Is this the flu?

A series of funny things has happened in the last hour. Prior to two o'clock, everything was going fine.

At two exactly I was doing an extremely important presentation - and found myself reaching for a hanky. And reaching again. And reaching again. About five times in the space of six minutes.

And when the presentation was over, I went into a room which I'd been sweltering in all day, and had to look for my cardigan.

Ten minutes later, I was shivering at my desk. Ten minutes after that, I was starting to wonder if I was losing my mind, (sniffle) as I couldn't hold a conversation. My hands were shaking (and they still are) and I had as much energy as a sodden sponge.

And now I'm on my second mug of hot, hot soup in ten minutes, washing down a dirty big Vitamin C tablet and some paracetamol and wishing I was at home in bed with a hot water bottle.

I am not a wuss - I am doing the job normally done by four people today and haven't disgraced myself publicly despite ample opportunity to do so, and have a world record of 111.998m in wii javelin throwing (which I won last night). I don't get sick.

Is this the flu?

Either that or a bad reaction to excessive javelin throwing.

Poor you! Go home, lie down, soon as you can.

Gods, I hate the flu. I had it this time last year and I was suffering for a month.

My advice Kate P is this. Stay at home for about 10 days. Make sure its dead. I tried the old "3 days trick" and back to work and I swear I was still hacking a cough in the middle of February.

I would agree with Johnny. Apart from nourishment and vitamins, you cant beat rest.
Hope you get better soon Kate.

Go home to bed! Get well soon! Took one of the small children into the docs with persistent temperature just before Chrimbo, our near retirement GP said this is the worst autumn in terms of having loads of sick people banging down her door since she started practising. There are a few really nasty lurgies out there. The 2 week flu with accompanying chest infection seems to have half killed most of Dublin at the mo'

See the RCGP info sheet - http://www.rcgp.org.uk/docs/pr_flu_facts.doc

There is a handy table on how to tell if tis a cold or the flu - I tried to paste it here but message tells me the post is too big. Worth a look for comments also on course, duration and what if anything can be done.


It takes between one and four days (average two days) to go from being infected to having the full symptoms. People with flu are usually infectious a day before symptoms start. Children and people with lower immune symptoms may remain infectious for longer. You should avoid contact with others during this time.



Symptoms will usually peak after two to three days and you should feel much better after five to eight days. General tiredness could last for two to three weeks.

There is a horrible flu (a real flu) going around. I went home to my family to find every one of them was sick, as were all the neighbours (and I mean ALL the neighbours!). The local doctor was doing doctor-on-call on Christmas Day and said he never experienced a day like it. He had 19 calls out! (The last Christmas he worked he got 2.)

I came back earlier this week thinking I'd escaped it only to find within 24 hours of coming back I was floored by whatever it was. I have spent the last three days in a horrible state. I am up typing now simply because I was in bed for 36 hours and am not tired, but I feel exhausted and am sneezing, shivering and coughing. I feel thoroughly rotten and feel it getting worse and worse. (I had decided to go to my local doctor when I woke up on Friday morning, fell asleep again and woke at 7.30pm!

Its a horrible flu. Auditor had it, and hasn't been seen or heard of for days.

Best wishes to everyone with flu: I hope you feel better soon, and are able to breathe, eat, sleep, think. and do all those things that come relatively naturally when we are in our full health.

Plenty of bed rest and orange juice is all I can suggest.

My commiserations with all fellow sufferers of this at the moment! Just returned from hols in Ireland with this, though * touches wood * I don't think it'll turn into the full-blown horror that a couple of family members and numerous neighbours have suffered.

Stocked up on packs of UniFlu before I left, as I have never seen it this side of the Irish Sea. It's good stuff, one purple flu-combatting tablet and one yellow Vit. C tablet as a chaser.

Gute Besserung to you all!

Gute Besserung is such a nice expression. Hope you feel better soon.

Greetings all - especially those who are suffering!

An even more peculiar thing happened yesterday. After posting all the above and taking Vitamin C and paracetamol and a large volume of coke to keep me functioning, I felt a whole lot better. In fact, despite feeling a bit sniffly now and kind of cold in myself, I'm not too bad at all. I've been taking lots of vitamin C. I feel tired -as though someone has sucked the marrow out of my bones, but I'm not debilitated as I expected yesterday, and as some of the rest of you seem to be - and I send out my comiserations and best wishes to you all (poor Papal Knight especially - you sound shattered).

I just hope it doesn't come back at me with a vengeance, I haven't time for it...

Lovely smilies, atticus.

Thank you Cactus. Am gonna read Johnny's Papal thriller now and then retire for the evening .......

Thanks Kate, I think you're right about the Vit C thing.
Smilies courtesy of MN. ( was it EVM who added them?)

Nite nite all.

How long did it last Kate? Piano wires up the sinuses ? Cold, shivery and wheezing?

Despite having the dubious honour of starting the thread, I don't think I actually got it. I felt awful for an hour or two on Friday when I posted, was tired during Saturday but stayed up till after four and contemplated not going to bed at all because I wasn't tired then at all but did for a couple of hours and spent all day cleaning the house with a healthy vengeance (which some might say was evidence enough on its own of ill-health on my part).

550mg Beeline Vitamin C with zinc more often than it says on the box is what I prescribed myself and plenty of paracetamol.

So the answer is, between 2 and 24 hours, cf...