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This year's flu is scary but confusing. What advice are you hearing?


6packofun
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I think dh and I had this in late December. DH was more sick than he has been in years with a fever that tipped 103+ at times. He went in to the dr on day 2 or 3 and they tested him for the flu and it came back negative. But we've had that happen before (a flu test say negative and a couple days later says positive). A day or so later, it hit me. Dry coughs, every single muscle ached horribly, fever, exhausted... DH was unwell for 2.5-3 weeks. I was "sick" for about 3 days, and felt crappy for another week.

 

The kids were also sick, but with a milder/shorter version of what we had.

 

So now I'm walking around, unsure if we are still capable of catching this flu or if we've already BTDT! Ugh! Wish I'd gone in or sent DH to go back again a day later just so we would *know* for sure. But, I sure don't know what else it could've been. It sure as heck wasn't a cold!

 

 

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The one year that we got the flu (H1N1, specifically,) we took kid #2 in (second to get sick, not sure if it was the second born.)  Kid #1 had been pretty sick, but not to any greater degree than what our family would consider a bad cold.  Kid #2 was a complete train wreck, which is way out of the norm for "sick" in our house.  A third was just starting to show symptoms, so our doctor prescribed Tamiflu for both of them and the healthy-at-the-time 4th kid.  (We didn't have a 5th at the time.)

 

By the time it hit dh and then me, we were exhausted from caring for the kids and then run down by the virus, so neither of us went in.

 

Kid #5 had a rotten cold last week, but he was just as active as he always is, slept as well as he always does, and ate as much as he always does, so we didn't have any concerns.

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I think this is a very good, basic summary.

 

While I don't know anything about the website, it's authors, or anything like that, this blog post gave a very good summary of the flu and cytokine storm.

Very interesting. That explains why it was the young and healthy who were hit so hard in 1918. My grandfather got that flu on returning from naval duty in WWI. They took them to a hospital in NYC, and my grandfather took one look and left. He walked home to Boston (!) with the flu and let his mama take care of him. He was 19.
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Very interesting. That explains why it was the young and healthy who were hit so hard in 1918. My grandfather got that flu on returning from naval duty in WWI. They took them to a hospital in NYC, and my grandfather took one look and left. He walked home to Boston (!) with the flu and let his mama take care of him. He was 19.

 

What a story.  Wow

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That is an amazing story, Sandwalker.

 

DH and I both teach at a university and one of the deans sent around a message the other day saying that flu is "rampant" on campus.  

 

We have all had flu shots and are assiduous about washing hands.  DH and I are doing our best to make sure that we get enough sleep, despite it being a very busy semester (the kids always get enough sleep) and are generally being particularly careful about not letting anyone get run down, staying home until fully recovered from minor illness, etc.  

 

It is very useful to know that stomach troubles can be a first sign of the flu, though.  I will keep that in mind.

Edited by JennyD
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I bought elderberry berries this year and tried to make my own syrup.  It was so nasty, nobody would use it.  The Sambucus stuff is much better than my homemade stuff. :)

 

My dd was just the opposite. One taste of the commercial stuff and she wouldn't touch any more.

 

I add my homemade syrup to hot tea with honey or make a cup of hot water, Airborne berry flavor, and syrup. Either way tastes much better than plain.

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I take Sambucol, even with MS.  I have asthma, and my neurologist feels the flu is riskier to my health than a flare.  I believe the recommendation is mainly for MS, Lupus, RA and such, and for those who take immunosuppressant medications, which Sambucol would decrease the effectiveness of (which I do not take).  I'm on full thyroid replacement, so I don't worry about that.

 

The blog post up thread is consistent with the advice I've received.  If symptoms worsen on Sambucol, then discontinue use and see my physician.  Otherwise I take it at the first hint of anything.   :)

Edited by melmichigan
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My dd was just the opposite. One taste of the commercial stuff and she wouldn't touch any more.

 

I add my homemade syrup to hot tea with honey or make a cup of hot water, Airborne berry flavor, and syrup. Either way tastes much better than plain.

I think the home made is way tastier than the bottled! Reminder I need to make some. I use this recipe

https://wellnessmama.com/1888/elderberry-syrup/

 

We usually get the vax but my son and I missed it last year. We kept getting minor bugs and just didn’t get in. He got the flu but I did not and I credit elderberry for sure. We are all vaxed this year.

 

You can have intestinal symptoms with hard core real influenza but that is secondary to the high fever, malaise, and upper respiratory symptoms of the flu. So I would watch and wait with the OPs daughter.

 

My son got tamiflu last year. I wouldn’t bother again. He was still really sick over a week. We’ve had the flu here several times and that seemed to do very little.

 

ETA CDC info on flu

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/disease/complications.htm

Edited by WoolySocks
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