The flu sucks :(

[jtr1962]

Anyone else going through this? My mom was sick before Christmas, and eventually diagnosed with the flu and bronchitis. I think I've got at least the flu. Temp was 101.7° F early this morning. Normal for me is around 97°F. I go from ready to pass out to able to sit for a little while in front of my PC. Any over the counter remedy suggestions from the budding MDs around here? Aspirin seems to bring only temporary relief. I'm also going between the chills (shaking violently) and hot flashes where I'm sweating profusely. And I'm blowing my nose constantly (cough drops help). Plenty of liquids? I'm already doing that, but getting tired of getting up to pee. Especially with the bathroom being cold enough to bring about shaking episodes.

What a miserable topic for my 900th post. I haven't been sick with anything for probably over five years until now. This is dread man, truly dread. :crucified:

 

[CougTek]

Raw onions, oranges, water, no milk products (contain lot of bacterias and your organism is already quite busy), sleep and no panic crisis. Taking a short walk to get some fresh air would help too, but only if you put enough clothes on. I know the last suggestion sounds suicidal, but it trully helps. Ususally, during winter, people don't ventilate their room enough so the degree of air pollution increases a lot. Especially if you have several computers (dust accumulaters).

...oh, I forgot you live in New York. Forget fresh air.

BTW, our mood affects significantly our organism's efficiency to fight diseases. So think positive and your health should get better.

 

[ddrueding]

It brought me down all last week, my fever was pushing 104 for 3 days

I was taking asprin constantly to minimize the fever, vicadin to sleep, and nyquil for the throat. The worst passed after 4 or 5 days, then I drank a bottle of whisky and chain-smoked for 5 hours. A day after that I felt better.

Best of luck, you can look on the bright side, I racked up many drug-induced posts in that time

 

[ddrueding]

then I drank a bottle of whisky and chain-smoked for 5 hours.

Making the body unfit for living organisms is an odd tactic, that I can't reccomend :/

 

[i]

Chicken soup. If you've got a live-in gourmet chef, then talk to him/her. Otherwise do what us normal humans do and go for the "good" varieties of canned soup (not the ones where you have to add water). Progresso soups are a personal favorite.

Sorry to hear you're ill jtr. I hate the flu. But congrats on your 900th post.

 

[Mercutio]

Absolutely no milk-based foodstuffs for cold or flu. Milk changes the persistance and viscosity of your mucous over a fairly short period of time, which is the last thing you want when you're sick.

Do get well soon, jtr.

 

[e_dawg]

If you have a very runny nose (*1) (and the dreaded post-nasal drip, which can promote sore throat, coughing, and bronchitis-like sequelae), take diphenhydramine hydrochloride. It is the active ingredient in Benadryl (an antihistamine) and various sleep aids. Some sleep aids use doxylamine instead of diphenhydramine as the active ingredient; it does a good job as well. The anticholinergic properties of diphenhydramine will stop the severe runniness and the sedative properties will help you sleep (you will quickly get used to sedative effect; the first dose will knock you out a bit, but after a few doses, you can use it during the day without falling asleep).

*1 - you know the type -- there's often a day, sometimes two, where your nose is running like a broken faucet and you either swallow so much you feel nauseous or you use an entire box of kleenex in 24 hours.

Another tip is to check the ingredients of your meds so you know what you're taking. Don't just use some "shotgun" flu formula. Take the active ingredients you specifically need for the symptoms you are suffering from at that time. For example, don't take dextromethorphan (DM, a cough suppressant) when you have a cough that is very productive of thick phlegm -- you need guaifensen (an expectorant). Similarly, don't take diphenhydramine (an anticholinergic) when you have a very stuffy (but not runny) nose. And if you have a DRY cough, DO take DM. Some people make the mistake of thinking "I have to cough this stuff out to clear my lungs". If it is a dry cough, the coughing will only cause trauma to your lungs and you won't be able to shake it. (of course, if you have an intense cough with greenish mucous that you can't shake, see your doctor for antibiotics)

Feel free to ask me, Adcadet, and PW anything. Those folks are in med school. I have a degree in physiology (the study of how the body works, and is the underlying basis for medicine) and have taken several courses on pharmacology (the study of the characterstics of drugs/medications) and pathology (the study of diseases). But of course, we cannot diagnose anything over the Net. If you have problems, you must see a doctor in person and not rely on WebMD, SF, etc.

