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I’m sick. On day 6 now. Started off with a drippy nose and warm head. By day 3 I had to cough up so much mucus making my muscles sore. On day 4 the constant sleep began, punctuated by painfully clearing my lungs. Day 5 even worse. Today is day 6 and I honestly don’t know if I have the strength to cough. My whole body aches from coughing. I wonder if it’s RSV. Seeing Dr on Tuesday. Hopefully I’ll get a script for antibiotics since I still have a while to go. Wear your mask ppl. This sucks. I don’t want you to get it.

Unfortunately antibiotics are uselessness against the Flu and RSV

Get Tamiflu ASAP after showing symptoms.

Peachy. Thank you for reminding me.

Or any virus, for that matter.

My wife and I went and got our flu shots this morning. Oof.

I got the flu shot but now am on day 8 of being sick with the flu. I shudder to think of how much worse it would be if I wasn't vaccinated.

Well unfortunately it takes other people wearing masks to not transmit it, and those dum dums are too busy marveling over the technology that turns the mountains on a bottle of bud light blue.

Meanwhile I just saw that one of the County "Health Districts" in one of the deep red counties that was subject to a politically driven takeover during COVID just updated their guidance to encourage parents to send their kids to schools with RSV, mono, and a whole host of other communicable diseases because fuck it, germ theory is a scam or something.

My illness started back in October. Ear infection,pink eye, strep. I took two rounds of antibiotics to get rid of it only to get sick once again later with tonsillitis, then that evolved to what I have now with a nasty cough, mucus coming out of my chest and nose and I’m extremely tired all the time. I’ve been sick for two months straight. I’ve taken all the precautions and vitamins but I’m just not getting any better.

You’re a baboon

I can honestly say I’ve never had a case of the flu, just bad colds and stomach bugs. How do you tell the difference soon enough in those early days?

That’s horrific. Babies die from RSV, and so do immune-compromised kids.

Is absolutely hitting hard right now.

Tomorrow is the end of week 3 for me. I do feel better but the cough is not going away yet

Honestly can’t tell ya, I’m currently in bed with my very first case of the Flu.

I only know cause I was tested.

Ugh. Freaks me out, mid-gastritis flare. I can't currently afford to leave the house and get sick. Please drink lots of water. The last time I was very ill, I swear water and broth saved me. Take care.

The shot doesn't cover all strains. So you could very well have gotten a different strain.

Sounds like you've just got a terrible immune system.

What about a z-pack? Isn't that one for viruses?

There are antivirals like Tamiflu that when administered quickly lessens the impact, but they don’t do much for someone on their 6th day sick.

The flu comes on suddenly and usually has a fever. We had influenza A three weeks ago. I went from having a slight tickle in my throat to full blown sick with 102+ fever in just a few hours. Silly me just assumed I had RSV since I had known contact with a sick kid. Turns out we got the double whammy RSV and flu!

A friend of mine’s son who lives in the Spokane area got influenza A and B simultaneously over Thanksgiving.

Z-pack is zuxhromician, aka Zithromax, an antibiotic which won’t help a virus unless you end up with a secondary infection.

If you have the flu, they may prescribe Tamiflu, an antiviral for the flu. If you have RSV, they’ll treat symptoms but no antiviral is available AFAIK.

If you haven’t tested for COVID, I would do so. You can receive antibody and antiviral treatment for COVID and your symptoms certainly could be that.

Hope you’re on the mend soon <3

It started off with a scratchy throat for me. I continued through the work week like normal with a light cough. Come Thursday morning, I'm congested as hell, no energy, eyes bloodshot and crusty, and I'm hacking up green congealed masses into my sink. I was bedridden for five whole days. Five days of laying down barely eating anything. Five days of failing to get any meaningful sleep because I literally could not stop coughing even with Meds. Five days of weird aches throughout my whole body. Five days of my voice either being a quiet whisper, or modern day Steve-o from Jackass (and nothing in between.) I hadn't been that sick in a long time. As I type this, I'm STILL not fully recovered.

And I GOT the flu shot earlier this year. I can't imagine how badly it could have been for me were I not vaccinated.

Get your Flu shots, guys. It's no joke.

Honestly this sounds like when I caught RSV from my son. I hope you feel better soon!

If you can find it. My pharmacy hasnt had any in stock for a few weeks, with no ETA on when they'll get more. If you don't take some within the first few days, they said it won't work.

Well usually they’re prescribed for the secondary infections like sinusitis or bronchitis.

