Flu Fear

[cherryolivia]

Hi everyone! So last Monday (a week ago) my boyfriend and I went out of town for the day. On the way back, I began to feel shaky and had chills, but no fever. My throat and nose were a little uncomfortable but I woke up the next morning barely being able to move but still had no fever or congestion. I went to the doc in the box for fear of having the flu, and I tested negative. But the doctor did state the my symptoms did sound like the flu and they prescribed me tamiflu.

I took the tamiflu as directed, and called out of work for the entire week. (SIDENOTE: I have been having TERRIBLE anxiety when I am away from home. Scared that I will end up losing my job, but trying to fight through it for now.) I have only been out of the house three times since last Monday.

Anyway, I slept more than usual this past week and ate normal. No abnormal symptoms. I am on my last day of tami flu today, and now I am beginning to question if I even had the flu.

Will taking tamiflu prevent me from catching it if I didn't actually have it? I am scared that I will get it now that I've been out of work so long and karma will come bite me in the butt. I also wonder if my symptoms could have been anxiety related THINKING I had the flu? Idk. Any reassurance would be great!!

[NervUs]

Tamiflu will not prevent you from getting the flu at a later time. It does not release antibodies into your system, it just prevent virus already there from replicating.

I get that we are on a HA site, but I am really surprised by all the flu posts. I ended up getting it this year, as did my husband and kids. It was HORRIBLE, in that the symptoms were terrible, but most people don't die from the flu. Far from it. This year looks a bit worse than other years, but a small number of people die of the flu every year. It's kind of one of those "shit happens" kind of things, and just take care of yourself if you do get it, get to the hospital if you can't breathe, have pain breathing, are unresponsive, or symptoms worse over time.

[jules321]

For me, my fear is for reasons such as your reply NervUs. When people say it's "TERRIBLE" that freaks the living sh*t out of me.

[ktdid2000]

I think by TERRIBLE he means you just feel like garbage, but nothing life threatening. I had the flu (confirmed) 2 weeks ago and I'm just now getting back to normal. It wiped me out for a solid week. But I eventually got over it and am better now. I would like to prevent that from happening again, but only because I really can't afford to be knocked out for a week or two with 2 small kids, not because I was gonna die or anything like that.

[NervUs]

For me, my fear is for reasons such as your reply NervUs. When people say it's "TERRIBLE" that freaks the living sh*t out of me.

If your fear is feeling terrible, I honestly can't help you. THe flu slapped me, threw me to the ground, and stomped on me for fun. I felt atrocious, but *for me* feeling atrocious isn't the end of the world, as long as I recover. And, I did, and the vast majority of people who get it do too.