BS: Flu.....

Subject: BS: Flu.....
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 26 Jan 18 - 01:59 PM

bastard.. bastard.. bastard.. bastard.. flu...!!!!!!!!!



That's it... that's all I'm capable of saying at the moment...


maybe, give it a few more days and I might have regained enough strength to face up to reading BS threads again.....????

Subject: RE: BS: Flu.....
From: Joe Offer
Date: 26 Jan 18 - 02:06 PM

Stay warm, and get well soon.
For me, the chills are always the worst part. Makes me feel like I'm gonna die until I finally figure out a way to warm up.
Good luck.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: Flu.....
From: Iains
Date: 26 Jan 18 - 02:31 PM

Get well. I enjoy sparring with you!

Subject: RE: BS: Flu.....
From: Will Fly
Date: 26 Jan 18 - 02:33 PM

Got it Christmas Eve - suffered until gone New Year.

My first flu bout for about 30 years... more like bronchitis than flu.

Subject: RE: BS: Flu.....
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 Jan 18 - 02:42 PM

I don't know if what I had for the first week of January was a minimized case of the flu or another generalized virus (I had a flu shot early this year) but this part of Texas has been particularly hard hit this year. The painful part of my illness was that I had taken the week after the holiday as vacation days but was sick (and they won't let you change them over to sick leave).

Cold vs Flu.

---

Link corrected to lead to intended flu vs cold chart, not a general search on Twitter, though in fact Google tracks flu outbreak information by looking at places like Twitter for flu mentions. ---mudelf

Subject: RE: BS: Flu.....
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 26 Jan 18 - 02:55 PM

Haven't had a damn thing all winter! We panicked and had the flu jab last week. I did suffer something sort of identical with flu last June. June though. Couldn't be flu, could it?!

Subject: RE: BS: Flu.....
From: Senoufou
Date: 26 Jan 18 - 02:59 PM

I really feel for you. Very sorry you're feeling so poorly.
Keep nice and warm and drink plenty of fluids.
Get well soon!

Eliza x

Subject: RE: BS: Flu.....
From: fat B****rd
Date: 26 Jan 18 - 03:02 PM

Take care PFR. I had me free flu and shingles jabs last autumn.

Subject: RE: BS: Flu.....
From: Thompson
Date: 27 Jan 18 - 10:27 AM

Mind yereselves. According to the Irish papers, the main symptom that makes it clear it's flu, not a bad cold, is that with a cold it creeps up relatively slowly over a few days; with flu, it knocks you out within an hour - you're happily pootling around on your bike buying groceries and having cuppas with friends and doing a bit of work one minute, then suddenly you're laid flat with aches all over, raging fever, etc. They're advising that you stay away from the doctor's surgery so you won't infect others, and just get straight to bed.

Quote:

Flu symptoms include:

Sudden onset of symptoms
High fever - temperature over 38ºC/100.4ºF
Severe weakness and fatigue
Dry cough
Aching muscles and joints
Sore throat
Headache
Runny nose
Vomiting / diarrhoea

Common Cold symptoms include:

Sneezing
A blocked nose, or a runny nose
Pain when swallowing
Mild fever - temperature between 37 and 38.3°C or 98.6 and 101.0°F
Mild earache
Tiredness
Headache

==
And they say if it's the Aussie flu it lasts longer than usual - don't expect to be up and back to work after a week.

Subject: RE: BS: Flu.....
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 27 Jan 18 - 10:38 AM

Ah, but what about man flu? The only symptoms I know are that it starts on Thursday morning, goes into remission on Friday night, reinvigorates itself on Monday morning and has totally vanished by Tuesday night. I worked with a bloke at school who got it just like that once every term.

Subject: RE: BS: Flu.....
From: keberoxu
Date: 27 Jan 18 - 11:29 AM

'Flu is an absolutely wretched hateful thing.
My sympathies to all the afflicted hereabouts.

Subject: RE: BS: Flu.....
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 27 Jan 18 - 01:44 PM

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/dec/11/stop-accusing-men-of-overreacting-man-flu-really-does-exist-claims-doctor

My mrs works in an infant school.
Every winter she picks up whatever's being spread by the disease ridden little rug rats
and brings it back home to infect me.

This winter I had a bad cold and chest infection for 2 weeks before xmas...
.. and now I've got something very similar again but with the added bonus of treacherously disordered bowels...!!!