 

[e_dawg]

If your have nasal congestion/stuffiness moreso than runniness, take 60 mg pseudoephedrine HCl (Sudafed) every 6 hours or so. (or 30 mg every 4 hours or so to smooth out the dosing)

 

[Jake the Dog]

If your have nasal congestion/stuffiness moreso than runniness, take 60 mg pseudoephedrine HCl (Sudafed) every 6 hours or so. (or 30 mg every 4 hours or so to smooth out the dosing)

yup, what my fellow dawgie said: pseudoephedrine and also echinacea.

 

[e_dawg]

There's nothing that can really help cure a flu after you get it, except prescription Tamiflu and the odd new/experimental drug. Echinacea, zinc, and Vitamin C have been reported to help in some studies, but the overall results from meta-analysis of multiple studies are rather equivocal.

Echinacea can provoke allergic reactions in those sensitive to ragweed, so it may actually worsen problems in certain individuals. High dose zinc appears to be worth a shot if you can start taking it right after a cold starts, but there seems to be a small therapeutic window (lower than 30 mg/d is ineffective, >60 mg/d is excessive, and can cause zinc-copper imbalance). Vitamin C appears to be most effective if taken in small doses repeatedly throughout the day for cumulative daily doses of > 1 g/d, but again, the therapeutic window can be small, causing diarrhea with daily doses approaching 1.5 g/d.

Tamiflu is really the only thing I recommend that someone take as a "cure" (as opposed to something that treats the symptoms, like decongestants or cough suppressants). But the catch is that it only works if you take it in the budding stages of the flu. After 1 day of the flu, you still have time... but after 2 days with the flu, don't bother; it's too late.

 

[jtr1962]

Thanks guys for the suggestions and sympathies. This is the first time since I posted yesterday that I feel well enough to sit for a few minutes and post again. I'm taking something with acetaminophen (500 mg), chlorpheniramine maleate (2mg), dextromethorphan hydrobromide (15 mg), and pseudoephedrine hydrochloride (30 mg) per caplet. I'm taking two caplets every six hours. My runny nose was cleared up almost immediately (I had the broken faucet type runny nose with clear mucus that e_dawg mentioned). I have a dry sore throat which is being helped somewhat also, as is my coughing. Fever goes up and down, I guess it has to run its course. This stuff makes me very tired-I literally sleep 75% of the time. Don't even ask about the kind of weird dreams I've been having thanks to this stuff-usually of deceased relatives in graves with worms crawling on their face.

Regarding some other ideas here-I'm not drinking milk, my window is open to get fresh air with an electric heater to keep the room warm, and if I can stand for long enough a walk sounds like an idea. The air is fairly clean this time of year. I'll try some oranges and soup for food. I've eaten so little the last few days three bites fills me up. Tamiflu is out-this started probably a week ago, but has only gotten really debilitating within the last three days. In case it helps with any further suggestions for medication, I have no allergies that I'm aware of.

I can't take alcohol with this medication, ddrueding, but you might be on to something. I took aspirin for two days without much effect. A small glass of amaretto did more to make me feel better than all the aspirin did. Of course, it's not a cure, but it did make me forget the symptoms for a few hours.

That's it for now-I'm starting to feel faint again. Hopefully this will run its course and I can avoid seeing an MD, which is the choice of last resort. My mom is only starting to feel almost normal two weeks after she got sick. Her doctor prescribed a few medications that she said really didn't do much.

 

[e_dawg]

Chlorpheniramine does a decent job of reducing the runniness due to its anticholinergic effects like diphenhydramine and doxylamine. It will make you quite drowsy too while you get used to it. Chlorpheniramine + DM as a combo can sure knock you out for the first few doses, but the pseudoephedrine is a mild stimulant that should combat the drowsiness a bit.

