Sicker Than a Dog Chills: Disaster Cleanup

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The discussion revolves around several participants sharing their experiences with illness, particularly flu-like symptoms, including chills, diarrhea, and general malaise. One participant humorously recounts their struggles with household chores while feeling unwell, including an incident with a vacuum cleaner and flour. Others express sympathy and share their own experiences with similar symptoms, suggesting that the current illness might be a particularly virulent strain of flu or a norovirus. Participants discuss the effectiveness of the flu vaccine, noting that this year's strain is not well-matched to the vaccine, which may contribute to the widespread illness. Some share remedies like chicken soup and spicy foods, while others reflect on their own health history, including past flu experiences and the benefits of getting vaccinated. The conversation also touches on the challenges of managing illness alone and the desire for care and support during sickness. Overall, the thread captures a mix of humor, shared experiences, and health advice amidst the frustrations of dealing with illness.
  • #31
Moonbear said:
Of course, it could also be a norovirus or rotavirus.
Unless Evo gets it. Then it would have to be a notavirus. She's pretty contrary that way.
 
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  • #32
turbo-1 said:
Unless Evo gets it. Then it would have to be a notavirus. She's pretty contrary that way.

:smile:
 
  • #33
Evo has a notanabcessedtooth. And is notadying. :cry:

Oooh, I'm sure I saw the notagoshawk on my way home from work the other day!

WollieRam and Russ, so sorry you are sick. :frown:
 
  • #34
Evo said:
Evo has a notanabcessedtooth. And is notadying. :cry:
Notanother one? :frown:

Oh dear - get thee to thy dentist!
 
  • #35
It usually takes about seven days to get rid of cold, but if you take the advice offered in this thread I'll bet you'd be better in a week.
 
  • #36
Astronuc said:
Notanother one? :frown:

Oh dear - get thee to thy dentist!
Same one. I've been busy...:redface:
 
  • #37
tribdog said:
It usually takes about seven days to get rid of cold, but if you take the advice offered in this thread I'll bet you'd be better in a week.
Granny Clampett used to attribute such speedy recoveries to the efficacy of her "home remedy".
 
  • #38
Moonbear said:
Sorry to hear you're both sick, Wollie and Russ. Yep, that sounds like the flu bug that's going around right now.
Thanks. And while I tend to doubt it can come on so fast, I was at a meeting Thursday where the guy we were meeting with said, 'yeah, we have something like 10% of our staff out right now with the flu...' Gee, thanks.
 
  • #39
russ_watters said:
Thanks. And while I tend to doubt it can come on so fast, I was at a meeting Thursday where the guy we were meeting with said, 'yeah, we have something like 10% of our staff out right now with the flu...' Gee, thanks.
This particular strain can come on like gang-busters, Russ. My wife had to have a root canal yesterday and half of the dentist's staff was out, and they all got sick within about a day's time. Apparently, this strain is very effective at overwhelming the body's defenses very quickly. If it ever morphed up with the Asian bird flu, we'd have a pandemic on our hands with high mortality.
 
  • #40
I am so glad that I got my flu shot this year. Everyone at work did, our company paid to have medical staff come here and give us free flu shots and free cholesterol, blood sugar, and blood pressure screenings.
 
  • #41
Evo said:
I am so glad that I got my flu shot this year. Everyone at work did, our company paid to have medical staff come here and give us free flu shots and free cholesterol, blood sugar, and blood pressure screenings.

Don't be too lax about this. This year's flu shot apparently isn't protective against this nasty strain going around. Don't know if it will lessen the severity of it if you get it, but it's not going to stop you from getting it.

But some years the match isn't optimal and this year is one of them. The B strain and the H3N2 strain in the 2007-08 vaccine aren't well matched to the predominant circulating viruses, an unfortunate reality which may be contributing to a surge in H3N2 flu cases in the United States in recent weeks.
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5idZD1mtfNcnVbv_sTpY00qFWSEQA

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/
 
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  • #42
Evo said:
I am so glad that I got my flu shot this year. Everyone at work did, our company paid to have medical staff come here and give us free flu shots and free cholesterol, blood sugar, and blood pressure screenings.
This year's flu vaccine does not protect against the very virulent and fast-acting strain that his hitting our region this winter. Medical nannies are saying that getting flu shots increases one's overall immunity to these viruses, but I don't know about that. Flu viruses mutate so fast that the long lead-times involved in producing every year's batch of vaccines make it seem like we're fighting last year's threat every year.
 