I actually decided to get a flu jab last week, but when I got to the pharmacy at the time they told me to drop in,
i was told they'd run out compleely
and wouldn't be getting any more stock this winter.
The same shortage applying to all other pharmacies in town as they all use the samwe supplier....

Subject: RE: BS: Flu.....
From: Bill D
Date: 27 Jan 18 - 06:40 PM

I got the 4-type shot in Oct.... hoping it was the right 4. Hospitals here are turning away all but serious cases... and discharging anyone they can early. I have done one shopping trip, and am trying to limit public stuff.... but there's a Mid-Winter festival next weekend where my son and his wife are performing, if THEY stay healthy.

We shall, as they say, see how it goes.

Subject: RE: BS: Flu.....
From: robomatic
Date: 27 Jan 18 - 08:18 PM

Flu shots have been available here at places of work, at pharmacies including pharmacies in shopping center food stores. I've been getting flue shots for years, including when I'm informed it's not going to be that effective. I'm told I'm contributing to herd immunity. I looked around and the moose don't herd, the bears don't herd, wolves form packs but not herds, and the caribous that herd are hund-herds of miles away. But aw heck I'll contirboot to whatever herd they got!
So far.......so good.....

Subject: RE: BS: Flu.....
From: keberoxu
Date: 28 Jan 18 - 01:56 PM

Moooooooooo.

Or as the French spell it,

Meeeeeuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhh . . .

Subject: RE: BS: Flu.....
From: Janie
Date: 28 Jan 18 - 08:15 PM

I never miss getting the vaccine - In addition to a bad scare 20 years ago when I developed a very serious pneumonia secondary to influenza, I'm with robomatic.

Subject: RE: BS: Flu.....OR ADENOVIRUS
From: Donuel
Date: 29 Jan 18 - 12:20 PM

There is another viral outbreak which is the adenovirus. The vaccine is approved for the military ONLY. Complications are known to last for over 5 years.

Its symptoms are identical to the flu.

Subject: RE: BS: Flu.....
From: Donuel
Date: 29 Jan 18 - 12:37 PM

not flu possibilities

Subject: RE: BS: Flu.....
From: Senoufou
Date: 29 Jan 18 - 12:47 PM

Here in UK they offer it free to people over 65, but it has limited efficacy for that age group. And as I understand it, they select a cocktail of only three flu' types for the jab, and have to guess which ones will be prevalent here. They misjudged this year and didn't include Australian flu'.
I didn't bother with the jab and neither did my husband.
So far so good...

Punkfolkrocker, how are you now? Feeling any better? Please take care and look after yourself, as flu' leaves one feeling very weak and depleted.

Subject: RE: BS: Flu.....
From: robomatic
Date: 29 Jan 18 - 01:06 PM

The flu virus is very tricky in that it apparently has the ability to mutate extensively (as Douglas Adams once wrote: "over lunch") while remaining, well, flu. In the great flu epidemic, excuse me, pandemic of 1918, the described ease of transmission, rapidity of progression of symptoms, and death toll would read more symptomatic of the ebola of this day and age. But it was always flu. And more to the point, in that incarnation the death toll was higher for robust adults than for the very young and very old. There were reasons for this involving previous exposure to waves of virus over the years. There are very smart people who have devoted their lives to flu and they are worth listening to.

Subject: RE: BS: Flu.....
From: leeneia
Date: 30 Jan 18 - 02:46 PM

Robomatic, I read in some reliable source (I forget where) that the high death statistics from the 1918 flu were caused by the illness ravaging countries where many people lived in squalor. India was named specifically.

I'm not saying that many people didn't die elsewhere.

Subject: RE: BS: Flu.....
From: robomatic
Date: 30 Jan 18 - 04:01 PM

leeneia:

Good post, which I'll treat as a question. People died in large numbers everywhere, the unknowns are whether they died in the millions or the tens of millions. My previous post is not an exaggeration.

Recommended reading: The Great Influenza by John M. Barry.

Also the recent article in Washington Post- The Flu can kill tens of millions of people

Subject: RE: BS: Flu.....
From: Donuel
Date: 30 Jan 18 - 05:15 PM

The virus has a head and tail. We make vaccines for the tail that evolves annually. We guess what it will be to make a vaccine for the following year.
The NIH is working on making a vaccine for the head of the virus.
It is sort of a one size fits all vaccine.
We have not yet succeeded.

Getting a sample of the 1918 flu was restricted for 5 years. It has opened up again. Samples anyone?

(simplified version)

Subject: RE: BS: Flu.....
From: robomatic
Date: 30 Jan 18 - 06:09 PM

AND you cannot contract the flu from the flu virus.