Do try to eat when you can, especially protein-containg foods if possible. You need a bit of protein every now and then to help break down the acetaminophen (not to mention to fuel your immune system and body in general). Very high doses of acetaminophen with continued lack of protein intake could make it difficult to prevent acetaminophen toxicity and liver damage.

If you are taking this "flu cocktatil" regularly, you don't need the aspirin, as 1,000 mg of acetaminophen every 6 hours is sufficient for pain and fever relief.

 

[Pradeep]

Sudafed and plenty of alchohol. Some nice juicy steaks.

Better close the window soon, temps will be dropping from the insane 60 degrees the other day down to the teens this week

 

[Mercutio]

Yeah, we got about 4 inches of snow here since yesterday afternoon, so you'll probably see it Tuesday in New York.

 

[e_dawg]

That reminds me. All this talk of alcohol is dangerous when you have a flu, especially if you are taking acetaminophen. Basically, alcohol interferes with the detoxification process of acetaminophen, greatly increasing the chances of liver damage. As little as 4 g of acetaminophen in a 24 hour period can result in liver damage when combined with alcohol (that's the equivalent of taking 2 tablets of your "flu cocktail" every 6 hours, which is more or less what most people take). Source: Alcohol-acetaminophen syndrome: Even moderate social drinkers are at risk

An excerpt from the above-linked article:

In a well-publicized case, Antonio Benedi, an appointments secretary for President George Bush, sued Johnson & Johnson and was awarded $8.8 million in damages. Although Benedi regularly had three glasses of wine with dinner, he stopped drinking alcohol because of the dose. Several days later, he had "complete liver failure," which eventually necessitated a liver transplant

High doses of DM and alcohol are not a safe mixture, either (weakens respiratory drive).

 

[jtr1962]

No alcohol for me until I'm off this medication for a while (I'm just an occasional, social drinker anyway). In fact, the symptoms seemed somewhat better so I cut my dosage to one caplet every six hours. This seemed the prudent thing to do as acetaminophen seems none too good for you long term even without alcohol, especially when not eating much. I also went off the aspirin immediately after I started my "flu cocktail".

I can guardedly say I might be over the hump, so to speak. The fever is only slight, the chills are mostly gone, cough and runny nose are occasional. I'm still very weak, but able to eat a bit more. I managed to eat a TV dinner, an orange, and some cereal yesterday. We'll see what the next few days bring. This is about the sickest I've been since I was a kid. Most times I lick a fever in a day or two with just aspirin.

 

[Buck]

Sorry to hear about all those that are sick, especially with influenza.

 

[jtr1962]

First time in a few days that I actually posted in threads besides this one. Still a long way to go before I feel normal, no doubt about it. Not quite as tired as before. I don't know whether to attribute this to the smaller doses of medication, my body getting used to no caffeine (no coffee for four days now), or just getting better. This has to be a virulent strain to keep me down this long.

 

[Fushigi]

I got my every-few-years 24 hour flu yesterday. It started with a dull headache. You know how a sinus headache is towards the front of your head? Well, this was just behind it. So not sinus but not an 'average' headache. Then came the diarrhea. Yuck. Never pleasant but when you're at work and they have that f***ing 120 grit sandpaper for toilet tissue it becomes a painful experience. But it didn't stop. By 11AM it had hit 3 times and I was starting to feel warm.

So I packed up the laptop and started towards home. Called my boss on the way to let him know (he's based out of a different office). Called my wife, who advised me on some food to eat & to drink lots of water. Took some Nyquil and slept for a while. Had the dog laying on my legs and the cat at my side.

Laying down & reclined sitting (thank you, La-Z-Boy) were tolerable, but sitting and standing I would heat up and start to feel a little dizzy/nausea. The diarrhea continued. I don't think I've ever had to sit so many times in one day before.

My wife checked my temp; around 99.something. I normally run right around 98 so it was only a little high.

Finally, at about 8:30, it decided it was time. I heated up, starting pouring sweat, and had to vomit. Lucky for me (if there is such a thing as luck when it comes to vomiting), it didn't go to the dry heaves; just 4 or so 'purges' of my stomach contents.

