Short rest from cancer to worry about flu!

[AnnieMags]

Dear All - does anyone else have a mounting fear of catching flu this year? I can't remember having been this bad other years, but it is really taking over these days. My boss has been down with it (not 'man-flu', from my telephone conversations with him he has the real thing) and is insistent that he is coming back to work on Monday, despite my trying to persuade him otherwise!:scared15:

I worry about catching it over Christmas and spoiling it for everyone - my son is coming home with his girlfriend and we are so looking forward to it. By the same token I worry about my son getting it and not being able to travel, or, almost worse still, not being able to work for a couple of weeks or longer, as he might get all sorts of nasty post-flu complications (he does not get paid when off sick), which means I have to help him out and my budget is already overstretched, etc. etc. etc - you see a pattern here, don't you? One fear brings another, they are all explored to their most extreme consequence and on and on it goes. Rationally I know there is every chance that none of this will happen and I will have had all this worry and misery for nothing, and even if one of us does fall ill, we will deal with it! At the moment though, there is this constant nagging worry in the back of my mind ALL the time. While at the supermarket I even quickly scan the check-out attendants to see who is looking least likely to have a cold and cough all over my groceries (oh, please someone tell me it is not just me who does this?! :)

At work I try to touch as few shared surfaces as possible (the photocopier and fax machine are scary these days) and I always leave the ladies' with a paper towel round the door handle... If anyone comes into my office and want to make a quick call from my phone - well, out come the antiseptic wipes as soon as they are out the door! The next hurdle will be coping with my boss back on Monday, possibly still infectious, three days before Christmas, plenty of time for me still to catch it - AAAARRRGGHH! I can't talk to my husband about these worries at all - he does not understand them and gets very impatient and grumpy with me, so that is just one more problem, then!

And as for norovirus - don't even get me started!

Reassurance, anyone? :D

Annie

[june]

Annie, in all seriousness I could have written this post a hundred times over.
The scenario of playing everything through to the bitter end = the never ending chain of what ifs? is truly awful!!!
I am now so isolated - I can not talk to anyone about this problem.
When I was young they said " Oh grow up and stop worrying"
Now i am old they say "you are old enough to know better".
The sad thing is I do know better but it does not stop the fear and worries:mad: :weep:
best wishes
June

[AnnieMags]

Thank you, June. Yes, we do 'know better' but when did that ever stop us? :D I try to focus on 'Yes, it might happen, but it is more likely not to happen" - needless to say, I don't always manage! Flu, for example - at any given time at the height of the flu season 10-15% of the population will have it - scary figure until you think of it another way: 85-90 people out of 100 do NOT have flu. That is a much more manageable statistic!

My son had spinal surgery last year and the surgeon told him that serious complications like total paralysis only happened to 1 in 1,000 patients. That to me sounded like far too many until he reminded me that we were talking about 0.1%. That was immediately less frightening. :)

Best wishes, Annie

[girlrock]

Annie,

For as long as I can remember I always seemed to get sick right around Christmas. I think its just that time of year when the bugs are floating and stress levels are high. I've been lucky the last few years and got my colds in the fall or spring rather than over the holiday. But what I really wanted to say to you...is if you keep worrying about it you are really going to bring your immune system down. So think "No worry=no flu!" :) I'll bet you any money that you and your family get through the holiday 100% healthy! Do you have some Vitamin C supplements you could take? I love chewable vit C hehe they taste so good. Maybe if you try that...you can think of it as your "flu-chasing pill" :D Take care, hun and happy holidays to you!

[always-ill]

Hi,
I am worried about catching flu, I am an ashmatic, (sp?), so get free flu jabs each year, have had 4 flu jabs booked for the past 4 weeks but have had to cancel each one as Ive had a really bad cold and have been told that you shouldnt have the jab unless you are well, (go figure!), so now I am worried that cuz I havent had the jab that I will get the flu, which Im not so worried about, more the asthma side of it. I am quite careful not to pick up germs, like doing the toilet paper round the door handle thing, but wonder why some of us are more prone to picking up viruses more than others, I thought it was down to stressful lives until my boss, who is the healthiest person I know, no kids, no stress, very caring partner, came down with it last week and had to take a few days off, (she is never off work for sickness), so Im not sure whether to be releived that anyone can catch it, or that if she has caught it, then I am surely gonna suffer much worse and possibly have something much worse wrong, but I bet she will be at work monday and be better, whereas I will still be suffering, probably all over christmas and new year :weep: I havent voted as Im too scared to think of what I might have, but I live in hope that I will get better. I have a plan to make me better and cure myself of all ills, physical and emotional, in the new year of course, but then I say that every year!!! LOL

[june]

:ohmy: Isn't it strange - the newspapers / TV etc. never use this statistic:ohmy:



85-90 people out of 100 do NOT have flu.

:yesyes: :yesyes: :yesyes: :yesyes:


Best wishes
June

[AnnieMags]

I could not agree more, June - they never use them, but it probably would not sell many papers - not sensationalist enough! :)

I have read further - it appears that even in a year when flu is considered to be of pandemic proportions, the percentage of people who fall ill is about 30%. So even in a really bad year 70 out of 100 people do NOT have flu! Now, this is my kind of statistic and one that I am going to do my best to concentrate on! :)

Although I know we all struggle to varying degrees, I would like to wish everyone a happy, healthy Christmas 2008!

Annie
xx

[skye]

Ha this is me all over! I honestly wont even go near someone who looks ill my whole office has had flu and i literally dont even breathe when my manager comes over to my desk lol! IO am a nightmare, for me the big worry is the noivirus thingy i HATE being sick argh god very phobic about it and have been most of my life. im only ickle and constantly worry that my body couldnt take it and i would end up in hospital or be sick in my sleep. i think the complete worst all of the time i drive my family mad!
If we are gonna get it then theres nothing we can do, im dosing myslef up on vitamin C and hoping for the best! Have a great Xmas and try not to worry (ha!)