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Original poster

I'm so ill - Flu

30 replies

Oysterbabe · 26/03/2023 09:35

Suddenly in the office on Friday I was freezing cold, went blue and was shaking uncontrollably, then a banging headache started. Made it home and crawled into bed and stayed there until just now, dragged myself down to the sofa. I've never felt this unwell in my life. I'm alternating between being soaked in sweat and freezing cold, my whole body, aches, I'm so dizzy I'm struggling to walk, I haven't eaten since Friday morning - feel sick even thinking about it.
I'm alternating paracetamol and ibuprofen. What's wrong with me? What else can I do?

OP posts:
whyhere · 26/03/2023 09:41

The sudden onset definitely sounds like flu - it's very typical.

The most important thing is to keep up your fluids, ideally with something like Diarolyte, so that your electrolytes stay in balance. Ask someone to get it for you or, if that's not possible, make up a mix for yourself of water with some sugar and salt dissolved in it. Take regular small sips throughout the day. Paracetamol every four hours.

It will pass. Hope you soon feel better.

Onedayatatime22 · 26/03/2023 09:42

That sounds horrible. Sleep, listen to audiobooks to relax, hydrate constantly and eat a little, if and when you feel up to it. Keep alternating paracetamol and ibuprofen - tiger balm on your forehead will help headaches. Time is your friend. When you begin to feel better don't take things to quickly. Sorry not to have a better solution. Take care.

Akite · 26/03/2023 09:43

Sounds very like my most recent bout of covid, the all-over aches and insane headache.
Keep sipping water and just ride it out as best you can.

Allmyghosts · 26/03/2023 09:45

Poor you, just do what you can. Maybe some vitamins or berocca and soup if you can face it. Hope you feel better soon.

Mumof1andacat · 26/03/2023 09:48

Rest, sleep, fluids and try and eat something for energy if you can. I have the beginnings of it I think :(

Harebrain · 26/03/2023 09:49

I’ve had flu twice and there is no way I could have typed out something on my phone while I had it. I could hardly make it to the toilet without my husband’s help. It sounds like what you have is really nasty but it doesn’t sound like flu. Hope you’re feeling better soon.

MrsPelligrinoPetrichor · 26/03/2023 09:57

Harebrain · 26/03/2023 09:49

I’ve had flu twice and there is no way I could have typed out something on my phone while I had it. I could hardly make it to the toilet without my husband’s help. It sounds like what you have is really nasty but it doesn’t sound like flu. Hope you’re feeling better soon.

I've just had flu, was in bed for a full week with a raging temperature and couldn't sit up and needed help to the bathroom but I was able to use my phone, it's hardly like writing an essay! What the OP has sounds just like flu especially with the sudden onset.

It's a week on and I am still exhausted and finding I need to properly rest every day. So expect a period of recovery when you are up and about.

I found rehydration sachets really helped and when I could face food Covent garden soups were good also Melba toast. Orange squash was nice too - I never drink it normally.

On the upside I lost 6lbs in a week 🤣

I'm taking Metatone tonic now to helpful with the crashing fatigue.

Just ride it out, it'll pass 💐

Onedayatatime22 · 29/03/2023 09:16

How are you doing @Oysterbabe? Hope you're over the worst now. x

Original poster
Oysterbabe · 29/03/2023 09:37

I think I am over the worst thank you but definitely not recovered. My ongoing issues are brain fog, I've been trying to do a bit of wfh but cannot focus on anything, and fatigue. If I walk up the stairs I then have to sit down and get my breath back. Made the kids breakfast and then had to sit down and recover.
Usually if I'm under the weather I just power through but it's literally impossible when making a cup of tea leaves me out of breath.

OP posts:
MrsPelligrinoPetrichor · 29/03/2023 09:40

Oysterbabe · 29/03/2023 09:37

I think I am over the worst thank you but definitely not recovered. My ongoing issues are brain fog, I've been trying to do a bit of wfh but cannot focus on anything, and fatigue. If I walk up the stairs I then have to sit down and get my breath back. Made the kids breakfast and then had to sit down and recover.
Usually if I'm under the weather I just power through but it's literally impossible when making a cup of tea leaves me out of breath.

I was like that, it took a good week for me to start feeling evening vaguely human and that was after being a week in bed flat out ill. Managed to go out for the day yesterday and today I feel like I've been hit my a truck!

BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz · 29/03/2023 09:41

Harebrain · 26/03/2023 09:49

I’ve had flu twice and there is no way I could have typed out something on my phone while I had it. I could hardly make it to the toilet without my husband’s help. It sounds like what you have is really nasty but it doesn’t sound like flu. Hope you’re feeling better soon.

Given that she spent a couple of days not typing it out, maybe we can assume she has got flu and is slowly emerging out the other side.

Your comment makes you sound like a bit of a know truth be told.

Musicaltheatremum · 29/03/2023 09:48

We were swabbing people in our surgery with flu like illnesses. It was amazing the number of positive influenza A and B swabs we got from people who made it to the surgery. So people can have flu and get about. The symptoms vary.

