Could this be actual flu and not just a bad cold?

[PeopleAreTheWorst]

I've been awake on and off all night alternating between being red hot and freezing cold. Am so sweaty. Headache, jaw/teeth ache poss into ears. My eyes hurt, my eyelids are hot. I've got worse over the past day or so.
Throat isn't sore but when I breath it feels like something is dragging in the top of my chest. Slight cough which isn't all the time but hurts and is productive when it happens. I'm absolutely exhausted to the point I have done the school run the past three days and then gone to bed for a nap. I work part time so I have a routine on my days off and I've done none of it.
When I am hungry it doesn't seem to be satisfied no matter what I eat. My upper stomach has been sore for a few days but with no obvious pattern.
I scared myself when I got up to go to the loo last night and I sort of staggered like I was really drunk there and back.
My sinuses are really sore too.
My skin feels like it has been sandpapered.
I know there's not much to be done if it is. I last had it as a teen so many years ago. That time I got so hot in the night I hallucinated and the doctor came out to see me (shows how long ago that was!)
I did dd2 parents evening last night as Dh is away. We came home at 7.30pm and I dozed off on the couch before waking up at 9, tidying what I could and then came to bed where I've been awake on and off all night.
I just kind of need to know how long before I'll feel better. Im supposed to be out tonight but I don't see me managing that, out for tea tomorrow, same and then I'm in work late on Sunday. I need to give them plenty of notice if I'm not going to be in as they have to replace me because I'm a key holder.
I don't get on all that well with my mum but I want my mum 😢

Give over the op has a family a d unfortunately life doesn’t stop when you are ill . You may be able to stay home but in the real world you can’t always do that . The op thought she had a cold that’s got worse seriously do people stay home .

Thank you 😊

Sod going out, sod work, ring in sick for the next 3 or 4 days and just let your body recover. No idea if it's flue or not. They if you had flu you wouldn't even be able to mister the strength to grab a 20 pound note you'd seen on the ground. Either way, your body is clearly fighting something so just do what your body needs. After a few days rest and hydration, healthy foods you should start to feel better

With the possibility of flu or Covid I am another person who is shocked that you went to a parents evening while unwell, thus making loads more people unwell in the hectic time before Christmas.
But anyway, I have Covid and took a couple of days to test positive, my friend only tested positive four or five days in, so keep testing. I also had a much more obvious result on FlowFlex tests compared with Tesco. Flu tends to flatten you really quickly, although if you have been vaccinated it can affect you differently. It doesn’t normally have a slow build up and get worse. It sounds far more like Covid to me.

Honestly I've had flu once in my life and I couldn't even pick up my phone. You sound very unwell but it doesn't sound as bad as flu to me, though I'm not a doctor and this is a forum, not a consultation. A doctor can't help even if it is flu. Keep up paracetamol and ibuprofen and get as many fluids and rest as you can. Hope it passes quickly

I see flu myths abound again! Just like covid, some people who get flu feel like they've got a cold, other people are incredibly ill and there's a range in between.
Flu is not like ebola, you can get it mildly.

Everyone in our family over five different houses is currently unwell with something similar. I'm now on week three, I've spent two of those weeks not eating and barely moving. I have had flu previously and it's not dissimilar other than I seemed to shake it off quicker. I'm left with a wracking cough and feeling absolutely exhausted.

I've cancelled everything i had on this weekend and Dh is taking our children to see my dad for his birthday tomorrow whilst I stay home.
I've told work but have had no response as yet. I'm never off sick so I'm hoping they take that into account.
Seems like there's a lot going round at the moment 🤧

Oh right I forgot the god given right to be completely oblivious to others just because you have a family. Heaven forbid ringing the school to rearrange a parents evening.

The OP was utterly selfish to do what she did when she clearly felt shit.

She wasn't. Batshit posts from you. It's not the bubonic plague, and you can get ill anywhere.

