Man Flu

You sure it’s not Covid?

We all had this flu a couple of weeks ago and the covid we had a month before that was a walk in the park compared to this. Properly knocked us all for six.

I had to rearrange a dental appointment from this morning to Friday (🤞) and the receptionist ended the call with a particularly patronising “I hope this gives you a couple more days to get over your man-flu”.
It never really occurred to me it’s sexist but then again I never really use the phrase.

Maybe. I thought part of it was that men suffer from colds worse which causes them to lable severe colds as flu.

But I guess there is a loading to it which implies they are being little bitches about having a cold and should htfu...which isn't very progressive.

Just getting over a cold that has had me low for a fortnight. I say ‘low’ but nothing that made me feel particularly ill and in need of care. This contrasts hugely with the one occasion I had flu. Damn I’ve been in some poorly, bad places over the decades - including a ten day stay in hospital with a blood clot on the brain - but that flue bout was somewhere near the top of the list. I couldn’t interact with the world. Like a migraine, sound and daylight was too much to handle. I ached all over and my head felt like it would split open. I tried to get out of bed after six days and passed out. Anyone that is capable of phoning work to tell them they have flu, hasn’t got flu.

Can't remember which comedian said it, but I've always subscribed to the £20 on the window sill diagnosis.

If a £20 landed on the outside of your window sill and you're able to open the window and pick up the note, then you don't have the flu.

If a £20 landed on the outside of your window sill and you're able to open the window and pick up the note, then you don't have the flu.

But can I take the £20 and a sign off work? asking for a friend.

Well, kind of. But I’m talking several hundreds of £20 notes landing next to you and you not noticing or not giving a flying **** even if you did.

Anyone that is capable of phoning work to tell them they have flu, hasn’t got flu.

Surely covid has taught us that people react differently to viruses. There isn’t a prescription for “how you should feel” if you get the flu.

I somehow got the flu twice in the space of about 5 weeks recently; got it once and my wife didn't get ill and crowed about how crap my immune system is, then several weeks later after I'd recovered she brought home another strain and I had about 2.5 days of looking after her before succumbing myself. 2.5 days was simply not enough time to really milk the 'what was that about you never getting ill?' comments!

That really is bad luck. Ive somehow had flu only once in 41 years. To my knowledge

Joining here to vent, I had what I think was a flu virus about 3 weeks ago. Where I had a few days feeling pretty terrible and weak but no real coughing or sneezing etc, spent one day drifting in and out of consciousness in bed. Now I’ve got probably the worst cold I’ve ever had, 3 days of bad symptoms now, feels fkin grim. Generally speaking I’ve always done pretty well to not get bad colds or flu, never has been regular winter thing for me. Bizarre I’ve been had twice in a few weeks.

I started with a fever on Saturday night and it's floored me and although the shivering has mostly stopped I'm still sweating constantly and bloody freezing all the time. Congestion started yesterday. Coughing but not much. Haven't felt this fooked in a very long time

Sounds the same as what I had at the end of November. Lots of nasty shit floating about at the moment.

From what I’ve read, the general hypothesis is that we’ve all got less effective immune systems from not being exposed to these kinds of viruses for a couple years due to covid social restrictions, so more people and getting ‘more’ ill and transmitting viruses. I guess in pre-covid times, our immune systems, having more frequent exposure to these viruses, were able to be quicker on the uptake of defence; being able to stop the virus at the stage it causes a small cough, before it gets to the multiple day head-exploding congestion-fest. So hypothetically, it shouldn’t be as bad next year?

I'm trying to decide whether we actually had COVID last week as my smell and taste are still absolutely screwed, although it felt exactly like the flu from before. I did get a particularly bad sinus infection this time which isn't that common for me though so that could also be the culprit; my teeth were hurting and I had weird vertigo-like dizziness for days, so maybe that's hanging out and wrecking my taste. Really want it to go so I can enjoy all the Christmas snacks at the weekend!