[JGatti]

Ok so I'm on day five of having H1N1. WOW! first 2 1/2 days were terrible. I honestly don't think I have ever had any flu ever in my life. I know I have never felt this bad. Started feeling like crap Tuesday afternoon at work. That night I woke up soaked head to toe in sweat. I knew I had something going on so I called my Dr first thing in the morning. They got me in, ran some tests and came to the conclusion I had H1N1. Strange thing is they treat you before they are 100% sure because the wonderful test takes 3 days for results and my Dr said " by that time your either feeling better or dead". That made me feel good.
So I was put on Tamiflu and a Z pack because I also had an ear infection ( fun fun fun). With the exception of my Dr appt and picking up my script etc, I slept for almost 30 hours straight. Wednesday night I was awake every 1/2 hour, dry mouth and thirsty, having to take a leak or just so sore I could not get comfortable. I'd lay down, break into a sweat, kick off the covers get cold. Back and forth all night. Thursday I was so sore I could not sleep, so I took some motrin, dulled the pain and slept good. Yesterday I was feeling much better and it was the first day I went 24 hours without a fever. Long story short. It was bad. Don't take any chances with this crap. It was hands down the worst illness I have ever experienced.

My Dr said I was lucky to catch it early and most people don't. It did not make it into my lungs and that's the best thing you can hope for. Has anyone else had this? Know anyone who has? How lucky should I feel to have it so (mild so I hear)?

[Coldjensens]

Probably.

I caught a flu in California during the big scare. I went to the Dr when it did not go away after four or five days. My Dr. said it was likely H1N1 because I was in an area where it was prevalent, but it could also be any other kind of flu since I had spent a lot of time on airplanes. I asked if I should be tested. He asked me if I wanted to have my kid's school closed or get my name in the paper. I said no, and he said that there is no reason to be tested. It is just a flu, it is treated just like any other flu. He does not recommend Tamaflu since it is so new and in his opinion not sufficiently tested, unless the patient is severely at risk for death by flu (i.e. very old). Besides, at that time, Tamaflu was in short supply due to the panic and he felt that it should be reserved for those at risk from any flu. He will prescribe it if a patient demands it but he makes them sign a release. He also told me that regular strains of flu actually kill more people than H1N1 has.

He did not give me antibiotics since flu is a virus and not affected by antibiotics and in fact antibiotics can weaken you and decrease your ability to fight the flu (becuase it kills the good bacteria in your digestive system which helps you absorb water, and can cause you to get dehydrated - a dangerous condition if you have the flu).

I was not totally comfortable with what he said given all the commotion in th e media at the time, so I looked into H1N1 as much as possible. Ultimately I determined that I beleive it is a bunch a hype. All said and done H1N1 is a flu. It can be more severe that some strains and less severe than others. Our society got all panicy becuase it spread very quickly in Mexico and because it killed some people who are not narmally considered "at risk" from the flu (old people, babies, sick people (i.e. those with aids, cancer or other ailments that weakend them and break down their resistance, and pregnant people at normally at risk, everyone else generally is not.). However if you look at the overall statistics, it appears pretty much accepted that H1N1 is just "the flu" and not singificantly different than other strans of flu. That is why you no longer hear all bout the panic anymore.

You shold do your own reseaerch and make your own decision. there is still plenty of panic information out there that you can accept.


In the old days, they used to prescribe antibiotics when you had the flu just in case it was bacterial, or in order to prevent a secondary infection. However since they realized that the madcap prescribing of antibiotics is dangerous (it can create supergerms immune to antibiotics), they do not do it anymore. Back in the old days, I could get a Z pack by just calling the Dr. and telling him that I had a bronchial infection. Now, I pretty much have to steal a Z pack if I think I need antibiotics. They prefer to have me drink lots of fluids, take advil and wait. If it lasts two weeks, then they will either prescribe antibiotics or do some testing to find out if it is actually a bacteria infection before prescribing antibiotics. They are a lot more careful with antibiotics than they were five years ago.

Now, I do not bother spending $40 copay to go to the Dr with the flu. I can figure out that I need fluids and advil and rest on my own. If it lasts over two weeks, or if I have a fever of 104 or higher for more than a day, then I go in. Otherwise they will just charge me and tell me what I already know.

No reason to panic IMO. However if it makes you feel better, go ahead and run around around your house three times screaming and wildly waving your arms in the air in panic. When you have the flu, anyhting that makes you feel better is a good thing to do.

