Don't panic (PSA)

Rache, if you have a jab in the States, would it cover 'flu in the UK, or are they different strains (is that how you spell a 'flu 'strain'?)

Dec (oxygen depandent) has already been banned from getting his local hospital to get his flu virus jab(needle phobic) for weeks due to this, it does wind me up slightly as the advise for several years has been do not return to school etc for 48 hours after bug, but people still do. I am a working mum and I know it puts you out but it could kill someone like Dec if he got it.

?sorry steps off the soapbox.

Good question Peaches, I was wondering similar.

Thanks for the Info Rache..

It's worldwide - manufacturers bring out vaccines covering the strains that the WHO have identified as likely to cause infections this year. See chapter 19 of the green book.

I thought that was only for the "at risks" Rache? ie the people that should have had their jab anyway.

Great, thanks. Better get a jab then before I fly back as I've only just got over the terrible cold I caught when I arrived in the UK at the beginning of November. Sod that for a 2nd time.

I still have my pack of tamiflu that was sent to me last year as the high street bank I worked for was offering it out to all staff. Obviously wouldn't take it unless I started getting really ill, and I had phoned a GP, but nice to know it is there in case (have had a flu jab, but they don't always work)

Rache-we have tamiflu already just incase, my concern is when and if you take it once because you think you have flu but don't can you take it again? sorry my gp said you'll know flu....he is 15 and likes to be a drama queen if it means no college,?

Rache if you are still about does hot/cold spells and night sweats with no other symptoms other than feeling generally *** warrant a GP visit? H is soaking the bed each night through the sheet/mattress protector to the extent I can wring his t-shirt out! I just wasn't sure if the GP could help if it is viral.

TIA if you have any ideas.

I'm so glad I'm still on ML. It's bad enough people coughing and spluttering all over me with their normal germs.

Oh crap.

Diagnose me Rache, please!

I've had what i'd class as a bad cold all weekend, aches, pains, sore throat, snots etc.. Phoned in sick today as muscles aching with a banging headache.

Could only take the dog out for 5 mins then had to return as felt faint. Have not been sick, but feel it. Ate hardly anything since Saturday.

I feel so guilty being off work, though would hate to infect someone so close to christmas. WhatdoIdo ?

Sounds like flu Maxi. Stay at home until your better, you'd feel more guilty if someone else got flu just before Christmas as well.

Hope you get better soon ?

Thanks. I know I'll be fine in a few days.

I just always feel like i'm playing hookey when i'm off work, not helped my bosses withering 'right then, best rearrange your planned visits' and my Mum's 'are you sure it's not just a 3 day hangover, what'll your boss say'. My work xmas do was on Friday, i've barely moved from the sofa since.

I was half tempted to go in tomorrow anyway as so lonely at home just now, but just made a manuka honey hot drink with a slug of whisky so will drink this and go to bed with a water bottle.

Yes, it's just at risk groups that should be treated or given prophylaxis if in contact.

Yes: hot/cold sweats should see Dr - more likely to be pneumonia than flu though

Maxi- if you're well enough to go on the computer it's not flu

hold/colds sweats - not a home visit but an appt at the surgery

I won't panic then, but i might reconsider my trip into town ? and order everything online, getting the delivery men to leave any parcels at the perimeter of my property ?

Yes - I was always told if someone rang your doorbell and offered you £50 would you be bothered to get out of bed and answer it - if you wouldnt then you have flu.

Last time I had flu I was so disoriented at one point I'd have struggled to find the bottom of my bed.

Utterly gruesome, it was over a month before I started feeling normal again.

Going by that little lot I'm not sure I want to come to the UK for Christmas on Friday ?

Can you get the winter vomiting one again? Is it like flu, and mutates so you can have it multiple time? Or do you have a resistance to it once you have had it? I had it about 3 years ago, and it was one of the grimmest things ever.

Yep! Once a season generally. I'm lucky in that I only get it every 2 years ? Last years was horrendous too. Not vomiting but the worst headache of my life.

Thanks Rache, I made him go to the GP this am. She thinks it is viral and as he's young & strong ( ? ) he's fighting it. She's taken bloods to check for thyroid issues though.

Yes you can, but usually not more than once a year.

More info on norovirus.

Is it just me - but is anyone else somewhere between amused and eye rollling about the fact that nobody has an upset tummy or a sickness bug anymore - it is all very dramatically 'Norovirus'

I know it could well be - but it probably always has been/could have been

everyone seems to need the max drama out of a bit of D&V

[yep] ?

but the one which really winds me up is when people say "i have a touch of flu". a touch? a TOUCH? what bollocks. and how so many people with a heavy cold say " i have flu". i always tell them that if they have flu, they wouldnt be able to work or talk on the phone, or even get out of bed.

Me neither! Since the beginning of November I've not been well at all - fist caught a British cold, then came back and managed to get a nasty US bug that's been going around. Basically we've both been down with it and it's very draining. To get something else now fills me with dread!

I'm glad this thread has come up again as I'd totally forgotten to schedule in getting a 'flu jab between everything else I've got going on.

I've managed to agree to Christmas drinks tomorrow night, which was the only time Mr P had left to pack. Oops! I'm in the dog-house! ?

and food poisoning. The amount of people i've heard say I think ive got a touch of food poisoning when all they've done is throw up once.

As for the Noro - probably the case, but they now have diagnostic tests for Noro. It is still hugely underreported though.

Indeed. I've just come back to work after a (mercifully fairly short) but evil attack of flu. I physically couldn't even raise my head off the pillow for 24 hours, and certainly didn't have the energy to change my clothes. Yep, four days lay there in filthy pjs with hair turning into dreadlocks - niiiiice.

I hate people thinking a bad cold is flu (bad colds are hideous as it is and really don't need to be promoted in a bid for more sympathy), or people who make it into work etc and moan about having the flu.

Umm, no, it's definitely not flu. I wouldn't wish real flu on my worst enemy. I started to get proplerly ill after getting flu, it took me 3 months to recover (and I mean 3 months in bed) then I got it again the following year, I've never been properly well since. It was bloody awful.

PS, thanks for the info Rache. ?

Drives me nuts when someone says they have the 'flu. When I've had it I've not even had the energy to talk, never mind go to work or shop or drive. In fact, I had it so badly one time, I couldn't make the bathroom in time ?

Ah yes, half the strictly celebs had "the flu" yet were still training. The last time I had the flu it was all i could do to walk to the bathroom for a wee, I was hardly capable of doing a nifty quickstep there.

I have never had the flu. I was pretty ill last week which was bad enough but I could still move about a little (although did pretty much sleep for 2 days). I hope that I never do have the flu.

Thanks for the info Rache. x