Out of interest what is the symptomatic difference between a cold and flu?

[SlightlyMadSweden]

Cosd I feel rotten but feel like a fraud for calling it flu on my return to work form - but it probably is....

Apparently it's flu if you couldn't get out of bed to pick a £50 note off the floor...

I've only had 'flu the once. Had to crawl to loo as couldn't stand, didn't shower for best part of a week as couldn't stand. spent week either on sofa or in bed. Was foul!

Well if I didn't have a poorly DD to look after as well I probably wouldn't

I always thought it was something to do with what gender you are...

have had flu twice. absolutely awful. clock watched to dose myself up with paracetomol again. didn't feel like eating. neck ached. everything including hair ached. can't possibly be confused with cold.

Cold: sniffling, snivelling, feeling crap.

Flu: unable to get out of bed, weak, aching, shivering, lack of appetite, utterly drained, unable to sleep, can't think straight, can't imagine ever feeling like a normal human being again.

Flu lasts a lot longer. With a cold you feel relatively normal within a couple of days - with flu you feel totally washed-out for ages afterwards.

If a woman has it, its a cold.

If a man has it, its flu.

Actual 'flu is a big deal. People die of it (ok, mostly old people and babies, but still!). This page looks good. Colds are centred in the nose, while 'flus are all over.

I get a lot of colds but I think I've only ever once has flu. I missed the first week of a new job because I literally couldn't get out of bed.

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i've had flu twice in my adult life. once was so so bad, it even affected my eyes and felt like someone was driving hot pins into my eyeballs. i spent a week in bed. the other time was so weak i could get out of bed for a week really except to stagger to the loo. but didnt have the horrible eye thing to go with it. wouldnt be able to mumsnet with the 'flu.

have had some horrible cold though.

I have the snifles but not especially snuffly/coughy

My head hurts and paracetamol/ibuprofen is hardly touching it
My neck/base of skull hurts
My throat ((but not sandpaper sore throat IYSWIM)hurts, my glands are swollen and it blinking hurts to swallow
My back tummy hurts - like period pain but not period pain
my shoulders hurt
Tempertaure 38+ which is barely being hit by meds
Can't sleep at night (alhtough managed 2 1/2 hrs this afternoon) as I wake up every hour or so and feel rotten

SO you can see why it feels like much more than a cold....but I am female so almost certainly just a heavy cold

I tend to use a benchmark of
cold - you know you're coming down with something for a couple of days before hand
Flu - you suddenly start to feel crap and get worse quickly.

I know when I have flu as my scalp aches (along with most everything else)

Also, with colds, I tend to still want to eat, flu, I can't eat a thing

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I had flu once and like PandaG said, I was so ill, I could not get out of bed. The only reason I did was to go to the loo and even then, I seriously considered using a potty because I felt so weak!

Nothing touched it - not nurofen, not paracetamol, not the codeine ones. I just had to lie there feeling like death and wait to get better.

Also, another difference I felt, was that after I had the flu, it took me several weeks to feel 'normal' again. With colds, even bad ones, it doesn't take me that long to recover.

I have had flu, just the once, and you can definitely tell the difference between that & a bad cold.

I didn't have a proper cold as such when I had the flu. I had a chest infection at the same time, so coughed a lot, but didn't have a head cold at all.

I barely moved from my bed for 10 days, had a raging temperature, suffered terrible night sweats, was very very weak, had no appetite, and have never felt so ill.

I remember taking a bath, and just lying on the bathroom floor for a good hour after, as I felt so ill & weak.

I lost about half a stone in a week, and had to rely totally on other people to take care of my children. It was just the pits of an illness.

I now never confuse a bad cold with flu!

Yes, mine came on very quickly. One second I was fine, then I suddenly felt unwell & like I needed to lay down. within minutes my temperature was sky high.

I don't think I've ever had a real 'flu. I used to work with someone who'd had one of the new HK 'flus and said he didn't feel right for months afterwards!

I get flu every year without fail, always have, and its when you feel as though you've been hit by a truck

Make that 2 trucks

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had flu once over christmas and didn't go home to see parents because dad had serious respiratory problems and really couldn't risk him getting it

around 4pm a lovely friend came over from her sister's house wtih a plate of food but i could barely eat any (v unusual for me )

I get flu once a year - usually just before or just after xmas...sigh. I know it's because life gets so stressful round then (my dh, mum nd son all have birthdays very close to xmas, work gets busy, social life gets busy and my immune system crumbles. Add to the mix, a predisposition to chest infections and Whammo

Mine's always in February

At least you can plan for it, eh cammelia

And you get to lose all the inevitable xmas weight gain