Subject: RE: BS: Flu.....
From: Donuel
Date: 30 Jan 18 - 06:29 PM

did you mean to say "from the flu 'vaccine'" ?

Subject: RE: BS: Flu.....
From: robomatic
Date: 30 Jan 18 - 06:52 PM

Holy Crap!, someone hand me an inhaler, NO not THAT one!. Thanks Don'l I DID mean the vaccine! Say it five times fast, Robo:
"You can't get the flu from the flu vaccine."
"You can't get the flu from the flu vaccine."
"You can't get the flu from the flu vaccine."
"You can't get the flu from the flu vaccine."
"You can't get the flu from the flu vaccine."

Subject: RE: BS: Flu.....
From: Donuel
Date: 30 Jan 18 - 08:31 PM

You're in a good mood.
Imagine a virus that replicates in such a way that it makes people happy.

whoa I better stop thinking of that one. Its too diabolical.

Subject: RE: BS: Flu.....
From: robomatic
Date: 30 Jan 18 - 10:44 PM

'Member that line in Broadcast News?

"Wouldn't it be great if peoples' insecurities made them more attractive? Like if 'needy' were a turn on?"

Now THAT would be a revolution.
Talk about good moods!

Subject: RE: BS: Flu.....
From: keberoxu
Date: 31 Jan 18 - 12:09 PM

That exchange was an eye-opener!

Scary to see the toll the 'flu is taking
in the US this year,
especially in terms of children.

Subject: RE: BS: Flu.....
From: Donuel
Date: 31 Jan 18 - 01:47 PM

How are you feeling punkfolkrocker?

Did you lose consciousness?

Subject: RE: BS: Flu.....
From: Thompson
Date: 01 Feb 18 - 10:21 AM

I always get vaccinated. Partly because I'm at risk being asthmatic and decrepit. Partly because the more people are vaccinated, the lower the risk for everyone else.
This year's vaccine is said to be only 15% effective, compared to a normal effectiveness of 45%, because there are three separate virus strains roaming around looking for people to kill. But 15% is a lot better than 0%.

Subject: RE: BS: Flu.....
From: DaveRo
Date: 01 Feb 18 - 11:18 AM

This recent episode of Inside Heath discussed the types and effectiveness of the current flu vaccine in the UK. (The flu segment is at the beginning - 7 minutes.)

The jab has not been very effective for the elderly, but the one given to children has performed better - which protects everyone because children are very effective at spreading flu!

I think the same vaccine is used throughout the northern hemisphere - though here in the UK the 'quadrivalent' (4-strain) variety seems not to have been offered because it's more expensive than the trivalent one.

Subject: RE: BS: Flu.....
From: Senoufou
Date: 01 Feb 18 - 01:24 PM

I do hope punkfolkrocker is ok?

Subject: RE: BS: Flu.....
From: Iains
Date: 01 Feb 18 - 01:51 PM

The frightening aspect of the 1918 pandemic is that the mortality graphs show those of pre school age and those in the prime of life were the most at risk of succumbing. Nearly half of all deaths were young adults between 18 and 43. Surprisingly the death toll among the over 65's was the lowest.

Subject: RE: BS: Flu.....
From: Senoufou
Date: 01 Feb 18 - 02:00 PM

I'm wondering Iains if it was something to do with the older age group having already encountered that particular form of the virus when younger, and accrued some immunity?

Subject: RE: BS: Flu.....
From: MikeL2
Date: 01 Feb 18 - 02:50 PM

Hi

Many years ago when I was in the Air Force I was billeted in the middle of a farmer's field in East Yorkshire. It was Xmas and I had just met a girl so I wasn't going home for the holiday. I let the other guys go and was looking after the place myself. The day after they had all gone I felt terrible. All our communications were switched off so I couldn't contact anyone. I just lay there for two days before I got up and was able to make a pot of tea.

I struggled through and after three days the girl managed to find me and went to the nearest village and got a doctor to call. I was feeling somewhat better but he examined me and got me some medicine. He told me that I had a particular virulent version that was called Asian Flu.

After that I got quite a lot of bad colds (not flu) over the years.

About twenty years ago we both had our first Flu jabs, ......and since then I have hardly had a cold.

Oh nothing came of me and the girl. !!!

