Day 3 of flu - getting whiney

I don't get the flu often so no advice other than just hang in there.

I'm in the middle of a cold myself... reminds me of something that I heard once that if you hydrate well, and take your meds and do all the right things that a cold will go away in about 7 days.... otherwise it'll last a week. :D
 
badatmath said:
Is this ever going to be over:confused:? What can I do?
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If you have a temperature higher than 100, you should go see your doctor. Get Tamiflu for 5 days. You will have body ache, headache, so take Tylenol. You may cough so take some over the counter medicine for that.

Drink a lot of water. Sleep, all day if you must, for 2-3 days even. Get a humidifier to make some moisture for your lung.

My very fit young son just went thru that. He was completely out for 3 days. So, I know how strong the flu virus can do to your body.
 
Got a message earlier yesterday that father-in-law was hospitalized with the flu ... and he had his shot this year (season). Apparently the shot this year did not cover the strain he contracted.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
 
I think it’s a bit too late. When I feel a cold coming on, I take zinc and up my vitamin intake significantly. If I felt I was getting the flu, I’d be in touch with my dr for an anti viral drug. I’d try to get that within the first 24 to 48 hours - before it really kicks in hard.

Now that you’re in it for over three days, I think you have to tough it out, but I would still call a dr to see about the anti viral.

Beyond that, rest, fluids and symptomatic products like NyQuil to help you cope. Increasing your vitamin C won’t hurt either. Good luck.

On a side note, being retired has helped significantly. Now that I’m not around so many people I don’t make contact with sick people. It used to kill me when people would come into work sick. We had great time off benefits, work from home policies and the boss (me) telling them not to come in, but some still would. DD has school age children. They have no chance of not getting something every year.
 
pb4uski said:
I don't get the flu often so no advice other than just hang in there.

I'm in the middle of a cold myself... reminds me of something that I heard once that if you hydrate well, and take your meds and do all the right things that a cold will go away in about 7 days.... otherwise it'll last a week. :D
Click to expand...

Just got over a cold/fever which lasted 3 days. First time sick in 2.5 years of retirement.
 
Just got over a "cold" that really lasted 10 days. No fever, just chesty but no coughing, no headache, but achey and very very tired. So I'm not even sure what it was. I gotta say that when I was younger I could work through colds etc. Only stopped when fevers happened. Now even with no fever I'm wiped.
 
Honestly, most people have never had the flu. We're recovering from a terrible bug this week as a family, and have been flu tested. It's the high temperature that tells of virus' being the flu.

This bug is different in that it comes with a terrible headache and lung congestion. But everyone pops out of it after about a week. My week is not up--not yet.
 
Only ever had the flu once - never again if I can help it. Get my shots every year and if I ever feel that it's coming on, it's off to the doc for Tamiflu. Didn't think I could feel that awful and it was over a month afterwards before I felt like myself again. No thanks!
 
The fact that you are here, starting a thread about the flu, and using the word "whiny" tells me you are doing ok. :)

Free flu advice from a retired pediatrician:

Fever with flu typically lasts 3-5 days, most viruses with fever typically 2-3 days. Some respiratory symptoms, especially a dry cough, lots of body aches, usually very little GI symptoms. Tamiflu is rarely offered if you have had illness more than 48 hours, but is given more freely in high risk situations. Pay attention to any chest symptoms, particularly breathing fast. Breathing fast can be subtle, and many people don't notice it. Flu itself is usually self-limited, but can be deadly. It often causes secondary pneumonia.

This year influenza B showed up early, and they're only now starting to see influenza A. Both are in the vaccine. Influenza A is the one that mutates and the one in which the vaccine can "miss". Last year the vaccine was pretty effective. This year we don't really know yet, since there hasn't been much influenza A. The vaccine can reduce the severity of illness, in addition to potentially preventing the disease.

Any older adult with high fever really should try to see a doctor, and consider a visit if a fever lasts more than 48 hours.

As with most viruses, go to bed, try to sleep extra, drink plenty of fluids, but get up every so often and move a little. Avoid going out and giving everyone else the flu, and don't try to do your regular exercise. I have personally found that if I can sleep a lot the first 1-2 days of illness, I recover much faster.

I'm a retired (woo-hoo!) pediatrician, with half of my career as a hospitalist. I've seen more than my share of flu and other respiratory illness, have had pneumonia, and my husband got pneumonia after the flu in 1990. The youngest case of flu I ever saw was in a 3 week old. Baby was hospitalized because we hospitalize all 3 week olds with fever, but did ridiculously well. Gave her Tamiflu.
 
Jerry1 said:
On a side note, being retired has helped significantly. Now that I’m not around so many people I don’t make contact with sick people. It used to kill me when people would come into work sick. We had great time off benefits, work from home policies and the boss (me) telling them not to come in, but some still would.
Click to expand...

This reminds me of the first time I got sick when I started working for Megacorp. Being young and gung-ho I still came in to show my "toughness" and willingness to work through anything. I went to my managers office for something, he took one look at me and said "you look terrible. GO HOME!" I tried to protest that I could still get some work done, and I'll always remember his humorous response: "Don't ever think you are so indispensable that our office or Megacorp will collapse if you have to be out sick". I went home and stayed in bed for a couple of days until I recovered. Never went in when sick again. :)

To the OP, sorry you came down it... Just try to tough it out as best you can. Lots of good advice on this thread that I cannot add anything unique to.
 
