You call that a cold, this is a 'cold'!! ....urgh. *flops*

SongsOfDragons · #1 01-08-2012, 03:03 PM

So it's that time of year again for my annual nasty winter cold. It always happens in the weeks before or the weeks after Christmas, which soundly pisses off any temp jobs I might be working at the time. Usually it is generalised by my doctor under an upper respiratory tract infection, and he may or may not give me stuff to relieve it or treat it if the little round of tests indicate so. Throughout the rest of the year I'm usually okay.

This year's began a little differently. I've had a cough since Housemate's birthday, the 16th of December. But unusually, nothing else. No raw throat, no snotty nose, no feeling of 'uuurgh'. Oh well, I thought, bonus!! Christmas came, I visited my parents - now my mother smokes, and prolifically, and like the other thread going (or was going?) about hosts smoking, I just know how and when to avoid the fugue - Christmas went, New Year came and went. Cough still there, not too concerned.

This week, however, I got a lot worse. Tuesday saw a trip to the doctor anyway even though I didn't think it pertinent to bother them over what is usually viral to me, because the night before my heart started pounding for no reason at all. Doc thought panic attack, but heart rate was faster than normal anyway so she suggested I organise an ECG with the nurse to check it out, which is next monday.

After that, well, friday and saturday nights were sleepless, fraught with coughing, and me unable to keep even water down. I take slow-release pills for my epilepsy and I couldn't keep those down either, which prompted a call to NHS Direct, and then onto getting an appointment with an Out-of-hours clinic on Saturday. The doctor at the clinic listened to my chest and prescribed me a week's worth of uberstrong antibiotics. So it's either become a worse URTI or has evolved into something nastier. I was pretty tired by the time Housemate got me to the clinic, so if he said, I didn't catch it.

Thankfully the uberstrongs seem to be working. After this long waffle, what I want to know is, since I don't want this to happen again if it's going to knock me off my feet this badly, if there's anything I can do about it. I'm in the UK if it changes things. Housemate's mum suggested a flu jab next year - would that be a good start?

Sapphire Silk · #2 01-08-2012, 07:06 PM

Definitely get the flu shot. What you had may or may not have been the flu . . . but was probably still viral.

Unless you were coughing up green stuff, or showed something on xray, you were probably starting to get better anyway.

But the flu shot would at least make the flu less miserable if you do in fact catch it (you can still get the flu with a flu shot but most people get a much milder version).

Colds come and go.

fireheart · #3 01-09-2012, 12:03 AM

For the record, is your title a reference to Crocodile Dundee?

I can't comment on the flu shot, however from what I have heard, it is normal to have a reaction afterwards for a day or so.

Seshat · #4 01-09-2012, 07:53 AM

I almost always get a three or four day reaction to a flu shot. My wife/best friend who gets hers at the same time (she drives me to the doctor) and thus probably gets hers from the same batch: never yet had a reaction.

Since we started getting flu shots, neither of us has had a bad flu. I've had mild flus, and one year she had what was probably a cold, but nothing really miserable.

Sapphire Silk · #5 01-10-2012, 04:18 AM

Quote:

Quoth fireheart

For the record, is your title a reference to Crocodile Dundee?

I can't comment on the flu shot, however from what I have heard, it is normal to have a reaction afterwards for a day or so.

Quoted for Truth. Most people will have the icks a couple of days after the shot. It is not the flu, just a reaction to the jump start you've given your immune system.

I only get the flu in the years I don't get a flu shot, or get it too late in the season.

Of course, your mileage may vary. Some people will still get the flu, and may get it "bad", esp if they catch a strain that is not in the vaccine itself.

fireheart · #6 01-10-2012, 05:01 AM

Quote:

Quoth Panacea

Quoted for Truth. Most people will have the icks a couple of days after the shot. It is not the flu, just a reaction to the jump start you've given your immune system.

There's a folder in the waiting room at my doctors office that lists all the vaccinations and when they are recommended to be given to children, as well as people for whom that particular vaccination is free. Then at the back, there's a list of different vaccines and when adults may need them.

I had one course of vaccines in primary school and four courses in high school: Primary school was the MMR vaccine (my mum dragged me out for the morning so she could get my 4-year-old sister's done at the same time: I did OK, wincing slightly, she screamed

) while the high school courses were the Hep B (2 shots) in Year 8, Meningococcal and DTPa vaccines in Year 9 (done at the same time -.-) and the Gardrasil vaccination in Year 12 (that was given out to ALL the girls in Years 8 and 12 in the first year it was introduced).

Out of those, nobody I can remember fainted in Year 8, all of us had "lead arms" that day for the Year 9 vaccines (due to the tetanus vaccine, when we were given the vaccines, we were asked which arm we write with for that reason) and a few girls fainted in Year 12 for the Gardrasil vaccine. We were all sore for the rest of the day after those vaccines in general, but apart from the Year 12 vaccine, no major reactions.

SongsOfDragons · #7 01-10-2012, 08:26 AM

Vaccinations: That reminds me, I need to pester someone for info about a vaccination schedule for adults pinched from medieval places...research purposes only, honestly...

Title: Aww I remember that film. I think I've seen more references to it than the film itself. XD

Health: Aaaand I still feel like someone's making a plaster cast of me bronchioles!! I was (and still am) hoiking up yellow-green lung gunk, Pan, but the three medical practitioners I've seen have waved it off as a 'chest infection' and I'm just thankful I have antibiotics. But everywhere I look up describe 'chest infection' as a general term that seems to cover everything from a small sniffly cold to full-on pneumonia. None of the Ds and Ns would elaborate. -_-

I am feeling slightly better. Nights are still nightmarish.

dalesys · #8 01-10-2012, 02:04 PM

Quote:

Quoth SongsOfDragons

Vaccinations: That reminds me, I need to pester someone for info about a vaccination schedule for adults pinched from medieval places...research purposes only, honestly...

The pinchee? Seems like the pinchers might be in more need...

SongsOfDragons · #9 01-10-2012, 03:27 PM

Quote:

Quoth dalesys

The pinchee? Seems like the pinchers might be in more need...

XD Sorry, brain was addling this morning. Story research. We're taking in a character from a medieval-based fandom (specifically Faerun, but I'm focusing on RL diseases) and if everyone else is modern and fully vaccinated, how long would it take and in what order would the character - otherwise healthy 28-year-old man - be brought up to scratch (mostly) with the rest of us?

dalesys · #10 01-10-2012, 05:47 PM

As I implied, the snatchee would be at very little risk due to the herd immunity effect. He would be exposed to very few carriers of anything. His biggest risk would be the the current flavors of flu & colds. I'd expect a major attack of Montezuma's Revenge, too. The snatchee is more likely to be a carrier of diseases that are so rare in most modern societies that *we* aren't immunized for them. Smallpox, for one.