  • #43
russ_watters said:
Thanks. And while I tend to doubt it can come on so fast, I was at a meeting Thursday where the guy we were meeting with said, 'yeah, we have something like 10% of our staff out right now with the flu...' Gee, thanks.

Actually, it's quite possible. He was probably already infected from his staff. It's only about a 2-5 day incubation for flu, so yep, quite possible you were infected on Thursday. Of course, it's so widespread right now, you really could have picked it up anywhere.
 
  • #44
The Spawn of Evo got that really bad flu a few weeks ago. She said she has never been sicker in her life and she's had scarlett fever and a few other weird things.

So far, even after taking care of her, I have not come down with it and no one in my office has had the flu. Odd out of such a large office. It seems the vaccine is working.
 
  • #45
Evo said:
The Spawn of Evo got that really bad flu a few weeks ago. She said she has never been sicker in her life and she's had scarlett fever and a few other weird things.

So far, even after taking care of her, I have not come down with it and no one in my office has had the flu. Odd out of such a large office. It seems the vaccine is working.

Earlier in the flu season, the other strain was going around (the H1 influenza A strain), which the vaccine does protect against. That might be the one your daughter got. Right now, it's an H3 strain going around, and the vaccine doesn't protect against that. It has really only just started running rampant in the last couple weeks (the flu season has been going on for a while now). If you look at the CDC site I linked to above, you can look at the weekly influenza reports week by week and see the pattern of cases and how widespread they are steadily increasing.
 
  • #46
Moonbear said:
Earlier in the flu season, the other strain was going around (the H1 influenza A strain), which the vaccine does protect against. That might be the one your daughter got. Right now, it's an H3 strain going around, and the vaccine doesn't protect against that. It has really only just started running rampant in the last couple weeks (the flu season has been going on for a while now). If you look at the CDC site I linked to above, you can look at the weekly influenza reports week by week and see the pattern of cases and how widespread they are steadily increasing.
I don't know, this was really bad.

Are there any reported cases of people that got the flu vaccine getting this flu? I know that there are different "keys" for the vaccines, but it seems this strain is not different enough.
 
  • #47
Evo said:
I don't know, this was really bad.

Are there any reported cases of people that got the flu vaccine getting this flu? I know that there are different "keys" for the vaccines, but it seems this strain is not different enough.

It's quite different. That's what the CDC is reporting, that the vaccine is a poor match for the H3 strain going around right now. It's a good match for the earlier H1 strain that predominated in January. In the last two weeks or so, there's been a shift toward the H3 strain, and it's been running rampant.

CDC cites it is too early in the season to determine the most prevalent circulating strains this influenza season and it's match to this year's vaccine. To date, CDC sample of 197 influenza viruses shows that 87% of the influenza A H3 viruses identified are the A/Brisbane/10 strain. A/Brisbane/10 is a genetic drift of the Wisconsin strain included in this year's vaccine. To date, nintey-three percent of the influenza B viruses identified are B/Yamagata, a strain not included in this year's vaccine.
http://www.scdhec.gov/health/disease/acute/flu.htm

That report is requesting physicians have any patients who had flu vaccine and show up with flu symptoms be tested to confirm it's a flu infection. I think it's too early to know if the vaccine is helping. In past years, the vaccine has helped lessen severity of symptoms even when it hasn't been completely preventative, but it's too early right now to be sure since these H3 and B strains are only really just getting a foothold.

I just think the wisest thing right now is to assume you're not protected and take precautions as you would if you weren't vaccinated, just to be on the safe side if it's not working.
 
