Next year I'm getting one. I have been deathly ill (slight exaggeration) since Saturday. Started with just a dry cough on Saturday, by nighttime I was delirious with a burning fever and chills. My diaphragm muscles were sore from coughing, no appetite, etc. haven't left the house since then. It's my daughter who gave it to me, she was sick while I was there. I got it worse though since my lungs aren't healthy like hers, being an ex smoker. It seems to last more than a week....my daughter still isn't 100%! I ha net been sick like this since I was a child, I never caught any of the colds or whatevers my grandsons had. My dr is out of town this week and I can't stand his assistant, I did call on Monday and told her my problem and that I'm too sick to come for a visit and she said okay, if I'm worse to make an appt. if I didn't go on Monday, why would I go when I'm sicker?? Starting to cough up phlegm...this better not turn into pneumonia. I've been trying to drink as much water as possible and today I managed to make myself a chicken soup. It's hard being sick with nobody to take care of you. I've only had one flu shot and that was when it was required by the hospital I volunteered at...I had no side effects...nothing!
@Chrissy Cross Have you ever had Pneumonia, Chrissy? I've read that repeat episodes tend to be worse than earlier ones. Please take care and the precautions to try to avoid that. I had grown accustomed to getting the flu every winter, sick as could be. Then, I took someone's advice in 2004, and got the flu shot. No flu that season, or any since! They work! Based on my own experience, I can highly recommend the shot! Frank
Chrissy if you've had the flu shot with no side effects then yes, you should have one next time Fabs had this virus and everyone else here too and they said it was the worst ! Non stop coughing. The capsules that definitely helped Fabs was cold and flu capsules, we were getting no sleep before he took them.
Back in 2010, on New Year's Eve weekend, perfect time to Party, wrong time to get sick, I got a very bad cough going. I couldn't eat and just laid in bed. Took two different types of OTC cold med and shouldn't have. The cough got pretty bad and I told my wife I though the Good Lord was ready to take me. Cough was bad, but did improve slightly on Sunday, so decided not to go to ER and call PCP first thing on Monday. Wife went with me and I wore a surgical mask while waiting to see him. He gave me a prescription cough med and scheduled me for a chest x-ray, which ended up showing a spot of pneumonia on one lung. Got an anti-biotic to kill that. To say the least, we were both pretty scared of what I had. Now we both get the Double Dose Senior Flu Shot every year. Two years ago, I got the last pneumonia shot that I'll need and my wife got her last one this past year. We were told that getting the Senior Flu Shot doesn't 100% guarantee that a Senior won't get the flu, but it sure is a deterrent. One of the reasons we stopped going to church was that way to many people were attending that sounded like they had bad colds. We see/hear someone in Walmart or any other store cough, we quickly go to another area. This "getting away from sick folks" doesn't always work, especially when sitting down at a restaurant to eat dinner. But, if we can avoid sick folks, even if we "think" they are sick, we definitely try to. We always have plenty of OTC Cold/Flu medicine on hand at home. One thing for sure, getting the flu and/or pneumonia at any age is bad, but getting it when at the Senior age can be really bad. The older a person gets, into those Senior years, the more deadly getting pneumonia can be.
I've never had pneumonia or the flu, except maybe if I go waaay back I might have but don't remember. Yes, this is the worst Ive ever been and it starts with that coughing and only gets worse. I feel no better today than I did Saturday. Today I'm going to try and get dressed and make it out to Walgreens for a prescription, some cough meds and some food. I don't do well with any of the OTC cold/flu meds though...I'll ask the pharmacist what he recommends. I've been with sick children a lot and I've never caught anything, I'm the opposite of a germaphobe, you can cough right next to me and I don't even notice. For some reason I caught this from my daughter this time...nobody in her family has though.
I'm not against the flu shot just thought I didn't need it since I never get it but will definitely get one from now on. Do I wait til next year now?
Chrissy, could it be bronchitis? The coughing sounds like maybe you should get checked out. Hope you feel better soon.
I don't know, caught it from my daughter. I've never had bronchitis but If it doesn't go away in a few days I'll try to get myself to the dr....somehow.
It sounds exactly the same as the virus we had over here Missy - the cough and exhaustion was the worst of it takes a good while to clear though and the capsules really do help
Why does time drag when you're sick? I want this day over with and it's only 8:30a.m. Pickles doesn't let me sleep in even when I'm sick, in fact he's downright annoying. Most days he only goes out a couple times...since I'm sick, he wants something every hour.
@Chrissy Cross Does your Medicare plan pay for the Walk in Clinics visits? It would be a good idea to find out if what you have is really the flu, pneumonia, or bronchitis...as none of these illnesses are something to fool around with especially at our age. Whatever you decide to do Chrissy, I'm praying for you to be well soon.
I have a dr. But don't feel strong enough to go...if I get any worse, I'll make an appt. His NP is the one I can't stand and when I called her she wouldant prescribe me an antibiotic. It might have helped ..in any case it wouldn't have done much harm. Thanks. Right now I just back from the pharmacy and and the pharmacist asked if my dr prescribed an antibiotic, I said "no". Then I went to Safeway to get some things to survive on and I'm exhausted!
@Chrissy Cross Yes, I believe so. Suppose it couldn't do any harm to get one now, though. Ask Pharmacist. Frank
I pray you get better soon, @Chrissy Cross. I have had the flu only once, two years ago, I think, after catching it from my wife. I didn't see a doctor for it but she had for hers, and was diagnosed with the flu. It was a miserable time, and not one that I want to go through again. Prior to that, I had had only one flu shot, and was sick for a while afterwards, but not as sick as I was when I had the flu. I didn't get a flu vaccine last year because the reports were that it was made for a strain that wasn't the one that people were more commonly getting, but I wouldn't rule out getting one again sometime. I am very much opposed to mandatory vaccinations, and am somewhat wary of the negative effects that may come from vaccinations, but I am not opposed to vaccinations. There are times when the dangers of the vaccination might be less than those of the thing that I am being vaccinated against. Shingles might be one of these, although I don't think I have ever had chickenpox. The flu vaccination might be another, but maybe not. I don't know.