Yes sir, I am a baboon. Please don’t try to mate with me. Leave that sexy time for your sister.

i usually get mine around september but didn't have a job/health insurance until yesterday. so i got it yesterday. hoping it's not too late lol. couple weeks to find out

tamiflu and xofluza are weaker than a lot of people assume. might shave off a day of symptoms at best. and like you said, you have to start it asap. most people assume the first day or so of the flu might just be a bad cold. for the cost of urgent care and whatever your rx copay is, i don't think it's worth the hassle. pretty much all you can really do is a ton of sleep, fluid, electrolytes, and ibuprofen and tylenol

but if you're intent on getting an antiviral if you catch the flu, one way to differentiate the flu is that it usually hits like a train out of nowhere compared to most common colds being more gradual

Tamiflu is generally for high risk people like pregnant 3,kids, elderly. My husband got told to treat at home with the recent shortage of the stuff.

What county

Do you have it now? Tamiflu.

Are you worried about getting it? Get your flu shot. Every year.

I think you meant Coors Lite. See, I know my technology. Btw, I fully support the idea of symptomatic people masking to protect others.

I’m pretty sure z-packs are Azithromycin. I know Zithromax is a name brand, but what is “zuxhromician”? Regardless, you’re correct that it is an antibiotic and should not/hopefully will not be prescribed for viral infections. Physicians of the past really did this country a disservice by handing those out left and right. Nothing can convince my mother that they will not help with a virus :/

I’m not surprised at all. I’m a teacher and my kids are dropping like flies. This morning only 50% of my home room students were at school today, and my other classes weren’t doing so well either.

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On Tuesday, I had a massive headache that started around noon and lasted until 2am. I ended up vomiting twice, and on Wednesday morning I felt good as new. I'm not sure what that was all about, but it sucked.

We are in Spokane too and the week we were sick so was everyone else. More than half of my youngest kids class was out sick. Urgent cares were full. Hospitals had super long waits. My kiddo had an unrelated allergic reaction and we couldn't get a bed at the hospital. It sucked.

Please consider staying home instead - it doesn’t really matter whether you’ve got the flu, COVID, RSV, or any of the dozens of viruses that cause colds.

All of them are contagious (so you’re just exposing more people by sitting in a waiting room) and none of them need anything more than home care of rest, fluids, and OTC medications while you ride it out.

Edit: I say this because the local clinics, urgent cares, and ERs are being crushed. If you’re a reasonably healthy adult (or the parent of an otherwise healthy child), the best thing you can do for yourself and everyone else is to stay home.

Got the exact same timeline. I’m on day 8 and feeling much better with minor leftovers. It’s a standard cold. Don’t waste your time with antibiotics.

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Maiditupp County

My wife and I got our flu shots two weeks ago, and then last weekend we went down to Portland and I definitely caught something similar. Started with a runny nose, turned into really bad head aches/pains, but enough sleep/rest and finally recovered now. Wonder if the flu shot saved me from the same problems that you’re describing, as I know a lot of folks who are having the same issues.

Looks like it was a school district interpretation in Yakima county. So it may be some nutty superintendent instead of some nutty health district person.

My 6 month old just got her first flu shot! I’m so thankful we have this technology available.

Also, not being able to get into daycare yet is kind of a blessing since she’d probably get RSV.

Ah geeze. Hoping for the best for you. Rest and stay hydrated.

With recently learning that covid basically nukes your tcells and makes your body forget diseases, it's going to be a rough few years

Get your shots people and make sure you're up to date with your other ones

Thanks doctor monkey_trumpets, what course of treatment would you recommend?

this is me today. thank you for the hope!

I hope you feel better soon. The one thing I learned was to give in to the nausea early instead of trying to force myself to get over it.

Not a doctor. Ummm....drink more OJ?

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Apologies, my vision isn’t great and I had a serious auto-correct fail. It started to pick up the name and then didn’t.

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Huh, my Mom has caught something similar. I believe she is mostly better now (also been a couple months) other than her white blood cell count is unusually high. obviously she was tested for cancer and that came back negative. She also has no idea whaf it is, and maybe it's completely unrelated but it's definitely odd.

It looks like a typo.

Wait what is this about T cells and covid? I saw that long-haulers typically have lower than average T cell memory. I thought that the suggestion was that reduced T cell memory may be part of what causes long-haul covid. Is that backwards? Is the thinking that long-haul covid causes T cells to be amnesiacs?

I had the flu shot along with the new updated Covid booster.

