# Really, HOW miserable is the flu? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 19, 2010, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-how-miserable-is-the-flu/557678 "2010-10-19T17:43:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2010, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-how-miserable-is-the-flu/557678/61 "2010-10-20T13:59:06Z")
I had the Hong Kong flu back in 1968 - missed a full week of school and then a day or so each of the next couple of weeks. I don’t recall how bad I felt but it must have been fairly bad, and obviously left me pretty trashed for a few weeks. Back in 1998, I had the flu or something very like it, despite having had the annual shot (there were a few anecdotes from people at work about getting sick even though they’d also been immunized, so I guess that year’s shot wasn’t quite right for the strains that wound up circulating). I was only praying for death for a few hours, so I guess I got off lightly. I do remember the chills - bundled up under a pile of blankets and still having my teeth chattering, then feeling like I was roasting. That was for about 3 hours and I was taking maximum doses of both Tylenol _and_ Advil to try to keep the fever under control. The rest of the course (3+ days), my fever wasn’t esecially high but if I let the Advil wear off, my skin hurt and I wanted to find a rock to crawl under. Oh, and as usual it turned into a respiratory infection / asthma flareup that required a trip to the doctor, and prescriptions for antibiotics and steroids. During the whole thing, I was home. With two kids, ages 3.5 and almost-1. We had a nanny, but of course the kids wanted MOMMY so I wasn’t even allowed to die in peace. It was several weeks before I felt even remotely normal. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2010, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-how-miserable-is-the-flu/557678/62 "2010-10-20T14:01:06Z")
Hijack: right-to-work actually refers to laws forbidding “closed shops” with regards to union membership. You’re talking about at-will employment, which I think every US state follows, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2010, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-how-miserable-is-the-flu/557678/63 "2010-10-20T14:03:36Z")
Frankly, the only interesting and relevant posts in this thread are from people who went to a doctor and were either officially diagnosed with influenza, or were told that they definitely did not have influenza. Everything else is just, “Well, I felt really really bad so I know it was the flu,” or “I didn’t feel all that bad so I’m pretty sure it wasn’t the flu” or “I know it was the flu but I didn’t feel all that bad,” and like, that’s really nice, but not all that informative or useful. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2010, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-how-miserable-is-the-flu/557678/64 "2010-10-20T14:16:23Z")
GET THE VACCINE!! Most people don’t realize that 10,000 - 15,000 Americans die every year from the flu. Now most of those people are old, very young, or have immune problems that make them more susceptable to death from the flu. But they catch the flu from folks that don’t have those types of immune issues. So while you may be able to get through the flu just fine, you will probably pass it along to someone else which increases the chance of someone dieing from. So get vaccinated so you don’t contribute to the spread of the virus. ---
**Author:** ![DoctorJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctorj/32/2904_2.png) [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2010, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-how-miserable-is-the-flu/557678/65 "2010-10-20T14:22:24Z")
The point of the horror stories about influenza\* is that it CAN be severe. It isn’t always. Sometimes it’s not much more than the sniffles. But while a cold ranges from the sniffles to feeling like crap, influenza ranges from the sniffles to feeling like crap to holy-shit-I’m-dying to _actually dying_. Get the shot. - I’ve long advocated for giving up on “flu”, since so many people use it as a generic for an upper respiratory infection (to say nothing of “stomach flu”). Much the same way that “vaccine” initially referred to cowpox and now refers to any immunization. We should just say influenza when we mean influenza. ---
**Author:** ![Lightray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightray/32/391_2.png) [@Lightray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightray)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2010, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-how-miserable-is-the-flu/557678/66 "2010-10-20T14:40:39Z")
I’ve had the flu a couple times, and pneumonia about six. The flu is worse. Particularly the wonderful case of “flu, leading to pneumonia” (had that combo once. aces.) > [@MsWhatsit](#): > > Frankly, the only interesting and relevant posts in this thread are from people who went to a doctor and were either officially diagnosed with influenza, or were told that they definitely did not have influenza. Everything else is just, “Well, I felt really really bad so I know it was the flu,” or “I didn’t feel all that bad so I’m pretty sure it wasn’t the flu” or “I know it was the flu but I didn’t feel all that bad,” and like, that’s really nice, but not all that informative or useful. 😛 Informative story: Last year, after working 60-70 hour weeks for a month and a half (more, really, since we had mandatory conference calls every night at 10 pm, _and_ three times a day on our weekend) (if I got a weekend)… I was at work on a Friday and basically fell apart within a half-hour. I was on the phone, suddenly started coughing, then my voice gave out. The person I was talking to called someone else at our location to come over and have a look at me, who diagnosed me with “… you look like a corpse.” So, off to the doctor to be checked for H1N1. I’d had the shot, but still. Turns out, I didn’t have the flu, just some other horrid virus that took advantage of exhaustion. Why is this anecdote informative about the flu, you ask? Because of _how_ they tested for H1N1: the jammed a _five inch long_ swab up my nostrils and poked my brains. Felt like I was being embalmed for mummification and they were scrambling my gray matter to suck it out. _Not_ what you want to go through when you’re already feeling crappy and about to keel over. I am _so_ getting the flu shot this year. (and, more sleep.) ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2010, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-how-miserable-is-the-flu/557678/67 "2010-10-20T22:10:29Z")
