What is pissing you off this time?

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by DanaC

What's pissing me off is that the flu/bad cold/whatever the fuck it was, that laid me low a couple of weeks before Christmas seems to be coming back for an encore. In truth it has been hanging about the wings threatening to step back on stage for weeks.

That flu has killed 20 in the US.

[DanaC]

I don't think what I had was the Aussie flu. Pretty sure what I got was one of the lower impact strains of flu that are going round.

I still feel lousy but not as bad I was thinking I might.


I cannot take time off work. I'm already on absence management :P

[Undertoad]

I don't think what I had was the Aussie flu

Why'd they call it that, because it affects ya down unda?

[DanaC]

You leave my down unda out of this!

[Gravdigr]

Mmmmm...Downunda.

I've been there!

[xoxoxoBruce]

Got this is an email from a girl in north Jersey who's an insurance adjuster.

Ya i was out in Allentown working a claim and i started coughing and i couldnt stop! I had to step outside i was coughing so hard i threw up this nasty gack! I couldnt catch my breath! The couple wanted to call an ambulance. I said no just tell me how to get to the closest ER! The guy drove me there and his wife followed us. They gave me a shot of steriods, fluids antibiotics and took a chest xray! They kept me for 5 hours! They finally let me go! I went to my doc the next day!

That flu shit is nasty.

[Carruthers]

I've only had flu a couple of times in my life and I don't want it again.
All my joints hurt like hell, I had no appetite and weight dropped off me alarmingly.

I had a flu jab at the end of October but how effective it is, given the number of different strains there are, I've no idea.
Dad also had the jab but has had 'the sniffles' over the last week or ten days, although nothing worse than that.
Given his advanced age, the automatic worry is that it's the start of something far worse.
I've never been too bothered about flu in previous years but I admit that the possibility of contracting it is causing me some concern.

Domestic circumstances dictate that I don't venture out all that frequently so that limits my exposure to any infection.
However, there's the usual weekly grocery shopping to be done and inevitable routine hospital and GP visits for Dad to be undertaken.
If I get it, it will seriously impair my ability to keep both of us going and should Dad get it the consequences don't bear thinking about.

Google News this morning turned up this:

More than three million people at high risk of flu have not yet been vaccinated despite the biggest wave of “public fear” since swine flu in 2009, health chiefs have said.

A letter sent to every GP practice in England warns they have just two weeks left in which to vaccinate patients against this winter’s virulent outbreak, which has already claimed 85 lives and is threatening to become an epidemic.

It comes amid concerns large numbers of pregnant women and young adults with asthma are in particular danger because of failure to take up the jab.

Daily Telegraph. It's behind a paywall, but you know the drill.

[DanaC]

They offer me the jab every year. For a few years I used to go get it. Every single time I got the flu jab I went down with a really nasty flu within about 2 weeks of getting the jab.

Probably coincidence - but i certainly haven't noticed I have any greater propensity towards catching the flu since I stopped having the jab.

[Carruthers]

Originally Posted by DanaC

They offer me the jab every year. For a few years I used to go get it. Every single time I got the flu jab I went down with a really nasty flu within about 2 weeks of getting the jab.

Probably coincidence - but i certainly haven't noticed I have any greater propensity towards catching the flu since I stopped having the jab.

Interesting!

When I had the jab I was told that there was the possibility of mild cold/flu like symptoms within a few days.

I've never experienced that reaction nor have I ever had flu after receiving the jab.

It might just be down to good luck, I suppose.

[monster]

I'm an asthmatic (mild now but severe as a child)

I had really bad flu once, before they used to offer flu prevention to children. After that......

1) I realize so many people think a bad cold is the flu, they really have no idea

2) I've gotten the shot every year and not had the flu since. I rarely get any after-effects of the shot but if I do, it's really nothing serious compared to the real thing.

Now we all have to get the flu shot to protect beest's compromised immunity. And none of us have caught the flu, but hard to tell if that's because of the shot because none of my kids ever had the flu before they got the shots

[Carruthers]

Originally Posted by monster

I realize so many people think a bad cold is the flu, they really have no idea.

Exactly!

[sexobon]

There are a lot of variables as to catching the flu and some people just luck out year after year. The flu shot helps reduce one's reliance on luck.

Once a person contracts the virus, it takes about 7 days for the virus to replicate into sufficient numbers to cause symptoms. The person is; however, contagious during that week and you can't tell by looking at them so you don't know to keep your distance. You can also have it yourself and be contagious without yet knowing you could be infecting others.

The flu shot helps protect people from the top 3 or 4 strains projected to be the most serious and prevalent. It used to contain an attenuated (weakened) live virus and one could get a mild case of the flu from it. Nowadays, it contains a killed virus that doesn't give you a mild flu in order to build immunity against severe infection.

Those who get sick after getting the flu shot were probably already infected. It could also be that they contracted a strain not so closely related to the what the flu shot protects against. They may not have built up as much immunity as most people for whatever reason. Additionally, they may have contracted something other than the flu (e.g. bad cold, septicemia) that causes some flu-like symptoms. Mimics of infectious diseases is an entire area of study.

It's still worthwhile to get a flu shot due to the severity of the disease. News in the US carried a story about a 20 y.o. male fitness buff who died from the flu. California alone had 27 deaths, of people under age 65, attributed to the flu - last I read. A 12 y.o. girl was misdiagnosed with the flu and died a week later from complications of sepsis, the disease process she actually had. The CDC reports there are over 1 million cases of sepsis each year in the U.S. It kills more than 258,000 Americans annually, making it the ninth leading cause of disease-related deaths. It was treatable for her.

So getting a flu shot not only reduces the chance of becoming a casualty of the flu, it reduces the chance of becoming a casualty of something that mimics the flu by getting doctors to look for other causes of what's ailing you despite having gotten a flu shot.

The forecast was that this year would be bad for the flu. I got my flu shot early in the season and posted about it. I've had a bad cold that lasted a week, all upper respiratory symptoms (not the generalized symptoms of the flu); but, no flu. The flu season has peaked; however, it's still not too late to get the flu shot.

[DanaC]

I think what I had before Christmas was a mild flu. Far worse than a bad cold (with all the attendant flu symptoms) but nothing to be too worried about.

What I now have I think is just the tail end of that - it's been hanging around threatening to take me back down since.

[Glinda]

Haven't contracted any disgusting (or deadly!) illnesses so far this season. Got the shot back in November, and I work from home, so my exposure is rather limited.

That said, I've been VERY careful whenever I'm out and about. Shopping cart handles - ICK. Money - cootie magnet. Once I'm done running errands, I use hand sanitizer that I keep in both cars, and as soon as I arrive home, I wash my hands thoroughly.

I have mild asthma and moderate COPD. Not interested in dying just yet, thankyouverymuch.

[glatt]

I take the opposite approach. Twice a day I pack myself tightly into a large tin can with 100 strangers and hang out underground with them for half an hour.