# When was the last time you had the flu?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-time-you-had-the-flu/648326
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [January 25, 2013, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-time-you-had-the-flu/648326 "2013-01-25T15:41:53Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2013, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-time-you-had-the-flu/648326/1 "2013-01-25T15:41:53Z")
Poll to come. For poor absent-minded sods like myself who can’t remember the last time, I have an option for that too. May have been in the early 90’s, if you were to try to pin me down…
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### Author:  [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2013, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-time-you-had-the-flu/648326/2 "2013-01-25T16:09:29Z")
The last time I was so sick with fever and body aches etc. that I had to stay in bed for a couple of days… was Christmas three years ago. I’ve had some nasty colds since then but nothing that laid me in bed.
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### Author:  [@eclectic\_wench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eclectic_wench)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2013, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-time-you-had-the-flu/648326/3 "2013-01-25T16:21:57Z")
I’ve only had it once: just after Christmas 1999. I remember the date because my now-husband had it at the same time only much worse; he missed the millennium New Year’s Eve altogether.
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### Author:  [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Living_Well_Is_Best_Revenge)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2013, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-time-you-had-the-flu/648326/4 "2013-01-25T16:31:38Z")
I had it in November 2012. Was miserable.
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### Author:  [@Renee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renee)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2013, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-time-you-had-the-flu/648326/5 "2013-01-25T16:34:52Z")
I voted never, but it’s possible I had a mild enough case at some point in my life to think it was just a cold. Never had a flu vaccine, either.
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### Author:  [@chiroptera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chiroptera)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2013, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-time-you-had-the-flu/648326/6 "2013-01-25T16:37:16Z")
For the first time in my life a couple of years ago. With the exception of dysentery when I was 19, in 1978, that’s the sickest I’ve ever been.
Woke up feeling fine, went to work. By lunchtime was feeling strangely punky and didn’t feel like eating. By the time I got done with work and got home, I felt like someone had hit me all over with a hammer, I was shivering and coughing and sweating. Went to bed, stayed there for three days. Friends brought over Theraflu and a thermometer and what-not and left them on my front porch (I didn’t want to come in contact with anyone.) Then I’d crawl to the front door and retrieve them. My temperature hovered between 102 and 103.
I didn’t eat for three days and lost my voice for about one of those days. Isolated myself for another few days, since from what I’ve read a person is contagious for five days after first showing symptoms.
So when every year I have people saying “I had the flu yesterday!” while sounding chipper and with barely a sniffle, I :rolleyes: .
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### Author:  [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2013, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-time-you-had-the-flu/648326/7 "2013-01-25T17:27:22Z")
If you’d have asked me last year, I would have said ten years or more. Sadly it is now less than twelve months. And what a classic, thoroughly awful, “I want to die” experience it was. Pretty similar experience to **chiroptera** - it came on like a fucking avalanche. At noon I was perfectly fine, at 2 mildly distressed w/ my appetite for the lunch I’d picked up for me and a co-worker gone, by four in the afternoon I was in the throes of massive chills/fever. I ended up losing an entire week of work and had lingering side-effects from not eating much in that period for a couple of weeks after that.
It was particularly annoying because I had gotten my annual flu shot, but being a lazy-ass I had gotten it very late in the season. As a result even if it _would_ have worked ( no guarantee year to year ), it didn’t have time to because I became infected just a few days after getting the shot, before my body had time to fully ramp up the antibody production.
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### Author:  [@Sudden\_Kestrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sudden_Kestrel)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2013, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-time-you-had-the-flu/648326/8 "2013-01-25T17:30:44Z")
I last had the flu in 2003 when I was working in a large medical center. (No patient contact but _lots_ of co-workers, long bus rides, etc.) I should note that I now have almost no contact with persons other than my husband, so I’m kind of an outlier.
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### Author:  [@Minnie\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Minnie_Luna)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2013, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-time-you-had-the-flu/648326/9 "2013-01-25T17:47:54Z")
I had it two years ago. Woke up feeling just not right (Tuesday), but went to work anyway. I had to leave by the time lunch came around I was so miserable. Fever, achy, bad congestion, couldn’t breathe plus diarrhea. I missed three days of work and felt like I was hit by a bus. I did go to the doctor (Saturday) because I was having a lot of trouble breathing even with an inhaler (mild asthma), so I got a z-pac and some steroids. Felt good enough on Monday to brave a half day at work.
I am not the type to run to the Dr. for antibiotics when I know I have a viral illness, but I had green goo and serious sinus pressure.
I am pretty religious about my flu shots, I never miss them.
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### Author:  [@Sahirrnee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sahirrnee)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2013, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-time-you-had-the-flu/648326/10 "2013-01-25T18:08:28Z")
> [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](#):
>
> I had it in November 2012. Was miserable.
+1.
Over Thanksgiving.
I could barely get out of bed, I couldn’t eat, couldn’t drink and that only made it worse.
When I didn’t think I was dying I was hoping I was dying.
It was beyond miserable.
It took me months to feel back to normal.
Before that it had probably been 30 years.
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### Author:  [@PandaBear77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PandaBear77)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2013, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-time-you-had-the-flu/648326/11 "2013-01-25T19:27:57Z")
I was about 16 or 17 years old. I never had the muscle aches, just the screamingly high fever and other symptoms. Ended up in the ER after passing out in my mom’s bedroom - my fever broke out of nowhere and I lost consciousness.
