 1 year in 43 isn't too bad.

If you looked out the window and saw £10 on the street you couldn't go and get it. I was in bed with flu over Christmas and tested myself each day on how much I would go out for.

I had bad flu once and it went..
I ached all over...even my hair ached. I couldnt get out of bed. My DH had to literally carry me to the toilet I was so weak. First few days he fed me. I slept all day and night. I remember on the Friday saying to him... If Im like this on Monday O need to go to A and E. After 5 days I started to feel a tiny bit better then the next day more better. Took a good 3 weeks to be properly back on my feet. Very scarey!!!!!

Have had flu twice.
Started with a raging and quickly coming in sore throat, aches, cough. Literally within 1-2 hours. Temperature. Bed.
No traditional cold symptoms.

And headache and freezing cold then scorching hot

When I had flu I was in bed for a week. I was boiling hot but my whole body was shaking like I was cold, I felt like my bones were rattling inside my body. It was bloody awful.

I've had flu twice. First time was swine flu, I couldn't stand up, really high temperature, hallucinations, aches all over and I vomited so much I ruptured blood vessels in my eyes and throat from coughing so much. It took me two weeks to recover. Second time was pretty similar without the vomiting

Had it once in my early 20’s, can’t actually remember much about it but my Mum said that I was delirious at points (she came and stayed with me for 3 nights to look after me.) I remember being so hot followed by not being able to stop shivering, my Mum got into bed and cuddled me to try and warm me up. Had to be helped to walk to the toilet and don’t think I ate for days, just going in and out of sleep. Think the worst was 3 or 4 days and then I was just very weak for about a week but I remember going out for my birthday which is late January and still feeling totally wiped out. Never had it again but have always had to bite my tongue when people say that they’ve got the flu when it’s a bad cold. That was about 20 years ago and I’ve rarely been ill with anything since but always think back to that as the most unwell I’ve ever been.

I can't remember loads about it, but here are the main points:
Switching between too hot and too cold constantly.
Aching and uncomfortable joints in my limbs such that I couldn't get comfortable and was constantly shifting around in bed, kicking out with my legs etc. This was actually one of the worst things about it that I can remember. I just couldn't physically relax.
Constant headache, felt like a laser beam going through my head (don't know how else to describe it, it wasn't a throbbing headache)
Anxious feelings whenever awake
Complete exhaustion
No appetite, that I remember
In the lead up to getting it (incubation period, I suppose) I had a disgusting almost meaty taste in my mouth and at the back of my throat. This went when the real symptoms started.
I was able to call into work at times, and able to get up to use the loo and to get a drink sometimes, so it wasn't as bad as some people's experiences
I had had the flu vaccine that year, too, but presumably the flu I got was a different strain to the ones I was vaccinated against. Or maybe it mutated in the mean time. I got the flu about 5 months after I got the vaccine.

Sorry, meant to say that I had flu just after Christmas so still felt very tired about a month later.

I didn’t feel great at work and couldn’t wait to get home. Driving home I felt so rough I started crying. My throat was burning. I went to bed for about a week. The fever was the worse part. It made me have horrible hallucinatory dreams. The dreams were exhausting so whenever I woke up I needed to go back to sleep but also didn’t want to. Once the fever and sore throat started to subside it was easier. Very horrible nasal and throat discharge for a while after though. I really hope I never get another.

Had flu 2 winters ago. Started Christmas eve afternoon with a little irritating cough. Started to feel a bit off later on that night. Went to bed and I was freezing and shaking with the cold even tucked up in bed.
Woke up Christmas morning and literally couldn't lift my head off the pillow. I was sweating profusely and aching all over my body. Cough had gone, no runny nose just extreme tiredness and sore head. Husband brought up paracetamol during the day and had to wake me up to take them. I was zonked out. When i woke up I had nausea which eventually turned into excessive vomiting for three days. In the end I was just gagging or bringing up bile because no way could I eat anything. Stayed in bed for 3 days and just slept.
I was extremely weak for about 10 days and the tiredness lasted about 3 weeks all in all.

It made me very run down with sinusitis and tonsillitis. So I had excruciating pain in my head and throat, and also struggled to breathe properly. I was exhausted. I thought I should get fresh air, so I went to the corner shop, then had to sleep for 4 hours to get over it. That evening my head hurt so much I was worried, so a friend took me to out of hours. They got me antibiotics and instructed bed rest, no getting up except to use the toilet. I couldn't swallow well and found only soluble aspirin in honey and lemon helped. But was only like this for 3 days.
Unfortunately I was not in my best health for at least 6 months and kept getting tonsillitis.
I hope you can stay well.

I had flu a few years ago. I felt ill driving to my family on Christmas Day and said to dh that if it wasn’t Christmas Day I wouldn’t have gone. Didn’t eat anything all day and then could get up on Boxing Day. Spent 3 days in bed only getting up to stagger to the loo to throw up or wee.

I managed the journey home on 29th December and went straight to bed and finally got up about 4th January.

It took me another month before I felt better and had any energy.

I had flu once when i was 17. I don’t remember much of the 5 days where it was at its peak. I slept around 22 hours a day. The other 2 hours were changing my sweat soaked bed sheets, attempting to shower and taking painkillers. I just remember sweating and shivering constantly. I don’t remember having a cold as such just aching all over.

Sorry, forgot to actually say how I felt! I aches everywhere, bones, joints, teeth, eyes, hair.

Dh would bring me food and drinks but I could spend ages just looking at them so he had to force me to eat and drink anything.

What I remember is the sheer exhaustion caused by the smallest physical effort — reaching for a glass of water a few inches from my hand or even turning over in bed felt like a mammoth task.

And I remember starting to cry when DH said I needed to hydrate more (I was sweating with fever), because I couldn’t face getting out of bed and walking a few feet to the en-suite loo any more than strictly necessary. I would lie there, dying to wee, but having to force myself to sit up and swing my feet out of bed. The wallpaper kept growing and shrinking.

I lost something like a stone and a half in weight in about ten days, and in photographs from several weeks after I got up — family wedding — I still look weak and ill. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.

Both times started with the worst headache- the kind you have to sleep as they’re so painful.

The first I somehow ended up in my mums bed- she was praying while covering me in soaking wet towels. Apparently she stopped praying and I asked her to carry on - I’m not religious.

The second time I was in bed for 5 days abroad. I was laying in my own piss and sick and didn’t care.

Both times everything hurt - nothing made sense - I’d literally sleep all day and only wake for 5 minutes a day really bloody confused what was going on. Both times I thought I was dying. I probably needed hospital treatment but was far too ill to do anything about it.

I was 39 and came down with it on Xmas Eve. Got out of bed (apart from loo breaks) on New Years Eve.

It was awful. On Cheistmas Day as I couldnt lift my head off the pillow and just muttered Merry Christmas to my kids. I couldnt watch them open their presents even.

Raging thirst, sweats, cold, hallucinations in and out of sleep.

That was 7 years ago and not forgotten. When people say "oh it's just like the flu" they've clearly never had flu.

I felt like my body was made of sandbags. That's the most vivid memory I have of having the proper flu.

And sleeping for 18 hours straight. It took a full 7 days for me to be up, awake and active, and a full 2-3 weeks for me to feel back to myself again.