This year, my flu shot actually seemed to work. In the past I got the flu shot, and I got the flu several times anyway. One year I missed the flu shot, and I only got sick once. However this year I got a flu shot and several flus ripped through my family and I did nto get it, so it obviously worked. I always catch everything that my family gets, plus some of my very own that I catch elsewhere. (Except the current bug that is going around, I seemed to have caught that despite the flu shot).

I hope you feel better soon, and personally, I hope that you decide not to panic over it, unless it really does make you feel better to do so.

By the way, I get the flu a lot and yes it is almost always that bad. I have five kids who are very active, plus I volunteer occaisionally at places for the homeless so I get exposed to lots of germs and I have low resistance. Normally, I get the flu three to six times a year. Some years, like this year, I get lucky.

[Coldjensens]

Maybe you should be glad that you got H1N1 instead of H3N2. From NPR's blog:

Deaths peak when the H3N2 strain of influenza A dominates. When it's H1N1 or influenza B, the toll is quite a bit lower. Scientists can guess which strain may predominate in a given year, but it's only a guess.

That is why the flu shot does not always work (i.e. sometimes they guess wrong).

Catching the flu actually may make you safer if it makes you stay home and not drive. On average less than 36,000 people die from the flu in the US (the CDC is trying to lower this offical average number), however it seems that car accidents kill roungly 42,000 - 43,000 per year. Stay home and be sick. It is safer than driving. .

[joemits]

Sounds horrible, got the vaccine along with my kids last season. That would have been 09 I think. I did not get the H1N1 Vac this year as they say that the earlier one is still useful against H1N1. The real "flu" is nothing to scoff at. I know a lot of people say they have the "flu" every time they get a stomach issue and have no idea what they are talking about. These bugs can and do kill people. Some flu viruses are worse than others and there is always a real chance that a new super bug could break out, especially with our modern global way of living. Glad you got better.

[chiroptera]

I am one of those annoying people who rarely gets sick...as in, I have had maybe five colds in my 53 years on earth. I had the flu - real flu when I was in my teens - once and it was horrible. Other than that, I do not get sick. (Or maybe I do but it's so inconsequential I barely notice it.)

I am also one of those annoying people who will report that the one time I had a flu shot (1995, it was mandated because of volunteer work I was doing at the time) was followed by a truly ghastly cold, about a week later. My face swelled up, I got an ear infection, I was really miserable. I have not had any vaccines since...I know a nursing director at a local hospital who has told me that the couple of weeks after the mandated flu vaccines they are short-staffed because half the workers are sick and take time off. I've worked in a volunteer basis in hospitals for many years and the only year I got sick was right after that vaccine. I have waived or refusecd it since.

I'm by no stretch of imagination an anti-vaccine type of person but this has been my experience...so, no, I will not willingly have any flu vaccines again.

JGatti, although it was a very long time ago that I had flu (about 1973) it was a horrible experience and I hope you are feeling better now!

[JGatti]

Originally Posted by chiroptera

I am one of those annoying people who rarely gets sick...as in, I have had maybe five colds in my 53 years on earth. I had the flu - real flu when I was in my teens - once and it was horrible. Other than that, I do not get sick. (Or maybe I do but it's so inconsequential I barely notice it.)

I am also one of those annoying people who will report that the one time I had a flu shot (1995, it was mandated because of volunteer work I was doing at the time) was followed by a truly ghastly cold, about a week later. My face swelled up, I got an ear infection, I was really miserable. I have not had any vaccines since...I know a nursing director at a local hospital who has told me that the couple of weeks after the mandated flu vaccines they are short-staffed because half the workers are sick and take time off. I've worked in a volunteer basis in hospitals for many years and the only year I got sick was right after that vaccine. I have waived or refusecd it since.

I'm by no stretch of imagination an anti-vaccine type of person but this has been my experience...so, no, I will not willingly have any flu vaccines again.

JGatti, although it was a very long time ago that I had flu (about 1973) it was a horrible experience and I hope you are feeling better now!

Even though I am feeling much better I am still not feeling like myself even after 5 days of this crap. I HAVE to go back to work Monday so I'm keeping my fingers crossed I'm at least 80% lol

[northstar22]

Hope you feel better!

I get a flu shot every year. The flu -- especially the H1N1 pandemic -- is nothing to mess around with.

[intelfan11315]

Yeah, my friend's little sister got it and she was pretty dang sick! Glad I never got it

[acealive1]

a girl i grew up with died over a year ago while pregnant with twins from H1N1. RIP

[sunnykiol]

nope,never heard of that.