I refer you all to Dave Barry’s classic description of the flu, [Molecular Homicide](http://books.google.com/books?id=8nx8v2FVZ24C&pg=PR7&lpg=PR7&dq=%22Dave+barry%22+%22molecular+homicide%22&source=bl&ots=lp_duNB43b&sig=4NOTkBiEq_qFfe-2Ojs1KPsmq6k&hl=en&ei=Sme_TKrBHo-bnwemgNGJDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CCkQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q&f=false). ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2010, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-how-miserable-is-the-flu/557678/68 "2010-10-20T22:47:54Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > I’ve only had the flu once, and it didn’t make me want to die. When it turned into a case of mild pneumonia As far as I am aware I have never had the flu, but I have been hospitalized with pneumonia. Are the two illnesses related in any way? ---
**Author:** ![Hokkaido\_Brit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/d26b3c/32.png) [@Hokkaido\_Brit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hokkaido_Brit)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2010, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-how-miserable-is-the-flu/557678/69 "2010-10-20T22:59:38Z")
My elder son is pretty susceptible to flu, it seems. He first got it when he was one, then tonsillitis about ten days after he recovered, which led pneumonia because he couldn’t recover from the tonsillitis as he was still weak from the flu, he was hospitalised for a miserable ten days. Since then, he has had it once most seasons (diagnosed by a doctor, not me). He even had the honour one year of being the first to be diagnosed at the hospital we go to. I don’t know why but here in Japan you get the nose swab every time. It must cost them a fortune. He’s lost a lot of school to it (you have to be out a full week from school here, it’s one of those sicknesses on the school Plague List) and three of his 13 seasons he’s had flu twice. Lovely. This despite getting the vaccination most years. The year we didn’t get the vaccine because we had just moved and couldn’t afford it, my husband went on a training course with several thousand other men, and slept in a gym with several hundred of them. He then came home feeling a bit seedy, thinking he was overtired, and by the next morning, wham! Flu. The other three of us came down with it over the next day or so. I have never been so sick in my life. We had no help and it was winter with snow on the ground. It was miserable beyond belief. After the first couple of crisis days when we were all ill (kids were three and seven at the time) which I barely remember, it was dragging, crushing tiredness that for me went on for three weeks, that time. I had to have ten days off work, and I only get paid for what I do, so that made a massive dent in the household finances, far more than getting the shot would have done. In other words, get the shot!! ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2010, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-how-miserable-is-the-flu/557678/70 "2010-10-20T23:24:27Z")
I’ll add my voice to those claiming the flu makes you wish for death. I’ve only had it that bad two or three times, the last being about 3 years ago. I somehow got enough energy at one point to take a bath, and then figured I would die there because I was unable to move my foot to drain the tub and concluded I would soon fall asleep and drown. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2010, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-how-miserable-is-the-flu/557678/71 "2010-10-21T06:46:29Z")
> [@amanset](#): > > As far as I am aware I have never had the flu, but I have been hospitalized with pneumonia. Are the two illnesses related in any way? Only in that pneumonia can [opportunistically set up shop](http://adam.about.com/reports/000064_1.htm) when you’ve already been weakened by the flu. From the link > [@](#): > > [viral] Pneumonia is the major serious complication of viral influenza (the “flu”) and can be very serious. It can develop about five days after flu symptoms start. Influenza is associated with pneumonia directly or indirectly by altering the mucous blanket and making a person susceptible to bacterial pneumonia. ---
**Author:** ![Savannah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Savannah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Savannah)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2010, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-how-miserable-is-the-flu/557678/72 "2010-10-21T15:15:17Z")
> [@lorene](#): > > I remember needing to get water or something but being unable to get up, unable to call loud enough for my husband to hear me, and unable to muster up the strength to throw something at the wall to get his attention when he was in the next room. It was miserable. I had the flu pretty badly a few years ago. Somewhere around day 2 or 3 I had to get out of bed to pee. I crawled–literally–out of bed and along the floor. By the time I got the foot of the bed, I was so exhausted that I gave up. I couldn’t make a noise loud enough to get my husband’s attention down the hall in the living room, watching television, so I just lay there until I fell asleep. With the flu, sleep is the only respite from the pain, fever, and chills, but it’s also hard to sleep. With the flu, I don’t shower or bathe (sorry!) because, seriously, my skin is so sensitive and I hurt so much all over, that the water hurts. That’s flu. A bad cold? Eh. I sleep, eat soup, go through tissue like mad, and watch a lot of TV. It’s _nothing_ like having the flu, though. You don’t die from a cold. You can die from influenza, even a healthy young person. ---
