# 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:** 9\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![ramel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eb8c5e/32.png) [@ramel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ramel)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-how-miserable-is-the-flu/557678/81 "2010-10-22T15:48:49Z")
I’ve had the flu. All it really does to me is gives me the mother of runny noses and totally zaps my energy. And I mean, totally zaps. I can feel worn out just from climbing the stairs. ---
**Author:** ![lindsaybluth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/90db22/32.png) [@lindsaybluth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lindsaybluth)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-how-miserable-is-the-flu/557678/82 "2010-10-22T18:09:08Z")
I have the immune system of an 80 year old smoker, but the flu never laid me on my ass. Sure, it wiped me out, but a bad cold has done the same. And as far as body aches go, if you’ve ever been a dedicated 2 hour/day plus athlete you’ve felt like that before too after a wicked practice. ---
**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, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-how-miserable-is-the-flu/557678/83 "2010-10-22T18:58:20Z")
> [@lindsaybluth](#): > > I have the immune system of an 80 year old smoker, but the flu never laid me on my ass. Sure, it wiped me out, but a bad cold has done the same. And as far as body aches go, if you’ve ever been a dedicated 2 hour/day plus athlete you’ve felt like that before too after a wicked practice. You must have never had a really _bad_ flu - in which you are lucky. As others have noted, they vary in intensity, from little worse than a cold (and easily mistaken for one) to a disease that has the potential to kill. At the bad end of that spectrum, the symptoms are not mild - they are more what you’d expect from a _deadly_ disease: overpowering and frightening, the body pains & weakness strong enough to feel like death approaching. Believe me, I’ve ached from exercise and from a bad flu - not remotely the same thing … ---
**Author:** ![lindsaybluth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/90db22/32.png) [@lindsaybluth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lindsaybluth)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2010, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-how-miserable-is-the-flu/557678/84 "2010-10-23T01:04:13Z")
Right, which I think is in part what makes the flu so hard to diagnose (at least, by people at home) - because _so_ many people react differently to it. ---
**Author:** ![Obsidian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/51bf81/32.png) [@Obsidian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Obsidian)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2010, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-how-miserable-is-the-flu/557678/85 "2010-10-23T02:30:02Z")
In the category of ignoring the $10,000. . . I had the flu once (and only once). I was so sick that when my boss called to tell me the urgently needed me to come into work, I was so sick, I replied “Fire me”, because that seemed better than getting out of bed. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2010, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-how-miserable-is-the-flu/557678/86 "2010-10-23T15:48:50Z")
I have had the flu a couple times. I came down with it at work once and the 5 mile drive home was an ordeal. Everything was vague and annoying as hell. Focus was missing and waiting for a light pissed me off. I got home and went to bed. All the covers, blankets and sheets in the house and 2 beagles, were not enough to make me warm. I ran a big temperature and sweated and froze alternately. The bathroom was the next room but it seemed like miles away. Getting up and going to the toilet was an enormous physical challenge. I had zero interest in food. Nothing could have made me eat. The next day I felt a little better and got up. Sitting in a chair in the front room exhausted me. I felt dizzy and went back to bed for another day. It took about 3 or 4 days to clear up, leaving me weak and exhausted. watching Tv was too physically demanding. Back to bed again, under the pile of covers . Aspirin and tiny bits of water could be tolerated. Any more and the stomach would airmail it. You lay in bed and it goes from dark to light to dark again and you don’t care. Time is an alien concept. It does not compute. When it is over, you don’t trust it. You are sure you will wobble and be back in bed. You are so weak . yep, I got my flu shot. ---
**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2010, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-how-miserable-is-the-flu/557678/87 "2010-10-24T18:40:19Z")
My company provides free flu shots (though last year, we were on our own for the H1N1 one, I paid for that) and I’m getting one Tuesday. I have never had the make-you-want-to-die flu. But my mother has, and from her descriptions, it’s the last thing I want to have. ---
**Author:** ![Mauvaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mauvaise/32/11084_2.png) [@Mauvaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mauvaise)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2010, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-how-miserable-is-the-flu/557678/88 "2010-10-26T16:54:40Z")
> [@Lightray](#): > > 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.) I’ve had pneumonia three times, each time it was preceded by the flu. I agree, flu is worse. The last time I had the flu was a several years ago. I get the shot every year, but there was one year they guessed wrong, or I caught an alternate strain or something. Fevers of 103, that would only “break” to about 100 with OTC fever reducers and would shoot back up to 103 every 4 hours. I had to alternate Advil and Tylenol to avoid going over the daily allotment of each. This lasted about three days, I’d be freezing with the chills when my fevers were high, sweating and hot when they’d go down a bit. I couldn’t eat, my body ached, eyes hurt in even minimal light, and I didn’t even have the energy to get out of bed to lie on the couch to listen to TV. I’m still not sure how I managed to feed the cats and go to the bathroom. By the time I got scared enough to take myself to the doctor, I had pneumonia. Another week of feeling weak and coughing hard enough that I thought I’d give myself a stroke. Not to mentioned that sometimes the coughing fit would be set off by taking too deep a breath and then I couldn’t stop coughing long enough to breath. Fun times. I get the shot every year because I like to increase my odds of staying flu-free each season. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2010, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-how-miserable-is-the-flu/557678/89 "2010-10-26T17:36:04Z")
I had “ended up in the hospital” influenza right after college. Yeah, it can be bad - and they didn’t even admit me (pumped me full of fluids, said “you have the flu - can’t do much”). I’ve had milder cases of “the flu” since then that have still been pretty bad. The 1918 flu is believed to have been able to set off a cytokine storm - which is why it took out young healthy people. They thought H1N1 might be able to do that too. [Cytokine storm - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cytokine_storm) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-how-miserable-is-the-flu/557678.md?page=4)