Have you ever had the flu? How badly did it affect you?

Post Reply New Topic

I was just wondering, since I've been hearing about a bunch of people getting the flu lately, just like every winter. I think I've only had the flu once, back when I was in high school. I guess I can't know for sure, because I was never ill enough to have to see a doctor, so I didn't get diagnosed. I remember it being really miserable, but not the worst thing I'd ever experienced. I just had a sore throat, a mild fever, stuffy nose, and some joint pain. And I felt really weak and didn't want to get out of bed much. I missed a whole week of school, but recovered just fine. It was kind of just like a bad cold, except I overall felt a lot worse and more weak, and I was sick for more than just a couple days. The absolute sickest I've felt in my life was actually when I got some mystery illness in the summer of 2014. I don't think it was the flu, because first, it's quite unusual to get the flu in the summer, and second, I didn't even have a sore throat or any respiratory symptoms. And it didn't seem to be very contagious, because no one around me got it, not even my mom, who slept in my bed with me one night because she was so worried I might not wake up the next morning! I just remember it starting out with just a bad headache, and this weird pain behind my eyes. Then the next day, I started getting fevers on and off. I'd be okay for a bit, but then I'd start getting chills, sweating profusely, and having a fever. And I felt so weak - at one point, I was literally dragging myself on the floor trying to get to the bathroom because I couldn't even get up and walk. The next night, I went to the ER because the fevers weren't stopping, and my fever got up to 104. And my headache was still excruciating. The next day, I was starting to improve, but then the following day, I woke up vomiting and unable to keep anything down. Even just taking a sip of water would make me start dry heaving. I went back to the ER, and they found that I had extremely elevated liver enzymes and they were surprised I didn't have jaundice. Eventually, I did recover on my own. It probably took about a week and a half for me to feel totally back to normal, and I think they continued to monitor my liver for about three weeks until the enzymes finally returned to a normal level. But yeah, that was definitely the most miserable illness I have ever had in my life, and I wouldn't wish it on anyone. They never did figure out what it was. They did a lot of tests at the ER (from what I remember, they tested me for mono, strep, the one strain of the flu that they thought some people might possibly have had that summer, West Nile Virus, and another mosquito virus called Chikungunya), but they all came back negative. When I did some research, I found that my symptoms possibly matched hepatitis A, Dengue Fever, and malaria. But since I hadn't traveled to any underdeveloped foreign country, it seems unlikely that I would have gotten dengue, malaria, or any other mosquito virus. I guess I'll just never know what exactly it was.

But yeah, I really do hope to never be as sick as I was that summer again. I've wondered if any strains of the flu are that bad. From what they say, it seems like the flu gets worse every year so I always get scared that I'll get it, and either get seriously ill or die. The news keeps reporting all of these young, healthy people with no underlying health issues just up and dying from the flu, and it's scaring me. Again, I haven't had the flu since 2010, which was that year in high school that I think I had it.

I seem to have rarely, if ever, gotten that sick from influenza (not stomach flu, which really isn't the flu at all). Most people think influenza always causes vomiting, but if it did it would mean I've never had it, and it drives crazy that the media is always showing as if it does.

It's hard for me to tell if I have a bad cold or the flu, but I think the things that set it apart from a cold are really bad body aches, feeling ice cold for no obvious reason, and feeling faint just from getting out of bed. Actually the past two decades I've had illnesses where I'd have chills, fever, fatigue and body aches but nothing else like coughing or a sore throat, and it goes away in a few days, and I don't know if it's because the flu shot I get in the fall just reduces the severity.

I've never had anything I can say for sure was the flu, but I've had some pretty nasty colds that I suppose could have been, and one time when I was in college, I had something that made every single joint in my body (including places I didn't know had joints like the middle of my feet) hurt very badly that according to Dr. Google, might have been influenza type C. I think that took a week or two for the pain to ease up, and I had residual aches for a couple months after that.