The flu

[steelfingers]

I have a friend that wears a surgical mask on flights during flu season. He looks like an idiot but an idiot that don't get sick after a flight.
I don't worry about the person next to me as I am about the one directly behind me (on a flight). The person next to you will do everything they can to not cough/sneeze on you, but the person behind has not problem spraying the crap out of you with an open mouth.
Flying to DC in March and hope the flu season is over by then. Seems the worst flights for catching stuff, is coming out of DC.

 

[chuter]

I got it about 3 weeks ago and I'm about 90% normal again. I had the flu shot; doc said a lot of folks that got the shot are getting the flu.
They sort of missed the target with the vaccine this year.

 

[steelfingers]

Wife went through it and was sick for 5 weeks total. She even missed work and she never misses work. I had it too but a milder version than she did. I acted like I was near death but I'm a wuss. She's tougher than me.....Ha!

 

[donner]

Once you've had it, you get a good sense of what the actual flu is like and why it was (is) so dangerous.

My great grandfather died in NOLA from the spanish flu. It nearly took my grandmother and great aunt.

 

[SlugSlinger]

Have any of you used tamiflu?

 

[tRidiot]

Tamiflu.... I'm not a big fan. Doesn't treat the symptoms, it has only been shown to reduce the length of the illness by a day or two IF you get it on board withing 24-48 hours of the onset of symptoms, it's expensive as hell (boy are they cleaning up), and it has some pretty nasty side-effects. Seen a lot of folks, particularly kids, who have developed a lot of dyspepsia and vomiting, possibly from the flu, but also possibly from the medicine.

And EVERYBODY wants it... even when they are tested, and negative for the flu. They think it's a cure-all - it's not. But hey, as long as they got that gold card that pays for it, they want it. If they are paying out of pocket, most folks tend to decline, in my experience.

 

[steelfingers]

I had two trip to my DO and on the second trip he told me that there was really nothing (at my stage) to do than gut it out. Thankfully my version was just a week to ten day of the bad stuff. Got lucky.

 

[deerwhacker444]

I got it about 3 weeks ago and I'm about 90% normal again. I had the flu shot; doc said a lot of folks that got the shot are getting the flu.
They sort of missed the target with the vaccine this year.

Walgreens was selling a vaccine that was supposed to protect from 4 strains of the Flu, that's what I bought. Was more expensive than the regular shot, but I guess the thinking is maybe not having to roll the dice. Don't know if it works or not..

Thanks to a nice lady sitting next to me on my flight from KC to Hoston on Tuesday, I now have the type A flu. She was coughing the entire trip and covered her mouth about 1% of the time.
So I'm on tamiflu, an inhaler and 2 cough medicines.
I think this is the first time I have been diagnosed with the flu.

Did you get the flu shot?

 

[tRidiot]

I had two trip to my DO and on the second trip he told me that there was really nothing (at my stage) to do than gut it out. Thankfully my version was just a week to ten day of the bad stuff. Got lucky.

If you're outside that 48-hour window to start Tamiflu - that's all there is.

Rest.
Chicken soup.
Plenty of fluids.
Stay in out of the cold.

Damn, people get pissed when you tell them that, too. I mean, they treat me like it's MY FECKING FAULT THEY'RE SICK. One more thing I hate about medicine - people blame us for not having a damn Star Trek tricorder and the insta-fix-everything shot.

 

[tRidiot]

Flu shot is a guess, every year. But here's the deal... if the strain of the flu that catches on and goes around is NOT the one in the shot... then how do you know the shot didn't work? Maybe the shot was effective at suppressing the strains that were included???

You're NOT going to eradicate the flu. It's just not going to happen. It's like the common cold (rhinovirus). So if you suppress one strain, another strain will crop up. But everyone says "guess the shot didn't work this year". Every year.