**Author:** ![lindsaybluth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/90db22/32.png) [@lindsaybluth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lindsaybluth)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2010, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-how-miserable-is-the-flu/557678/73 "2010-10-21T22:27:21Z")
How bad was the flu? A walk in the park compared to double lung pneumonia. ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2010, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-how-miserable-is-the-flu/557678/74 "2010-10-21T22:32:59Z")
> [@lindsaybluth](#): > > How bad was the flu? A walk in the park compared to double lung pneumonia. Double lung pneumonia? A fucking piece of cake compared to triple heart cancer. I prayed for death that weekend, I tell ya. ---
**Author:** ![lindsaybluth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/90db22/32.png) [@lindsaybluth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lindsaybluth)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2010, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-how-miserable-is-the-flu/557678/75 "2010-10-21T22:38:41Z")
So THAT’S why you don’t have a heart anymore! ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-how-miserable-is-the-flu/557678/76 "2010-10-22T11:08:58Z")
That state where you feel like you’ve been thoroughly worked over by several rugby players using a combination of their fists, baseball bats and jackhammers is called “_trancazo_”, “the big beating”, in Spanish; in severe cases, even complaining hurts. A trancazo doesn’t necessarily equal the flu, as other illnesses share those symptoms (such as dengue fever, which like influenza can be deadly), but if you don’t feel like you’ve been run over by at least a plumber’s van, it’s not the flu. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-how-miserable-is-the-flu/557678/77 "2010-10-22T12:12:17Z")
Thanks for the inspiration, guys! I’m heading out to the flu vaccination clinic this morning as a volunteer. I get to stab people full of vaccines, so they don’t have to suffer through the kinds of stories in this thread. If anyone gives me any concerns about the flu being “not so bad”, I’ll be sure to share some of your anecdotes. (I’m lucky enough not to have gotten it myself yet, and now that I’m working in hospitals, getting the vaccine isn’t even a choice for me - it’s mandatory.) ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-how-miserable-is-the-flu/557678/78 "2010-10-22T14:21:19Z")
> [@Hunter\_Hawk](#): > > My uncle’s mother was a nurse during that pandemic. I’m told that every time she did her rounds, by the time she got to the end of the ward, several of the people she had just looked at had died. > > And apparently it was the strapping young farm boys who were really hard hit; the scrawny guys from the cities had a much better survival rate. My grandfather made medical history in that pandemic. It’s an interesting story … He was a metal-winning athlete, a swimmer, when he got the flu. Apparently, one way that people died of it was when their lungs collapsed (I dunno if from the flu itself, or from opportunistic pneumonioa). The docs had just invented an operation to re-inflate lungs which had collapsed, but found the success rate abysmal - the patients kept dying anyway. Well, my grandfathers’ lungs were collapsing, and so he volunteered for the operation - but as an athlete, he didn’t have much cash. In those days, docs charged by the hour. My gramps demanded to be given a local anesthetic only, not to be put under, so he could watch the clock and see how long the operation took … and it was a success; as it turned out, with this sort of operation, using only a local anesthetic greatly increases the success rate! My grandfather’s cheapness saved his life. 😃 This was written up by the doc who operated on him in a book called _A Doctor’s Memoirs_, published I believe in the late '50s early '60s. ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-how-miserable-is-the-flu/557678/79 "2010-10-22T14:51:59Z")
Wow that _is_ interesting, **Malthus**! My bout with influenza varies enough from the preceding horror so that I’ll tell it: I’m certain I had the flu, even though I wasn’t tested, because I experienced the now-familiar knock-you-on-your-ass, wanna-die body aches. I got it the day after my then-husband recovered. Oh how I regretted the eyerolling I did behind his back when he whimpered, “I am really, really sick, Ellen! I might need to go to the emergency room!” So anyway, I couldn’t lift my head from the pillow, my body aches were so bad I laid there praying for any relief … for a day. I only wanted to die for _a day_. The next morning, I got up and felt drained and puny, but for all practical purposes I had recovered after a mere 24 hours of living hell. This was nearly 16 years ago, by the way. I recall every instant vividly. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-how-miserable-is-the-flu/557678/80 "2010-10-22T14:53:05Z")
I have a [hereditary susceptibility to respiratory ailments](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_IgA_deficiency) which has meant a constant battle with colds, flu, sinus infections and other general unpleasantness since childhood, and I’ve had everything from mild bronchitis to high-fever flu. I’ve been lucky enough never to have needed hospitalization for it but there have been some very unpleasant days along the way. You bet your sweet bippy I get a flu jab. And it has made a noticeable difference - I used to get the flu (proper flu) around Christmas every year. Since I started getting the shot I usually sail through the holidays until I get hit with a cold in February/March (followed by a two-month cough). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-how-miserable-is-the-flu/557678.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-how-miserable-is-the-flu/557678.md?page=5)