So you have a cold NOT swine flu , are you conscious of people looking at you sideways and avoiding you when you sneeze in public ?

[CaptainUnderpants]

I have a cold not swine flu , I have the usual symtpoms of a common cold . no great rise in temp.

So life must go on but how do you avoid the 'looks' in public when you sniff and snneze in your kleenex !

I'm with you there claireybee, that's gross flu or no flu.

KleineMaus I read that the rates of SF are going down now in Scotland, so that's probably why there is less fuss about it there.
Like the name btw!

so, if I have a cough, sore throat, awful snot issues, aching joints - it's NOT swine flu?

ah well, i've been told to stay off work anyway...

Maybe swine flu will serve as a good reminder to us all to maintain good hygiene? I have to admit that I have just reprimanded the fish counter man at Sainsbury's for not washing his hands properly! But honestly - he was doing a mucky job on the meat counter, then came over to serve me, and in between all he did was run the fingertips of one hand under a dribbly tap for less than a second. I watched him do it. Did I really want those hands to pick up the fish I was intending to serve to my 10 mth old?

With you there Ponymum! I worked on a deli on Saturday Mornings in my teens. I reckon we were a lot more careful and less complacent then (the eighties) than we are now with all our anti-bac sprays etc. We had to wash our hands properly between customers regardless of making them wait.

My dd has had SF already - it was very dramatic in her but she got over it fast. She is now chasing her brother around the furniture! Wheras I have a far less dramatic more lingering version of it .. nasty cold symptoms, a horrid sinusy headache, stiff neck and shoulders, and only a moderate fever. I'm normally quite fit, but am completely and utterly knackered after looking after the kids while suffering and housebound - and v glad it's a Friday.

I've stopped sneezing for a day now and provided the cough (which is quite a small one) stops as well I'll be out and about next week..

Can't be bothered to retype

Best to keep catching those sneezes in tissues just in case .

I've got one of those forehead thermometers and everytime my DDs are under the weather or seem more tired than usual, out it comes and i take their temperature.
They treat it as a game, but i'm trying to get an idea of what their normal temps are and when they are sickening for something as the temp can go DOWN before a fever starts.

It's an electronic one by the way. My DDs like to hear the electronic voice

Have developed a cold over the last 24 hours without any temperature so am not bothered but I agree, the looks of panic I have had today when I have sneezed in public (whilst catching it in the tissue I hasten to add) !! It really makes me laugh - does everyone think that colds and normal flu have disappeared from the face of the earth just because swine flu is on the scene in a big way ? I say be proud to have a normal cold - although a bit of a bummer that I can't get signed off work for a week or two !

if you find out please tell me I woke up with a cold

I don't know anybody who has swine flu.

I'm thinking of volunteering myself and my friends and family for medical research.

Feeling a smidgen better today - slightly restless but long lie in helped. No cough, so probably not infectious, but the headache and general rundown feeling still there. Doc said give it five to seven days before going out(with the Tamiflu) which I reckon is about right.

Our local docs know that Swine Flu is rife in our area, so are assuming that is what me and dd have had. It's worth checking the vibe in your locality, because we'd have gone out as normal (thinking we had got really nasty summer colds)if we weren't in the loop from school mums etc. that loads of people had been diagnosed with it.

I'm a bit concerned if I do start sneezing from hayfever which I've had all my life that people will think I'm not over it.

I was so glad to login today and see this. I have been out and about and am so sick of having to explain that I dont have swine flu. I have sinusitus from hayfever conjestion going bad. I have no voice from screaming at ds and cousin when they had a moment of madness and ds generally. I sound really bad but feel ok. expect being a little tired from the madness of having ds' cousin to stay

There was a woman coughing badly in Waitrose today and boy did she get a wide berth. If she'd declared she had ebola I think people wouldn't have reacted much differently.

It's mpt tje sneezing per se that bothers me but I can't get over the number of people just sneezing into the air around people and making no attempt to cough into a kleenex or sleeve. They may not have swine flu, but it really is bad manners.

I'm pregnant so can't take antihistamines so I get hayfever. I sneezed once (yes just once) in church this morning (into a tissue, away from other people) and all the old dears moved along the pew away from me!

Agree christie2-unhygenic people in general make my skin crawl.

I was in the lift at Covent Garden tube yesterday, so packed in I couldn't raise my arms, with another woman's hair tickling my nose, & had a MASSIVE urge to sneeze...

I'm still not sure how I held it in until reaching the surface.

I've had the sneezing into the hands, not washing then serving me. I was so horrified at first I couldn't say anything. I did walk away, then realise I couldn't use the ham. I did go back and explain I didnt want the ham and why.

What reaction did you get, oldraver?

well we got it and are recovering now, we had been to a soft play place the day before we got it so who knows, both my little girls go to nursery so could've been there. Don't think there's any need to panic just monitor people carefully if they have it for any sudden changes as my eldest little girls had what was similar to an accute asthma attack with it which needed treating urgently, she is fine now by the way and I'm getting there.

There are so many surfaces and kids climbing around after each other with runny noses etc can see now why may be a common place to get it but I still took my kids Wednesday before last and never even thought of getting swine flu there!x