Cheers

MikeL2

Subject: RE: BS: Flu.....
From: Iains
Date: 01 Feb 18 - 02:58 PM

Senoufou: a partial answer perhaps.


https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3734171/

Subject: RE: BS: Flu.....
From: Senoufou
Date: 01 Feb 18 - 03:23 PM

Good gracious MikeL2, you could have succumbed to that flu virus and no-one would have known for days!

I remember in I think the late seventies getting 'Russian flu'. I lived alone then, and found myself lying on the kitchen floor in the middle of the night, hallucinating that flying creatures were zooming overhead. I was so hot I was lying in a lake of perspiration, with all my cats sitting round me peering at me with interest. I crawled on my stomach to the landline and managed to ring a neighbour, who got a doctor. It lasted a few days, then I felt very weak afterwards. But since then, I don't get either colds or flu, so my immune system must be quite strong.

Iains, you always come up with the most interesting scientific links!
I gather from this one that contact with the 1918 flu virus in early life either reinforced immunity, or (which is most unfortunate) made the person even more vulnerable and brought about their death.
Viruses are weird things. As I understand it, they use our actual DNA to replicate. I wonder if they will finally do away with humans on Earth?

Subject: RE: BS: Flu.....
From: Iains
Date: 01 Feb 18 - 05:19 PM

Senoufou: A virus may see us all off but after WW3 then this little chappie may have the last laugh.

Subject: RE: BS: Flu.....
From: Senoufou
Date: 01 Feb 18 - 06:04 PM

Wow! So Deinococcus radiodurans will still survive after everything else (including us) has been nuked! A bacterium rather than a virus.
.
I had a boyfriend at Uni in the Mol. Biol. department, and I used to enjoy listening to his explanations about it all. Having only studied any sciences to 'O' level, I was quite impressed with his knowledge. I also knew a chap doing his PhD in Virology in Glasgow Uni, and I used to pick his brains too!

I wonder, could we somehow incorporate D radiodurans into our own DNA to give us some resistance to radioactivity?

Subject: RE: BS: Flu.....
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 01 Feb 18 - 10:41 PM

I'm over the worst now, and picking myself back up.
Need to catch up with all the daily life crap i couldn't face up to dealing with.
I've not left the house - or changed my comfy Tee shirt for 2 weeks...
it looks like slugs and snails have been having an orgy on it...

It's no good my mrs being fed up with me looking like shit, she gave me the bloody virus in the first place...

Subject: RE: BS: Flu.....
From: Senoufou
Date: 02 Feb 18 - 04:27 AM

Oh I'm really glad to see your post pfr! Sounds as if you've had a rotten time of it. Don't try to do too much at first, you'll still be weak.
Best wishes for a speedy convalescence.

Onwards and upwards.
Or as they say here in Norfolk UK,
"Dew yew keep a-troshing bor!"

Eliza

Subject: RE: BS: Flu.....
From: MikeL2
Date: 02 Feb 18 - 09:14 AM

Hi Senoufou

Thanks for your comments.

Your description of the effects of flu are almost what I had.
Being on my own made it feel worse but luckily after a couple of days I was able to struggle down the road and get help from RAF hospital.

They picked me up in the village and took me back to my work place. They left a male nurse to stay with me to make sure that I recovered OK, which I did after a couple of days.

Kind Regards

MikeL2

Subject: RE: BS: Flu.....
From: Senoufou
Date: 02 Feb 18 - 09:25 AM

Hello MikeL2! You're right, being on one's own with flu' is very dodgy and quite frightening.
It's hard just getting to the toilet, and fetching a glass of water.
For an older person such as myself, there's also the danger of developing pneumonia.

This is where having good neighbours is very important. I've got my trusty husband now of course, but back then, I was so grateful for my lovely neighbour Pauline, who cared for me so well. (I did the same for her whenever she was poorly)

I always smile at folk who say, "I think I may have flu'" when they're up and dressed with a slight sniffle. If it's real flu', one can hardly get out of bed, and lifting a hand is exhausting!

Subject: RE: BS: Flu.....
From: Donuel
Date: 02 Feb 18 - 10:54 AM

My worst flu came from a flight. After 48 hours I fell unconscious for 6 days. I can only recall about ten minutes.

Subject: RE: BS: Flu.....
From: keberoxu
Date: 02 Feb 18 - 12:16 PM

You could hold a ceremony, punkfolkrocker, for your comfy T-shirt.
With a ritual incantation of
Well Done Thou Good and Faithful Servant or some such.
Will the T-shirt recover?
It's a relief to hear that you are recovering.

The 'flu even extended its shadow in the US over the upcoming Fifty-Second Super Bowl.

