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Original poster

Aussie Flu

112 replies

allglitteredout · 04/01/2018 16:59

Have you had it yet? If so, are the symptoms really that bad or is the media scaremongering us. I've read a few statuses on Facebook from people claiming to have this "Killer" flu but surely if it was that bad they wouldn't be writing about it on Facebook. Hmm I've had a very bad virus for the past 2 weeks that keeps coming back and sore throat so was wondering if that was it??.

OP posts:
hunibuni · 07/01/2018 13:48

I've had a bad sinus infection since just after Christmas and thought I was just feeling the after effects. Roll on New year's day and I was dealing with the Doctor on call who had come to see one of my residents and he insisted on checking me out, temp 38.5 told to rest and take fluids. Got home at 10pm and by midnight DH had put me into a tepid bath because my temp had spiked at 40 and I had rigors. Everything hurt, including my eyelashes, and I swear my eyeballs were going to pop between the sinus pain and temp. Temp didn't come down for 2 days and GP basically said not to go near them but to take paracetamol etc and rest. I'm still in bed but at least the temp has settled and I'm feeling half human. Still don't have a lot of energy, it's taken until today to be able to wash myself, DH has been helping me in and out of the bath and showering me because he was worried I would fall. I'm 40 and feel like I'm 90.

Barnyforever · 07/01/2018 13:48

This reply has been deleted

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Delatron · 07/01/2018 21:01

Agree lauging. That's how you know it's flu, there's no slow build up. I had it once. Walked in to a restaurant feeling fine. 30 minutes later I practically had to be carried out in to a taxi I felt that bad.

Delatron · 07/01/2018 21:03

Not dismissing this current virus that's doing the rounds though. DH has been ill with it since Christmas Day and he's still not right. I've never seen him so ill in 11 years. The coughing!!

Believeitornot · 07/01/2018 21:07

Actually the flu virus doesn’t always mean you’re on your knees and really ill. Like any virus, it affects some people much worse than others.

Delatron · 07/01/2018 21:52

Agree, but even if it's mild it does tend to come on quickly.

UrsulaPandress · 08/01/2018 07:42

It's the coughing and the rattling. The rattling keeps me awake.

RavingRoo · 08/01/2018 07:48

I came down with something, GP thinks flu but he doesn’t provide the test for otherwise healthy people, and it knocked me for six for 4 weeks as it developed into a chest infection. I was told yesterday that it was probably ‘just’ regular flu - as Swine and Australian strains present milder symptoms. Not sure who to believe now.

dementedpixie · 08/01/2018 07:53

H3N2 is the Aussie flu and it is in this year's flu jab. There is an influenzaB going about that isn't in the injectable but it's in the nasal one and it is doing it's rounds this year too

ScrabbleFiend · 08/01/2018 08:04

I've had a flu, no idea if it was Aussie flu. 9 days in bed and no food and no I couldn't bear to look at a screen of any kind for a few days. Went to bed one night feeling fine, woke up with a severe bronchitis and it progressed from there. The chest infection was the worst part, I coughed so hard I put my back out and pulled all my rib muscles. Was literally crawling on the floor trying to sort ds's presents on Christmas Eve, worst Christmas ever. Back to work today after 3 weeks off, thankfully had a lot of holiday booked so have had the last week or so to recover. Still have a cough and residual tiredness though.

Fatso1978 · 08/01/2018 08:17

I live in Australia and no one I know have had this Aussie Flu. I work with the elderly. Not a single one out of 150 had it either. If they did our facility would have been on lock down.

So I don't really know how contagious it is.

user1474652148 · 08/01/2018 08:32

We have had it. We are in the south west and there is an outbreak here.

It a quite bad least of all because it has taken six weeks to feel fully better.

Aches, pains, fever, stomach cramps and in bed for two to three days. Just when you think you have turned a corner it comes back. Zero energy for weeks and then causes a bad stomach at the end.

Most people I know have had fairly bad respiratory problems with it too. Most were on more than one set of antibiotics. I didn't have this thankfully.

It is unpleasant few weeks and a long recovery. I a guessing it could be fairly serious if you at very young m, old or aleady fragile due to other health problems.

We are expecting things to get worse now schools are open and it is so cold again. In a few weeks it should pass.

Kahlua4me · 08/01/2018 08:38

I have had a flu of some kind, 10 days in bed and although recovering now I am exhausted and wiped out. Went to bed on Christmas Day and got up on 3rd January! All that Christmas preparation and whoosh it was over!

I was able to read and play on iPad for a while each day but that was it, slept the rest of the time. Have never felt so ill and was worried for a while.