Truthfully, that's the best part. Not because I enjoy puking, but in the past it has always signaled the worst is over and recovery is on the way. With the sweating, my temp had broken.

So I'm not fully recovered this morning. But I do feel the worst is over and I just need to take it easy for the day. My body is tired of being reclined so much, but I can now sit without the nausea so that's OK. I'm mostly stuck in low gear. Just moving from place to place. Avoiding my normal foods in favor of things like crackers and stuff that is gentle on my stomach.

The silver lining? With all that purging I lost 3 pounds yesterday. :wink:

 

[Buck]

I got my every-few-years 24 hour flu yesterday. It started with a dull headache. You know how a sinus headache is towards the front of your head? Well, this was just behind it. So not sinus but not an 'average' headache. Then came the diarrhea. Yuck. Never pleasant but when you're at work and they have that f***ing 120 grit sandpaper for toilet tissue it becomes a painful experience. But it didn't stop. By 11AM it had hit 3 times and I was starting to feel warm.

So I packed up the laptop and started towards home. Called my boss on the way to let him know (he's based out of a different office). Called my wife, who advised me on some food to eat & to drink lots of water. Took some Nyquil and slept for a while. Had the dog laying on my legs and the cat at my side.

Laying down & reclined sitting (thank you, La-Z-Boy) were tolerable, but sitting and standing I would heat up and start to feel a little dizzy/nausea. The diarrhea continued. I don't think I've ever had to sit so many times in one day before.

My wife checked my temp; around 99.something. I normally run right around 98 so it was only a little high.

Finally, at about 8:30, it decided it was time. I heated up, starting pouring sweat, and had to vomit. Lucky for me (if there is such a thing as luck when it comes to vomiting), it didn't go to the dry heaves; just 4 or so 'purges' of my stomach contents.

Truthfully, that's the best part. Not because I enjoy puking, but in the past it has always signaled the worst is over and recovery is on the way. With the sweating, my temp had broken.

So I'm not fully recovered this morning. But I do feel the worst is over and I just need to take it easy for the day. My body is tired of being reclined so much, but I can now sit without the nausea so that's OK. I'm mostly stuck in low gear. Just moving from place to place. Avoiding my normal foods in favor of things like crackers and stuff that is gentle on my stomach.

The silver lining? With all that purging I lost 3 pounds yesterday. :wink:

I have felt that way every day since May, except without the vomiting and diarrhea. I have lost more than 3 pounds.

 

[Mercutio]

Buck, you've made allusions several times to recent health problems. Are you doing OK?

 

[Buck]

Buck, you've made allusions several times to recent health problems. Are you doing OK?

Doing somewhat better now Mercutio, thanks. Hopefully the road to improved health will continue.

 

[its.fubar]

Here is a old remedy which you can use for colds and the flu before it Have taken control of your inner working parts.

One glass of very hot milk,
add 6cl or 3 fingers of whiskey "depending on which way you measure"
add some sugar if you if you don't like the taste of whiskey.
and then go to bed

you will be surprised,it does really work, try it.
don't ask me why it work`s but it does.

 

[jtr1962]

Well, my temperature has been 97.7°F (normal for me) for two days in a row but I still feel horribly weak. I did manage to get out Tuesday but only felt well enough to walk about two miles. I really hope I get my strength back soon. I really can't do anything for more than an hour, and then I have to lie down for a couple of hours. My lymph nodes under my armpits are noticeably swollen. I just noticed that today. They may have been swollen when this first started but I didn't notice until I took a shower today.

Glad to hear your flu was the 24-hour variety, Fushigi. That's usually what happens to me. I hope you don't get what I have. I think it's the new strain they were warning people about in the papers. Last time I was this sick was when I had smallpox as a kid.

 

[i]

Smallpox? Ouch!

I had the measles as a teenager. Left me with a fever for a week, and unable to do any sort of basic physical activity without passing out.

That said, I suspect your smallpox beats my measles.

