I'm really sick

I guess it is the flu. Usually when I have it is gone after a day or two. Today will be four days... Seems like it is getting worse. I don't know what to do..

• Flu strains are pretty rough this year. Get to a clinic or ER., if you feel you are getting worse. Take care.

  ICU-ist.

• Ride it out. If you're relatively young and in good health, you don't have much to worry about. I got the flu the day before Christmas Eve and spent the week in bed. It was miserable but after 1.5 week, the symptoms subsided and I was alive again. Drink plenty of fluids. Remember that rest is more important than food. I didn't eat much at all during that time. I wasn't hungry, I just needed sleep. You'll be fine.

• Duh see a doctor! dummy

• If you've got the flu, the doctor can prescribe Tamiflu, which may lessen the severity and duration of the flu if taken within 36 hours of the onset of symptoms; however, you say you've had symptoms for four days. There is nothing the doctor can do to cure you now, so stay at home in bed and get enough fluids. At this point you'll just have to wait it out until your body fights off the virus. The only thing they can do at the hospital is give you IV's to keep you hydrated. So if you can take oral fluids at home don't waste everyone's time at the hospital and expose others to your flu, like some Typhoid Mary. Hope you're feeling better soon. Next year get a flu shot like sensible people.

  Anomynous%20

• drink pedia sure or its generic version. you need to replce fluids and eltrolites.

• Emergen-C in hot water helped me with fluids. Generic Nyquil helped with body aches. I turned down the heat and layered clothing for sweats/chills.

• [quote] guess it is the flu. Usually when I have it is gone after a day or two. Today will be four days... OP - When you have previously had the 'flu', it wasn't the flu. The flu does not go after a day or two. Even with being sick for four days, you mightn't have the flu - you might just have a common cold or a mild virus - enough to make you feel unwell and have a temperature and aches and pains, but nothing like the flu. There's some good advice above. In addition, apparently having a small amount of sports drink, in addition to a lot of water, can be helpful to keep ones fluids up and in balance.

• This is the year I learned my lesson I will get a flu shot. I feel better took some Alka Seltzer Plus ate some soup and drinking lots of water. I'm afraid iI won't be better by Monday if I miss more work I could be in serious trouble.

  Op

• I just don't understand why people resist flu shots? It's not only about you. You protect others as well. Feel better.

• See a doctor, but stay away from others if you can until it passes. Call in sick if you can. Just read an article which cited an interesting study on people infected with a flu virus. It found that the virus made people more social and more willing to engage in social activities, creating more opportunities for the virus to spread. Behavioral modification by the virus to increase contagion. So, get well but be antisocial until it passes for the good of others. And see a doctor. And buy yourself some sambucol for the next time.

• That article sounds interesting, R10. Do you have a link?

• Actually, it's a completely fascinating article. But it isn't specifically about influenza; rather, it's about the behavioral effects of Toxoplasma gondii in humans. The influenza study is only discussed in passing at the end of the article, one of several studies being conducted on the possible behavioral effects of human parasites and disease agents. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/03/how-your-cat-is-making-you-crazy/308873/1/

  R10

• You'll get dehydrated. You must go to the hospital for the meds the give, anti-virals. Go now.

• r3 He's an AIDS infected homo. He's doomed, DOOMED I TELLS you.

• When was the last time you were tested for HIV?

• I haven't had sex with someone else in 20 years.

• Drink plenty of clear fluids......you know, vodka, gin, everclear, etc.

• My favorite re-hydration liquid is 1/2 OJ and 1/2 ginger ale. Mix up a few gallons, place a water bottle with a straw by your bed, and every time you regain consciousness, have a drink.

• [quote]You'll get dehydrated. You must go to the hospital for the meds the give, anti-virals. Go now. R13, you are full of bad advice this morning, aren't you? Exactly what part of OP's update [quote]I feel better took some Alka Seltzer Plus ate some soup and [bold]drinking lots of water.[/bold] would make you think that he is going to be dehydrated? Go to a hospital? When he has the flu and isn't in critical need of the services a hospital can provide? So, he should go to a likely already overcrowded ER to get antiviral drugs that are of doubtful use at this point? As the CDC notes, "studies show that flu antiviral drugs work best for treatment [bold]when they are started within two days of getting sick."[/bold] He's been sick for four days.

• Here, OP.

  http://www.oscillo.com/

  Anon

• That article *was* fascinating, R10/R12. Thanks!

• I had the flu (cold?) earlier this winter, and it lasted a full two weeks before the Snot Factory finally shut down.