Yeah you can get ill anywhere. No wonder when there's so many people who think it's fine to spread illnesses around. I wouldn't mind if it was something that absolutely couldn't be rearranged but this clearly could.

And if that makes me batshit then so be it.

Ok at least you are owning it 🤷🏻‍♀️

Seriously you need to calm down. It's a cold or a flu; she's not doing anything deliberately and she feels rotten.

Anyone getting sick can pick up an illness in a myriad of ways as I explained. You are being completely hysterical about this.

This. I collapsed just getting out of bed a few steps to go to the loo when I was poorly with flu in my 20s (only time I've had flu so far). So unless people experience it differently (like covid) not sure it's that.

Not historical at all. Perfectly entitled to have different opinions to you.

*Hysterical

It may be a mild bout of the flu. With more typical severity flu, you wouldn't have done the school run, or pottered around tidying up bits.

I've had the flu last week. I'm still nowhere near right. I spent 4 straight days in bed and only sure what people brought me.

Whether it's the flu, a bad cold or something else, try to take it as easy as you can for a few days.

Whatever you have it's been going through my family over the last few weeks. I had it last week (almost exactly the same symptoms) and just assumed it was covid to be honest. Didn't have any tests but it felt too mild to be flu and too awful to be a cold, plus DDs dad and stepmum tested positive.

When I had the flu years ago I could not have done a school run or written a post on Mumsnet. I fluctuated between thinking I was dying and wishing I was dying. The most ill I've ever felt to be honest. If there was a hierarchy it'd be Flu > Sinusitis > Covid > Cold.

Thanks all. I've had a pretty bad night. Hot then cold then hot. Dh gave up trying to sleep with me coughing so much.
I've told work I won't be in tomorrow.
Whatever it is it's pretty grim. I can't even read my kindle because I can't concentrate. Tried to eat a bit last night but coughed so hard it didn't stay down.
Hope all of us suffering are better soon!

This totally! And like covid is often contagious before symptoms appear.
The a year after swine flu almost everyone tested positive for swine flu antibodies and most had not had a 'flu' illness.

Op hope you feel better soon. I've a horrible chesty cough and so much green snot. A slight temperature. Had flu vaccination. Thought I just had a cold (from my baby at nursery) and was out and about picking them up and this has just got slowly worse.

Thank you. I've been mostly napping and coughing. My pelvic floor has given up and I swear I must have rock hard abs from all the coughing.
Jokes aside the cough is brutal. I have to fold in half to cough, my muscles are so sore. I was on the sofa at 4am so I didn't wake the entire house. My temp is up and down depending where I am with the paracetamol and my feet have been permanently cold. Dh took the kids out to my dads birthday meal yesterday and now he's at my mums with them for an annual Christmas party. I've barely eaten and what I have had hasn't stayed down for long before the cough starts and knocks me sick. I ready for it to be done now 😭

my husband and I are going through the exact same thing at the min. Started with fever and chills, now muscle pains, sandpaper skin, burning eyes. The hacking cough is killing me.

it’s miserable. I do think it’s prob flu - I had flu in my 20s and I’ll never forget that my leg muscles hurt so much that I couldn’t get out of bed and I cried for my mum. My legs have been the same today.

both me and hubby have had to take childcare in shifts today while the other lies down. And by childcare I mean we have lay on the sofa supervising a Disney plus bonanza.

both kids are now red cheeked and hot. So we have that to look forward to tonight.

hope you feel better soon and ignore mean ass comments on here x

Oh no, poor you. Hot eyelids are so weird aren't they!
I hope you so manage a good nights sleep.
I'm going to bed soon and I'm praying for a good nights sleep 😴

Also what's going on with my feet? Either blocks of ice or really sweaty!??

Are you feeling better yet?
I'd goto the doc if still bad , especially if started as normal cold and got worse. Suggests possibly a secondary bacterial infection, which could be helped with antibiotics