Not the sickest I’ve EVER been, but definitely in the top 5.
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### Author:  [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2013, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-time-you-had-the-flu/648326/12 "2013-01-25T19:59:03Z")
No idea. I know I’ve had it at least once or twice in my 41 years, but I don’t remember when the last time was (or what it was like). And, like **Renee** , I’ve never gotten a flu shot.
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### Author:  [@rhubarbarin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rhubarbarin)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2013, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-time-you-had-the-flu/648326/13 "2013-01-25T20:35:25Z")
When I was 17 (10 years ago) I had a rough 3-day illness with severe vomiting, fever, body aches, exhaustion. Qualifies as flu I think. I’ve been fairly sick since then but it’s always tonsillitis, strep, or bronchitis.
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### Author:  [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2013, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-time-you-had-the-flu/648326/14 "2013-01-25T20:37:33Z")
I’ve never had it. I’m not sure how I would know it if I did have it (and not think it was something far more serious).
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### Author:  [@Arrendajo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arrendajo)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2013, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-time-you-had-the-flu/648326/15 "2013-01-25T20:47:36Z")
I had it last winter. I’ve only had it a few times in my life – so seldom that I don’t know what’s wrong with me and wander around the house in a delirium until I realize I am really, really sick. The pandemic of 1918 must have been a terrifying thing to live through.
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### Author:  [@chiroptera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chiroptera)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2013, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-time-you-had-the-flu/648326/16 "2013-01-25T20:50:41Z")
> [@Anaamika](#):
>
> I’ve never had it. I’m not sure how I would know it if I did have it (and not think it was something far more serious).
[Classic flu symptoms](http://www.flu.gov/symptoms-treatment/symptoms/index.html#).
Basically like a cold, but much worse - truly debilitating, unlike colds, along with aching, weakness and a high temperature, and sometimes gastro-intestinal unpleasantness. Also they tend to come on very quickly, as people have described. What’s that saying about the common cold - three days coming, three days with you, three days going? When I had flu I went from feeling absolutely fine, to feeling queasy and crappy, to “death may be an acceptable option here” within 8 hours.
From what I’ve read (and experienced), colds sneak up slowly, you are sniffly and miserable for a few days, then they sneak off again.
That said, apparently you can get a weakened case of the flu if you’ve been vaccinated or have been exposed to that strain before so in that case it might be hard to tell the difference.
I asked my friend to bring me a thermometer when I got it so I could decide whether or not I had to get to an urgent care clinic or something. I figured if my temperature went above 103 for any sustained period of time, I’d get to a doctor. I was still a smoker at the time and didn’t want to risk pneumonia or, you know, death.
I had a flu shot about 15 years ago, just that one time. But I think, going forward, I’ll start to get one every year early in “flu season.” The more I educate myself, the more that makes sense.
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### Author:  [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2013, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-time-you-had-the-flu/648326/17 "2013-01-25T20:51:24Z")
I contracted what was affectionately known as the Hong Kong 'flu in 1967…I was seven yrs old.
Of course, I can’t remember the details, but apparently I was pretty crook for a while.
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### Author:  [@Krouget](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Krouget)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2013, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-time-you-had-the-flu/648326/18 "2013-01-25T20:54:41Z")
7-10 years ago, for me. I remember, because I unfortunately accepted the carpool that day with a highly infections coworker.
Prior to that, though, I can’t recall.
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### Author:  [@Ca3799](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ca3799)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2013, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-time-you-had-the-flu/648326/19 "2013-01-25T21:00:38Z")
June/July of 2012. My son and I both got the flu, but my husband and daughter did not get it.
I went to my GP Doc on Monday and got sympathy. My son went to the pediatrician the following Tuesday, got swabbed, and tested positive.
My son got Tamiflu, and was better in 8-10 days. My illness dragged on for about 2 weeks.
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### Author:  [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2013, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-time-you-had-the-flu/648326/20 "2013-01-25T21:02:49Z")
> [@chiroptera](#):
>
> [Classic flu symptoms](http://www.flu.gov/symptoms-treatment/symptoms/index.html#).
>
> Basically like a cold, but much worse - truly debilitating, unlike colds, along with aching, weakness and a high temperature, and sometimes gastro-intestinal unpleasantness. Also they tend to come on very quickly, as people have described. What’s that saying about the common cold - three days coming, three days with you, three days going? When I had flu I went from feeling absolutely fine, to feeling queasy and crappy, to “death may be an acceptable option here” within 8 hours.
>
> From what I’ve read (and experienced), colds sneak up slowly, you are sniffly and miserable for a few days, then they sneak off again.
>
> That said, apparently you can get a weakened case of the flu if you’ve been vaccinated or have been exposed to that strain before so in that case it might be hard to tell the difference.
>
> I asked my friend to bring me a thermometer when I got it so I could decide whether or not I had to get to an urgent care clinic or something. I figured if my temperature went above 103 for any sustained period of time, I’d get to a doctor. I was still a smoker at the time and didn’t want to risk pneumonia or, you know, death.
>
> I had a flu shot about 15 years ago, just that one time. But I think, going forward, I’ll start to get one every year early in “flu season.” The more I educate myself, the more that makes sense.
Thank you. I’ve had malaria twice in my life, and really the only thing that told me what it was both times was that my temperature was 103.
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