Anyone want to see jtr's smallpox and raise a SARS infection? :wink:

 

[i]

Ok, perhaps it's best to ignore my sad attempts at lightening up a dreary subject. I didn't mean to trivialize anything by making a reference to a poker game. I'm one of those strange people who finds something helpful in trading and comparing illness and injury stories that's all. I find it reminds me how we all face physical hardships in life. It can also remind me how comparatively lucky I've been compared to some. And finally it also adds a deeper sense of reality when you hear about the effects of something first-person, as opposed to just reading about it somewhere.

Case in point, I once talked to a friend who's boyfriend picked up a tape worm in South America. Gross? Yup. But geez hearing the story sure did make me better appreciate having access to safe food and relatively easily-accessible health care. I don't think I could outdo that story either. *shudder*

 

[jtr1962]

Isn't SARS much worse than smallpox? Lots of kids had smallpox in NYC back in the 1960s when I was a kid IIRC, and it wasn't any worse than the flu. It certainly wasn't unusual or anything that would raise an alarm with the CDC, but at least they have a vaccine for it now. I had measles, too, and I'm pretty sure that was more serious than smallpox. Both my parents had scarlet fever. It affected my father's eyesight and my mom's leg (which is partially why she finally needed a knee replacement last year). I remember someone who was in a wheelchair because they got polio prior to a vaccine being invented. We are pretty lucky in that many killer diseases don't exist in most of the world any more (i.e. black death, malaria, polio, leprosy, etc.)

On the other hand, I vaguely remember a case of Ebola in the Bronx in the early 1990s. That was scary, and certainly would have caused horrible devastation had it spread (the mortality rate is something like 30%). It pisses me off that we've gotten so lax in many ways that something like that could even come into the country.

I'm afraid I don't have any interesting injury stories to trade with you. I'm 41 and I've never broken a single bone in my body despite several good attempts, including a fall from my bicycle at 37 mph. I have needed stitches three times, and they were all for cuts under 1 inch long. Other than that, nothing very eventful. The two times I got shot I didn't even need to go to the doctor-I just pulled the bullets out and put some alcohol on.

P.S. Everything in the last paragraph is true except one sentence. Bonus points plus free Ebola vaccine to the first person to figure out which sentence is a tall story.

 

[time]

That would be the bit about you being 41?

CDC[/url] (Center for Disease Control)]The last case of smallpox in the United States was in 1949.

They also put the death rate from the most common form of Smallpox at 30%.

So I guess it must have been a different sort of pox that you had, jtr.

 

[CougTek]

The two times I got shot I didn't even need to go to the doctor-I just pulled the bullets out and put some alcohol on.

Damn, you too? What's pissing me off though is when one bullet doesn't bounce on a bone and passes through to sit deep inside. You then have to take a spoon and dig and dig and dig...I mean, it can be real long to find sometimes.

Have you also tried to catch the bullets with your teeth? Now that's some real fun.

 

[blakerwry]

including a fall from my bicycle at 37 mph.

It was really a tricycle!

 

[jtr1962]

That would be the bit about you being 41?

CDC[/url] (Center for Disease Control)]The last case of smallpox in the United States was in 1949.

They also put the death rate from the most common form of Smallpox at 30%.

So I guess it must have been a different sort of pox that you had, jtr.

If it wasn't smallpox it was chicken pox. Smallpox happened to come to mind first. I know it was some sort of pox. My memory isn't too good these days for diseases I had 30+ years ago. I wasn't aware that the last case of smallpox in the US was that long ago, or that it had such a high mortality rate. I was under the impression it was similar to the measles or flu, not as dangerous as Ebola.

 

[jtr1962]

The two times I got shot I didn't even need to go to the doctor-I just pulled the bullets out and put some alcohol on.

Damn, you too? What's pissing me off though is when one bullet doesn't bounce on a bone and passes through to sit deep inside. You then have to take a spoon and dig and dig and dig...I mean, it can be real long to find sometimes.

Have you also tried to catch the bullets with your teeth? Now that's some real fun.