My step father died after getting flu a few years ago. He had flu which led to pneumonia and although he was very fit for his age his organs were still 74 years old and simply couldn’t cope with the onslaught...

juneau · 08/01/2018 08:40

If you're walking, talking, tweeting and whining about it - you haven't got flu - you've just got a nasty cold. And there ARE some really nasty colds about. But if you have flu then you're in bed, barely able to move, let alone on the internet griping to everyone how ill you are.

UrsulaPandress · 08/01/2018 08:41

This ain't no cold.

ReelingLush18 · 08/01/2018 08:45

I've probably had proper flu twice in my life (once as an 11 year old and once as a young adult). I had that nasty virus after Christmas last year (which laid me very low - the one with the chesty cough that lasted for weeks) which is the closest I've got to flu for a couple of decades.

I do think for some people what they'd consider to be flu = bad cold (rather than truly incapacitated with shivers, high temp and unable to even get out of bed for days on end).

FuckyNellYaBastad · 08/01/2018 08:59

When I had it I remember feeling ok one minute and the next phoning my dh and telling him to come home straight away. I spent the hour waiting for him on the sofa with my 3 month old baby feeling so odd and just wishing Dh would come quickly. When he did I handed him ds and went to bed for 5 days. During this time I wasn’t aware of anything or anyone - thank god the kids were being looked after. They wasn’t even on my radar! Nothing at all was. Imagine if I had no one? I can easily see now how it kills people. I know now also that small kids died (still do probably) not just from flu itself but by not having people to look after them when their parent/carer is struck down. Would not wish it on my worst enemy and that’s a fact.

Took me weeks and weeks to feel better. An even longer time to fully feel myself again

Kahlua4me · 08/01/2018 09:03

Well my gp said I had flu so should I tell him he is wrong?

I literally stayed in bed for 10 days, even drinking was an effort and I hardly ate but I could hold my iPad for short periods and helped to pass the time. I wasn’t able to walk far though, only to loo and back.

Surely there are levels of illness dependant on how your body copes it, age, pre-existing illness, smoking etc. It’s not just one level for flu and the rest are colds otherwise we would all be in hospital not just some...

DottyGiraffe · 08/01/2018 10:22

There are a lot of people generally saying they have or have had flu when, in reality, it's highly likely to not be flu. There are people who genuinely have had flu of some kind. The only categoric way to know is to have tests so even GPs can't know unless they do them (although they're presumably the most experienced in knowing without the tests so their judgement is probably correct).

However, people (again generally speaking) can't possibly say they've had Aussie flu unless they've found which strain it was. My social media is full of people saying they've got Aussie flu. It's not Aussie flu just because you decide it is! The media hype is not helping at all, saying only a few areas haven't got it when those are probably less populated areas anyway and the "numbers" are apparently being taken from self-diagnostic tools. So hardly likely to be correct.

ForeverHopeful21 · 08/01/2018 10:54

In my experience of having flu, it started very quickly i.e. fine one day and then next I suddenly had temperature, aching all over, vomiting, shivering etc. I could hardly walk, speak and felt delusional! That then turned in to a cold and cough and overall lasted 4-5 weeks. I couldn't eat, lost lots of weight and was very ill.

Recently I've had a terrible terrible cold virus thats lasted 4 weeks and had me struggling to get out of bed for a few days, however its been much more based around cough, chest infection, sinusitis etc. Its been hell but there is a difference!

ForeverHopeful21 · 08/01/2018 10:59

@Kahlua4me interestingly there have been two occasions that I've been to my GP with extremely bad cold and cough / chest infection and they have signed me off work with 'flu'. I'm not saying that you didn't have flu, but in my experience they are quick to say its flu when it was actually a bad cold.

tiggytape · 08/01/2018 12:09

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scaevola · 08/01/2018 12:40

Weekly flu report:

www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/670931/Weekly_report_current_1718.pdf

Epidemiologists will be seeking to have enough people tested to track the spread of the flu and to see which strains are prevalent in circulation. This is part of how they make the predictions for which strains to include in the next immunisation.

Yes, you can have flu mildly. But that does not make 'typical' flu a mild disease.

tiggytape · 08/01/2018 13:01

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zukiecat · 08/01/2018 15:21

I have something

Came on really fast during the night on Saturday

I have chills, high temperature, aches and stabbing pains throughout my body, sore throat, coughing and now sneezes

I've also felt nauseous on and off, I have periods of feeling a bit better and able to sit up in bed but long periods of when even doing that is just too much effort