It is completely possible that you have never had the flu or you could have been lucky and only had minor symptoms. And for that you should be grateful.
I got H1N1 last fall at this time while 19 weeks pregnant. It was everything that people upthread have said, although my doctor got me on Tamiflu fast and my bout of high fever only lasted for three days. It was miserable. On the bright side, I think my morning sickness ceased for th seven-day stretch when I could barely get out of bed.
Get the shot.
Another good reason to get it is that pregnant women are at a higher risk of dying from flu complication than other people are.
Don’t joke about that. The influenza virus is a potentially deadly disease and kills plenty of people. Have you ever heard of the 1918 flu pandemic that killed over 50 million people worldwide and maybe much more? It is likely you have never had the real flu. I never had it until I was 35. That is why these discussions get irritating. People throw out the term ‘flu’ whenever they are under the weather and want to stay home from work or have a stomach bug. No, no, and more no. A full-blown case of the flu is completely debilitating and I don’t care who you are. There may be less serious cases of the flu out there but the point stands that the term is massively overused.
I’ve only had the real flu once, when I was a sophomore in high school. That was 1978. I still remember it vividly.
The pains in my arms and legs were shooting and grinding. My fever stayed at 104 degrees for 2 days. I was so chilled I wrapped myself in piles of blankets and could not get warm, only to throw the blankets off and lay there baking in heat for some minutes before becoming freezing cold and rolling up in the blankets again. Repeat all day. Somehow, I would find the strength to get to the bathroom where I would spew from both ends.
Just looking at food was agony. I didn’t eat for three weeks and lost over twenty pounds. Unfortunately, I had started out skinny, and at the end I was skeletal.
No, you can tell the difference between a cold and a flu. But no, I don’t recall wanting to die.
I agree that the word “flu” is overused, but it seems like the backlash is starting to get a bit excessive too. It just isn’t correct to say that someone can never have had the flu if they weren’t knocked on their arse for days.
I had what I though was a stomach flu last week. I still worked 5 days (47 hours).
Now 3 of those nights I threw up after trying to eat.
Four of those 5 days I felt random cramps all day like unexpected sharp punches to the stomach.
And every one of those 5 days I spent on full doses of immodium.
(Most memorably, one of those nights I had a fever and still tried to game on line. A good friend asked me if i was drunk & then told me to get ass into bed.)
It sucked big-time.
And if that wasn’t flu, I sure as Hell don’t want flu.
I remember my first flu. I was working till midnight and asked to go home at 10pm because I was feeling slightly ill. I assumed it was a cold like all the other times I got sick. I had to work a shift from 4pm to midnight the next day and I thought the extra two hours of rest would cover it.
The next morning I woke up and . . . I wasn’t going anywhere. I used all my energy to call in sick and spent the rest of the day thanking the pharmaceutical gods for inventing Tylenol.
I think it’s possible you’ve never had the “knock-you-on-your-ass” flu - I didn’t catch it until I was well into my 30’s.
I never get stomach flus, either - different people have different resistances, I suppose.
Do you work from home?
I had the flu a couple times in my life and it is REALLY bad, especially as you get older.
The last time was 1996, man I was in bed for 7 days straight. I could barely get out of bed to go to the bathroom. It was a struggle to do anything. Even after 7 days I was able to get back to work, it took about two months till I felt fully recovered.
It was a lot worse than a cold, cause I ached and ached and the weakness was overwhelming, especially since I live alone and had to go out and get food and stuff for myself.
I got my “real flu” when I was 38.
I got the knocked-on-ass flu when I was 26. I got up that morning feeling a bit under the weather, like I was coming down with a cold, but was a TA for a big class and dragged myself there because, damn it, manuscript history doesn’t teach itself. About 10 minutes into the class. . . over the course of a minute or two I suddenly completely wilted all into a pile, feeling like I’d been hit by a truck. The prof looked over at me mid sentence: “You. . . you need to go home” and I staggered home and collapsed in a heap never to move again. For three days in bed as above reports, then a full night of barfing on night 4 followed by a trip to the ER for fluids, bad reaction to an anti-emetic med, etc. It was fucking vile for a week. I’ve had bad colds since, but now I know the difference. I get flu shots religiously now.
Count Blucher-- you had some sort of food poisoning or gastroenteritis which ALSO is “wish I were dead” vile (had it once. That night was worse than any of the flu nights, singularly. Out both ends in painful convulsions simultaneously like the world’s most disgusting lawn sprinkler. Crawl back into bed for 5 minutes until crawling back to the bathroom). I’ve had 'mild food trouble" or “upset stomach sadness” but this was something else at was exponentially more horrible.
I used to get severe bouts of flu and also tonsillitis a lot, back when I ate like crap. It could be pretty bad, although I never wanted to die (as a migraine sufferer since I was 4 years old, I am pretty blase about being in pain and feeling ill - I just endure).
The last time I had a very bad flu (I think I was 17 or 18) I first ran a high (for me) fever and felt very ill and dizzy, then threw up violently and in a protracted fashion 7 times in 5 hours, then felt nauseous and like someone beat me with a baseball bat paying special attention to my head for the next 4 days. I could barely make it out of bed, had no appetite,struggled to stay hydrated, and felt weak as a baby for a week, and it took me about a month after the episode to feel back to normal (I had lost some weight I couldn’t afford to also). Granted I am really skinny and have no reserves, I’m much more easily depleted or killed by illness than a normal-size person.
Tonsillitis, which I had very badly 4 or 5 times in my teenage years, was much the same for me, but minus the vomiting and add severe throat pain.
So I know severe flu-like illnesses happen, but I know they don’t happen to everyone. I take excellent care of my body now, and for years now the sickest I’ve gotten is a mild, 3-day cold once or twice yearly.
I know, I was thinking the same thing. And this is the site that constantly rails against “no true Scotsman” and overhyping the effects of pot just to scare people away from using it!
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.
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 I considered it though. The few days of flu was more fun than the three weeks that followed it, when I wasn’t as sick feeling since I had fewer symptoms and could get out of bed then, but had no energy, felt weak, and had such a hard time breathing even when I wasn’t coughing. It’s horrible to sleep for 14 hours a day and still be tired.
Count Blucher, the “stomach flu” isn’t the flu. It’s usually the norwalk virus rather than the influenza virus. Sound familiar? “The disease is usually self-limiting, and characterized by nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain; and in some cases, loss of taste. General lethargy, weakness, muscle aches, headache, and low-grade fever may occur.”
Realistically? Flu really can be very deadly and it can be hard to make someone think that they need to take it seriously if all they have ever had is a minimal light case of it. You can never tell when it will hit you like the proverbial ton of bricks. If you don’t get the shot, you are not contributing to herd immunity and may cause someone else to spend serious hospital time, or death.
I know I didn’t take it very seriously until I got landed on by that ton of bricks.
The problem is, most influenza strains in recent decades “only” killed the elderly, or people with severely compromised immune systems. In other words, people that others would expect to die anyway. Now that we’re seeing H1N1 hitting hard and even killing other populations, like kids, pregnant women, healthy adults, more people are very concerned about what’s happening with this disease.
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I don’t. We are not allowed sick days. Ever. Call in sick and you are written up. Written up 3 times, you are walked-to-the-door & terminated.
IF you have accrued PTO and if management decides to indicate that the needs of the business will allow for it, you may ask for it. About 1/2 - 2/3 of the time, they will say no.
Oh, and if you admit to not feeling well on company premisis, they will walk you to the door, tell you to go home and get better. And write you up.
Right-to-work state laws Suck Ass.
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