CuriousMama · 29/03/2023 09:48

Do you have someone there to help with dcs? Glad you're on the mend.

I always think of single mothers with no one when something like this happens. I once had to take someone's dcs in when mine were little and she was ill. SS would have fostered them out otherwise. Only other person she had was her disabled dm.

ThisIsWednesday · 29/03/2023 10:32

I had flu twice in my life. First as a teen and quite frankly, I don't remember much of it. I was out of it most of the time.

Then I got it a few years ago. I did the school run and it was freezing, icy rain pouring down and I ended up on my hands and knees crawling in the storm at some points. I made the two street walk home in about half an hour. My lips were completely blue and I couldn't feel any of my limbs. Had the Grim Reaper been standing beside me I would have clutched on to him and begged him to take me away!
Thank god my husband was there to help. I spent days in bed barely able to do anything. DH kept me topped up with knorr chicken soup (the dry mix packets you make just under a litre of soup/broth with) because it was the only thing I could get down.
I had recently been around someone who was getting over Influenza type A (diagnosed in hospital) so it must have been that.

I do find myself irrationally annoyed when people come out with "I've got awful flu! I feel terrible!" When we all know it's just a bad cold. MIL must have influenza a couple of times a year!!!!

My3cents1 · 29/03/2023 10:42

I have had actual flu back in the early 90s. I could not keep anything down and could not get out of bed. I ended up in hospital, it took months to even feel semi normal. I have some serious health issues but I’m honestly petrified of ever getting it again. Keep getting those fluids in and take care of yourself xx

Reallybadidea · 29/03/2023 10:58

Since covid, surely it's clear that the same virus can affect people differently? Just because one person is absolutely floored with flu doesn't mean everyone will be or that if you can type on your phone then it's not flu!

Original poster
Oysterbabe · 29/03/2023 14:27

I don't know whether it's flu (and also don't care) but it's worse than anything I've had before. I've never been bedridden by an illness. I was able to make it to the sofa and type on my phone by day 3 and it's been small improvements each day since.
It's not a cold, I'm not snotty or sneezing, I don't have a sore throat, I don't have some of the classic covid symptoms like loss of taste and smell, no real gastro symptoms to speak of, aside from zero appetite and food smells making my feel a bit queasy.

Luckily I do have DH who did everything for the kids over the first few days. I can tell he is fed up of it though. He's as keen for me to be recovered as I am.

OP posts:
Findyourneutralspace · 29/03/2023 14:28

I’m just out of the other side of Covid. It’s a beast. All you can really do is what you are doing and ride it out. I did find the tests oddly reassuring.

SNWannabe · 29/03/2023 14:31

sounds like my recent covid, smell only lost after a week...

ArcticSkewer · 29/03/2023 14:33

I had something similar in January and it took a week to be up and about, two weeks for the worst fatigue to be over, but a month for the brain fog to lift. Just rest as much as you can.

For some other posters, basically you are wrong. Short answer.

Longer answer - research into flu viruses shows many people get flu every few years but often symptoms are more like a light cold or severe cold or no symptoms just spreading it to everyone else. Someone can have flu and just sneeze with a bit of a headache. You've invented your own definitions where it means 'can't use a phone' or 'can't walk to toilet unaided'. It's a virus. You have the virus ... you have flu.

Op sounds pretty under the weather, regardless of which particular virus it was.

ArcticSkewer · 29/03/2023 14:35

SNWannabe · 29/03/2023 14:31

sounds like my recent covid, smell only lost after a week...

interesting! I never tested but my sense of taste also went dulled after a week and is still not back to normal. Symptoms were very flu like otherwise - were yours?

mynannygoat7 · 30/03/2023 02:35

@ThisIsWednesday you crawled around in the rain due to flu?

HalfMast · 30/03/2023 02:41

Harebrain · 26/03/2023 09:49

I’ve had flu twice and there is no way I could have typed out something on my phone while I had it. I could hardly make it to the toilet without my husband’s help. It sounds like what you have is really nasty but it doesn’t sound like flu. Hope you’re feeling better soon.

‘Person who was more ill than everyone else!’ klaxon!

YearoftheRabbit23 · 30/03/2023 03:46

1.5 million active cases of covid, 1 in 40 people infected, based on the latest (and last) ONS survey data, updated for the last time on 13 March. It's more likely to be COVID than flu. I hope the rest of your family manage to avoid it.

winteriscoming2022 · 30/03/2023 06:53

When I had flu a few years ago, the huge difference between it and other virus infections was the suddenness it came on
I was packing to go away overnight, felt perfectly fine and excited to be going. Within minutes I went from fine to feeling the most ill I've ever felt. So, unlike a heavy cold, where you can feel the tickly sore throat, watery eyes etc, there were none of these symptoms, just well then very unwell. It was different to Covid which I had badly pre vaccinations, was ill then and almost hospitalised but didn't feel as ill as when I had flu
My flu lasted around a week, I could walk to the bathroom from my bedroom and could certainly scroll on my phone and watch my laptop despite being extremely ill.

I think given the suddenness your illness came on it's likely to be flu

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