Does anyone else have flu?

[whyhere]

I started feeling unwell on Saturday, and by Sunday evening I felt shocking. I've had three negative Covid tests so think it must be flu - anyone else? Apparently the flu vaccine this year (which I've had) is only 35% effective.

I feel so horrible!

Just recovering from it myself. I was flattened basically overnight.
Not my first flu but I feel this hit me harder than previous ones.
I still mask at work (ED) but for various reasons didn’t get the flu jab this year (for logistical reasons not anything else)

Glad you're recovering! How long did it take to feel vaguely human again please?

I had proper flu a few years ago - positive swab test in hospital despite vaccination.

I was so ill. Genuinely thought I might die. The fevers had me begging for help from anyone around me.

I am absolutely terrified of getting it again. I have the jab every year but obviously it doesn't always work.

Hope you feel better soon!

I think it’s more likely that you have a very heavy cold. I’ve had flu twice in my life and on neither occasion could I have possibly picked up my phone to message or post anything. My DH had to help me to the toilet and I “lost” a good 7 days of my life. I had no clue what had gone on. I hope you feel better soon.

I take your point, and that's how I was yesterday, but I live alone with my dog so have no choice but to function! I also find my level of capability is directly related to how high my temperature is.....

I'm recovering from influenza A. Caught it off a patient at work who cough all over me.
I was spiking a temperature for 6 days. Needed a litre of fluid in A&E on day 5 as my lactate was raised (blood too acidic) and blood pressure low.
Been doing this job for 20 years and this was the illest I've ever been.
It was miserable!

It's not about choice. If I lay down my oxygen levels dropped (to 85% at the worst point), if I sat up my blood pressure dropped and I became dizzy and vomited.

My daughter is recovering from flu (diagnosed by swab test) and my mother has just come down with it. I'm fine so far, and the conspiracy theorists would be going wild because I'm the only one not vaccinated against it.

My daughter (6) had a very high temp, aches and pains, nasty taste in her mouth and a bit of a cough. Mum currently completely exhausted and achy, no temp yet.

I had tonsillitis two weeks ago which floored me for a week, finally started feeling a bit better but woke up Saturday with the most ridiculous sounding squeaky voice and one of my nostrils is completely blocked. My energy has never been so low.

I'm off until Friday so hopefully I can rest a little bit and recover although both kids have started coughing this morning so any chance of rest & recovery will likely go out of the window.

This is a fallacy. DH had flu, confirmed as influenza A by a lateral flow test, at the end of November and, while the effects have lingered he was nothing like you described. I've had flu 3 times and I was only completely laid up with it once and that was just for a couple of days.

I had influenza A (confirmed by a lateral flow test) a couple of weeks ago. I wasn't well and had a vicious cough, but I wasn't "can't lift my head off the pillow" ill, I was up and mobile and managing to eat and drink. If I'd only done a covid test rather than a triple test I'd have said it was just a random respiratory virus.

I feel like I am at the start of it but had the flu jab so although I feel rough it's not as bad as it could be. Temp, aches, sore throat, headache and start of a cough, streaming nose.

Okay.... You're obviously looking for an argument and I feel bad enough already, so I won't be engaging with you any further. (Ex-nurse, btw, who has also had flu on a number of occasions.)

I have the nasty taste too. Hope they're both soon better.

3 whole weeks. I was horrendously unwell for a full week, was permanently freezing but spiking high temps, just about managed a 93% Oxygen level on room air. Really awful. I’m generally a super fit individual and very active, couldn’t stir myself that first week.

It’s a myth that everyone is completely incapacitated by flu. It’s on a huge spectrum and some people will have it much milder than others. OP likely does have flu because she feels so unwell and flu rates are very high at the moment.

I'm two weeks in and still not 100%, I had a very high temperature of over 41 which lasted 6 days and aching all over, coughing and very snotty.

I was able to function just about and definitely could watch TV and use my phone so it's rubbish that just because you could, you didn't have flu. Flu just happens out of the blue and a cold develops over a day or so.

The 10 days before that I had covid so I'm nearly a month of being unwell.

Hope you feel better soon

I was not looking for an arguement, but you suggesting that the severity of someone's symptoms and their ability to "man up" are a matter of choice is insulting and from an ex nurse you should know better.

I walked my dog everyday through both times i had COVID, this is not because I'm a hero, with greater fortitude than those that floundered around and died, but because fortunately, thus far, COVID is a mild inconvenience for me and not a serious medical condition.

You had mild flu, which probably still felt rough but that was lucky for you.

We've all had Influenza A and were all vaccinated this year. We know it was definitely flu because our baby was hospitalised with it. The kids were over it within a week but it took my husband and I about 2.5 weeks to feel back to normal. I haven't felt so unwell in years!

Sorry that you went through that.

Yep just had it. Coming to an end now but the cough is still very much exhausting!

Doctors have just prescribed codeine for the cough and so grateful! It’s actually working!

My daughter is recovering from flu (diagnosed by swab test) and my mother has just come down with it. I'm fine so far, and the conspiracy theorists would be going wild because I'm the only one not vaccinated against it.

Respectfully, why do you have to say things like this? If both of your vaxxed relatives have caught it but unvaxxed you hasn't, it's not a 'conspiracy' to suggest perhaps it's not that effective. Just a basic fact.
Even the OP says this one is apparently only 35% effective - with those stats it's probably only worth those who are ECV having it.

I don’t believe that my family members caught it because they were vaccinated, and I accidentally stumbled onto a thread earlier suggesting that there was something in the vaccine which made people more prone to catch flu (some were suggesting it was a deliberate experiment) - it was on my mind which was why I mentioned conspiracy theories. I completely agree that it isn’t hugely effective this year, and I am not bothered that I didn’t qualify for it. Both my mother and daughter are more vulnerable to catching things and hopefully the vaccine will have made it a bit less grim for them, but I was absolutely not suggesting that saying it is less effective is a conspiracy theory - sorry if my post read that way.

No, I wasn't suggesting they caught it because they were vaxxed - just that, if it isn't that effective, there seems little point anyone having it unless they are ECV.

But this has always been the issue with the flu jab. It's a speculation game every year and sometimes the scientist hit the jackpot and get all the big strains in the jab, massively limiting spread as well as protecting the ECV and other years they get it catastrophically wrong and there are many many deaths (I think this happened in 2018). It sounds like this year is not going to be great.