Once the influenza virus is established in your body, then anti-viral neuraminidase inhibitors such as Tamiflu are worthless. You are pretty much left with your own immune system to help you. I can see getting Tamiflu for your close caretakers that are at risk.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuraminidase_inhibitor

Chicken noodle soup is your best treatment. The fats and oils in the soup help rinse away virus particles released in your mouth and throat and send them to your stomach where they are destroyed by the acid there. Pro tip: Do not put hot soup up your nose.
 
Last year, I was convinced I had the flu, all the symptoms and wore a mask when I went into the Dr. so my germs would not spread to anyone else. He pulled up the mask and checked my nasal passages, eyes and throat and said you have allergies, not the flu. Take some Claritin.
 
When I last had the flu, on Day 3 I would not have even had the energy to be whiny. Day 3 was exhausted fever sleeping.

Whiny was for about day 6 or 7 when the worst was past and i was starting to feel human but still dealing with the dregs.

Get caught up on something you want to binge or read, and cancel any plans for the next week.
 
DH and I had the flu last year (both of us were tested so we know it was the flu.) Both of us had had the flu shots. I hope the OP does better than we did (we are both age 68) but it honestly took me a month to get over the flu and I am a very healthy person. DH is not as healthy as me and a year later he still has some side effects of the flu--he lost his hearing for a while and now has tinnitus. Nothing I did or took seemed to help other than to go to bed. DH and I both took the Tamiflu when first diagnosed--it did not seem to help, in fact I think it made me worse since it made me sick on my stomach. The flu is a very serious disease. Last year when I was so sick I went to the doctor 3 times with it--they thought I was a getting pneumonia. Poor DH went to the doctor even more times than I did and is still under the care of an ear nose and throat doctor because of the hearing problems the flu caused.

I would advise the OP to go to bed and stay there, have food delivered if there is no one to help. If you do not feel better soon definitely ago to the doctor.
 
I had the flu 2 years ago and spent 2 weeks in bed. It was awful.
 
I had the flu two years ago and ended up in the hospital for five days .It was awful .
 
i had it about a year ago it was a second strain - zoflusa helped a lot
 
Thanks for commiserating (and making me laugh about the soup in the nose). I can't sleep much which I know is best because I keep coughing.

Temp was 101 the first 2 days down to 100.4 yesterday but I think i felt worse. I did get the flu shot and guess it did not help. Last time I had anything like this I don't even know if they had invented Tamiflu lol so I am just trying to get thru it. I am never sick so I suppose it is sort of a shock that it is not improving a bit faster. Sorry to all those of you who struggled worse with it.

I still w*rk and they got rid of our sick leave in favor of PTO so people will come to work looking like death warmed over and spread their germs around rather than lose "vacation". And in the interest of $$$ they have about 50 more people on my floor than the supposed capacity. . . So yeah, it sucks. Having said that I *need* to get back to w*rk ASAP though or there will be issues there too. It feels weird to be off really, I am one of those who had zero unplanned absences most of my last 30 years. Yeah, a dork, okay.

Looking forward to being around less people in retirement (~ 3 years to qualify for the benefits).
 
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I heard a doctor discussing this year's flu on TV today. He stated that this is shaping up to be a bad year for the flu possibly the worst in 40 years. A B strain seems to be bad this year for young folks especially.
 
I felt some bug coming on Sunday night. Felt lousy, mild temp, congestion all day Monday. Tuesday morning my cardiologist called to check on me since they got a transmission from my ICD that it had paced me out of VTac overnight. Science is amazing. Just wish I had not left my phone on stun since they called DW when I didn’t answer.

Hang in there badatmath and everyone else fighting the crud.
 
This flue season, after hearing reports on the news, I"m staying away from children, wash hands after going out. Training myself not to touch my nose, eyes or mouth before washing hands.

I went to a Dr appt yesterday. The receptionist was wearing a face mask. Not sure if she was sick or avoiding outside germs as patients come up to her.

My new oncologist walks in and shakes my hand!! If I hear anyone cough, I change directions.

Call me paranoid, but with my kidney condition, I do not want to fight the flu or a cold.
"In general, viruses survive for longer on non-porous (water resistant) surfaces, such as stainless steel and plastics, than porous surfaces, such as fabrics and tissues. Although cold viruses have been shown to survive on surfaces for several days, their ability to cause an infection reduces rapidly and they don't often survive longer than 24 hours."
https://www.nhs.uk/common-health-qu...o-bacteria-and-viruses-live-outside-the-body/


Edit: Adding this part of the article which was helpful to me.


Flu viruses

Flu viruses capable of being transferred to hands and causing an infection can survive on hard surfaces for 24 hours. Infectious flu viruses can survive on tissues for only 15 minutes.
Like cold viruses, infectious flu viruses survive for much shorter periods on the hands. After 5 minutes the amount of flu virus on hands falls to low levels.
Flu viruses can also survive as droplets in the air for several hours; low temperatures increase their survival in the air.
Parainfluenza virus, which causes croup in children, can survive for up to 10 hours on hard surfaces and up to 4 hours on soft surfaces.
 
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