  • #48
Evo said:
Same one. I've been busy...:redface:
I have pliers! :biggrin: Seriously, an abscessed tooth could lead to cardiac problems if the bacteria gets into the blood stream and finds its way to the heart valves.

It's good to get a flu shot annually. My sister, the pediatrician, mentioned a study that indicates that a decade or so of flu shots is good for the cardiopulmonary system. I'll have to find out more about that.
 
  • #49
I've been incredibly lucky - I've never had the flu. But a few years ago a coworker went on chemo and was imnumocompromised, so I decided to start getting them.

I don't regret my decision. But a nurse told me that if someone hasn't had the flu by age 40 or 45, they should not start getting the shot.

I haven't heard that from any other source - is it true?
 
  • #50
How can you not have had the flu ever in your life? You must be magical.
 
  • #51
I've been lucky in that I had no major (like stay home) colds or flu in all of 2007.
 
  • #52
No, I haven't. I know I've been very lucky.

But I do seem to get food poisoning more easily than most people, and I get migraines. So I guess it evens out in the end!
 
  • #53
lisab said:
No, I haven't. I know I've been very lucky.
Wow, not even as a kid?! That's really quite unusual. I don't know anything about whether you should or shouldn't get a flu shot if you haven't had flu.

But I do seem to get food poisoning more easily than most people, and I get migraines. So I guess it evens out in the end!

You have to be more careful how you handle and prepare food if you're getting food poisoning a lot! :bugeye:

I had flu a couple times as a kid, and once I suspect I got it as an adult, but never went to a doctor because it wasn't so bad I thought I needed a doctor, so kind of hard to be sure if it was cold or flu. I'm just really hoping my aching back really is a muscle ache today...so many people around me have been sick with flu and other things that I'm not sure how long I can hold it all off. Since I was around all the sick students Friday, I'll probably know by the end of the weekend with this strain.
 
  • #54
Moonbear said:
You have to be more careful how you handle and prepare food if you're getting food poisoning a lot! :bugeye:

I know! I don't get it from my own cooking. My mom taught me how to do it right. Just from restaurants...and potlucks. Which is really, really terrible because I love to cook, and potlucks are so fun for those of us who still practice that dying art!
 
  • #55
Sorry you have the plague wolram, hope your pegs feels better soon.
 
  • #56
Forget Truman's World, I'd pay extra to watch Wolram's World!
 
  • #57
Moonbear said:
It's only about a 2-5 day incubation for flu, so yep, quite possible you were infected on Thursday.
Well, no, actually, I started getting sick Thursday night. I wouldn't expect 15 hours to be enough...
Of course, it's so widespread right now, you really could have picked it up anywhere.
True, I had another one Tuesday with some overlapping personnel (same project, different meeting, different location).
 
  • #58
binzing said:
I've been lucky in that I had no major (like stay home) colds or flu in all of 2007.
Almost a full year? That's not lucky. Several years in a row would be lucky. Since getting my real job 6 years ago, I've missed a total of 3 days of work due to illness, Friday being the 3rd.
 
  • #59
russ_watters said:
Well, no, actually, I started getting sick Thursday night. I wouldn't expect 15 hours to be enough... True, I had another one Tuesday with some overlapping personnel (same project, different meeting, different location).

I guess you could always blame Typhoid Evo. :biggrin:

*pours homemade chicken soup into Russ' computer*

Since Wollie doesn't like chicken soup, I've sent you a double serving.

*shoves ginger ale and crackers into Wollie's computer*
 
  • #60
wolram said:
Chills, sick, diarrhea but i managed to do my house work, vacuumed and then sneezed a bag of flour all over the place, washed and it all blew of the line, all my pegs seem to have gone brittle and break, went to kick the vacuum cleaner cause it was not working well missed and
ended up on my ass, now that hurts, some one shoot me.

I'm glad to hear your dog is feeling okay. :biggrin:

I always try to look at the bright side.

I also do not get the flu. I've had the flu once, about 14 or 15 years ago. I rarely get sick, period. When I lived in more humid areas, I used to get colds when the weather was changing constantly, but even that's not a problem living in such a dry area.
 
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