One of those New England Patriots is a Mississippi native named Malcom [that's the correct spelling] Brown. A very different sort from Tom Brady. Brown's is a hard-luck story, he was raised away from his parents because family circumstances were so, er, messed up. To get into the NFL and the NE team he had many a hurdle to rise above. So the press, and the public, follow Brown eagerly, because his story has an emotional pull to it.

When the Pats left en masse for Minnesota, Brown stayed here for a few days longer. He was having "flu-like symptoms." Nobody wanted the other football players to catch what Brown had. Well, whatever Brown was suffering from, he took the doctors' orders and got several days of rest.

Brown has since been flown to Minnesota and is practicing with the Pats rather as though nothing had happened. He got the doctors' blessing, that the rest cure had had the desired result, and that he had got past any contagious stage and was sufficiently recovered, and wouldn't make anyone else ill.

Subject: RE: BS: Flu.....
From: MikeL2
Date: 02 Feb 18 - 02:40 PM

Hi Sen

I was lucky. At the time I was only 20 so I was able to drag myself to the toilet and Kitchen. We had a couple of vacuum flasks so I made hot tea and tucked on under my bed to save me keep getting up.

As I said I was also lucky to have the nurse to look after me. You will know from your experience just how much it meant to not being alone.
I have to say the the RAF were excellent and helped me to recover from this Asian Flu.

I don't want anything like that again !!

Kind regards

Mike

Subject: RE: BS: Flu.....
From: Mrrzy
Date: 05 Feb 18 - 10:29 AM

I staunchly refuse to use hand sanitizer, and I think that helps keep me healthy (I had a cold last week that started like the crud that was felling people for absolute weeks, for instance) - why do people want only the hardiest, most anti-bacterial-resistant, 1% of their germs around all the time? I like to keep my weak germs multiplying too, so I have fewer really strong ones around, as a percentage.

I think that stuff should be banned, actually, it is breeding bacterial resistance to anti-bacterials in a way that is way more pervasive than the old just give'm some antibiotics to not finish idea. At least you had to be sick to get that; the sanitizer thing is ubiquitous. If the bacteria had a plan, this is how I'd do it.

Am I nuts? I mean, yeah, I know I'm nuts, but is this particular idea of mine nuts?

Subject: RE: BS: Flu.....
From: keberoxu
Date: 05 Feb 18 - 01:03 PM

Mrrzy, I think your idea is something other than nuts, I just couldn't say exactly what.

Poor Malcom Brown.
After the doctors said he had gotten over his 'flu-like symptoms,
and released him to join the Pats in Minnesota,
he was allowed to suit up for the Super Bowl.
So he shows up with the team on the field in uniform
for the national anthem.
And instead of playing cornerback,
Brown ends up crying on the bench . . .
this has the makings of an ongoing saga.
I mean, the Super Bowl may be history,
but Malcom Brown is a young healthy fellow.
Wonder how much longer he will be a New England Patriot . . .

Subject: RE: BS: Flu.....
From: Donuel
Date: 05 Feb 18 - 05:31 PM

Mrzzy's preference has plenty of science to back up his claim.
Some of that hand sanitizer is practically toxic

Subject: RE: BS: Flu.....
From: keberoxu
Date: 07 Feb 18 - 01:17 PM

It's winter storm time,
and people are cooped up indoors together
-- a strong scenario for infectious things passing around.

Subject: RE: BS: Flu.....
From: Senoufou
Date: 07 Feb 18 - 01:41 PM

I turn into a very cross old lady in the supermarket when people sneeze or cough loudly and copiously with no recourse to handkerchief. They're generously showering us all with their germs. I usually wear a woolly scarf, and quickly slip it over my mouth and nose. I must look like a bank robber.
We're avoiding the Park-And-Ride bus for a week or two. It's a moving box of germs, and no-one wants the windows open. Again, people sneeze and snot without even covering their mouths. I get murderous about it!

Subject: RE: BS: Flu.....
From: Donuel
Date: 08 Feb 18 - 12:19 PM

Regionally the A combinate flu is mutating into a B flu. That is good news because the flu vaccine this year works on B flu.

Subject: RE: BS: Flu.....
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 08 Feb 18 - 03:01 PM

My mum is 85 and had her flu jab in November.
But in the light of my illness, I stayed away from her
[not too difficult as I couldn't face up to getting my boots on and leaving the house anyway],
and cancelled all her home visits from health workers and housing association service contractors.

I suppose the flu season is tailing off now and it's safer to rearrange home visits...???