:mrgrn: Actually, I try to let the bullets enter my ear so they just come out the other ear. It's mostly empty space in between so that usually works. I think it was pretty obvious which sentence was a tall story, wasn't it? Now I have seen people who were shot (this is NYC, after all), but thankfully it never happened to me personally-yet. I've heard getting shot really doesn't hurt much anyway unless the bullet hits a nerve or an artery. For example, the best way to kill someone is to put the gun to the base of the skull at the back of their head-they likely won't feel a thing as the spinal cord will be the first thing severed when the bullet enters, and then when it enters the brain, it's just lights out. My relatives in the "family business" use this method all the time. 8)

 

[fool]

I'm one of those strange people who finds something helpful in trading and comparing illness and injury stories that's all.

I and i are of one mind on this. ( sorry, couldn't resist )

We used to have some of those retracting metal stairs leading into our attic. When I was about six or so I slipped down them backwards taking a strip of skin about two inches wide by ten inches long of my back. That hurt.

Outside our front door there was a scaffolding pole set as a hand railing a few feet above a low wall. I used to spin round on it, sort of like assisted somersaults if you see what I mean. It was fine going foreword, as I’d remain tucked up. When I decided to try it backwards however, the centripetal force caused the back of my head to smack onto the edge of the brick wall, lots of blood, four stitches and a very loud screaming boy.

Round at a friends house having a pillow fight I got knocked over and hit my chin on the stead of the bed that was our impromptu arena, causing me to bite through my lower lip. The most painful bit however was when the doctor sprayed this synthetic skin stuff on my lip. Man that stung, almost as much as the time when,….

On a walk I decided to feed the horses that were hanging their heads over the fence separating their paddock from the path I was on. So I went to the verge and yanked out a clump of grass, which was accompanied by dozens of bees who were slightly miffed that I’d just destroyed a fair sized chunk of their hive. As I was bent over at the time I’d more or less pulled them right into my face. Which they stung. A lot.

When I was ten or so I was playing golf with a friend of mine and stupidly stood behind him as he took a shot. The club caught me just above my left eye. The odd thing was that it wasn’t until I looked down at the blood covering my shirt that I realised how much it hurt. (it was a new shirt, first time I’d worn it, I’d been pestering my mum for weeks to buy it for me, I loved that shirt, damn.) Still got the scar in my eyebrow from that one.

The Only time I broke a bone was when I lost a bet I should never have made. I bet this kid he couldn’t knock me off my bike by kicking his football at me as I rode past. As I say I lost, went over the handlebars and landed on and broke my nose, which has never been completely straight since.

The oddest thing is how much I enjoy looking back at what one would think would be really painful memories. Even to the extent that I must confess a little jealousy over the time my best friend was running along the top of a semi ruined castle wall, slipped, fell thirty or so feet and ended up with a flint embedded in his forehead.

I know, I’m not a well man.

 

[e_dawg]

Hey, why don't you learn tantric sex, convert to the Church of Scientology, crank up the masochism even more, speak exclusively in puns, blend it all together, and start a cult based on this new religion you have founded. You'll be so gloriously f*cked in the head that I'll be jealous of you (I'll apologize in advance if I went too far...)

 

[fool]

touché. Sorry, I guess I got a bit carried away.

 

[e_dawg]

Heh, that was just my silly attempt at mocking you. No need to be sorry...

 

[Computer Generated Baby]

The last time I had influenza was either 1975 or 1976. I got a flu vaccination and I suddenly had the flu the next day. I had the flu maybe 6 or 7 years before then.

I may have possibly had a cold once back in the late 1980s, and possibly 2 or 3 times back in the 1990s. I debate that only because those incidents came and went in a matter of about 4 to 6 hours. I've also had 4 or 5 incidents where I've had an allergic reaction to secondhand cigarette smoke (an overnight flu-like thing for me that can happen if I get stuck in a smoke-filled room for more than an hour or so). Otherwise, I haven't been sick at all since 1975/6.

 

[Computer Generated Baby]

...If it wasn't smallpox it was chicken pox. Smallpox happened to come to mind first. I know it was some sort of pox.

Er... most definitely *chicken* pox.

Chicken pox is still around -- a very common childhood disease that's not bad unless you are an invalid. Small pox is definitely a serious disease with serious consequences.