That's a part of it. Seeing if i can find the article again

Found it

>Leonardi was one of the first experts to recognize how SARS-CoV-2 damages T cells, which worsens with repeat infections. In late 2020, he and Rui Proenca, a researcher at Johns Hopkins University, published research in Frontiers in Immunology describing SARS-CoV-2 as a "lympho-manipulative pathogen," meaning it alters the immune organs called lymph nodes, and "distorts T cell function, numbers, and death, and creates a dysfunctional immune response."

It's linked also in r/everythingscience

This is the worst sick season i can remember. I’m going on 3 weeks of a cold that i can’t seem to kill. Started with ear infection that I since fixed but i can feel my sinuses backed up into my forehead and cheeks.

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I’ve got a kindergartner at home and she and my wife are getting hit with everything. I had a wicked sore throat for only like 12 hours. I think that shot has saved my ass.

Just got mine yesterday! Hope you’re doing alright

oh my god i thought you meant they were dying

thank you so much!! glad you were able to get back to feeling well so quickly

Woah patient_vegetable_98, that was not very patient of you!

The flu hits you like a truck. You wake up feeling fine, 2 hours later you are SICK. Colds tend to come on gradually with the sniffles or sore throat starting then build up.

Well, they still could be... Though it is a bit callous to refer to children dying as "dropping like flies."

Holy shit, that describes what I went through nearly two weeks ago. The headache was absolutely killer keeping me up until 4am, and I ended up throwing up twice.

I took 600mg ibuprofen and it did nothing for the pain for 3 hours.

And then the next morning? Nothing. Like nothing ever happened.

I’m a scientist and this is now well established (that COVID weakens your immune system through m a host of interactions with T cells, regardless of if you get long haul symptoms). It’s also well established that multiple COVID infections are associated with more impacted T cells. Population wise, since most have had COVID at least once and sometimes more than once by now, it is likely one of the things contributing to the current surge of viral illness this cold and flu season.

Man. I work in customer service and I had a customer sigh really hard. I legit had their breath hit my face. I could fucking taste it. I can’t stand it.. mask time again.

My wife is a doctor for a nursing home and even she thinks tamiflu does very little to nothing at all.

My headache lasted until 4am when I threw up. Then I was able to sleep.
I woke up fine, but shortly after waking up I rapidly became nauseous, threw up the second time and the headache came back in force. Thankfully this time the headache seemed to taper off after about two hours and then I was fine.
I still kind of think it was something else (bad food, bad weed, i dont know...), but I've never had such a terrible headache before.

One of my friends forgot to get his flu shot this year. It hit him hard & he was down for almost 3 weeks

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OJ with cayenne. The capsicum combines with the citric acid to boost the Vitamin C & it’s availability.

In fact, dispense with the OJ, cuz there’s a bunch of sugar in it.

Just peel & section and orange, then sprinkle cayenne pepper on it. Spicy & refreshing at the same time! It’s delicious. And helps kick a cold.

The kicker with flu is that a person is usually infectious & transmitting before they have symptoms as well. So better to mask up generally right now.

The other wacky thing I’ve heard, is that there is some evidence suggesting that influenza might actually cause people to want to socialize in groups during the pre-symptomatic infectious phase, while they are actively breathing out little airborne viral particles. I’ll see if I can track down the study/ies on that.

But yeah, everybody would be safer if we all masked-up this flu season.

Here’s another study from Feb 2020:
Reduction and Functional Exhaustion of T Cells in Patients with COVID-19

In short: In some cases (unknown exactly who or why) SARS-2 can directly infect the T-cells. This results in a milder set of symptoms, but serious immune system debilitation. This leaves people vulnerable to other opportunistic infections.

One marker from other studies I’ve seen: A second Covid infection is somehow much worse —for the immune system— than a first case.

And yes, one possibility is SARS-2 infecting T-cells could be one of the causes of long-Covid. There seem to be several different causes of long-Covid symptoms, it’s still unclear wtf is going on. Probably multiple things, IMHO.

Don’t catch Covid. But if you’ve had it once, definitely don’t catch it again! That seems to be a good rule of thumb so far.

Mask up.
Flu is airborne infectious. So is RSV. Masks help prevent you from breathing in the viral influenza particles.

A lower infectious dose is easier to fight off. You’ll likely be less sick. Masks will help lower the viral dose you receive, if not prevent it altogether.

They’re simple, very effective, and you already have the masks.

Good Ventilation — Mask-up when indoors with groups — Keep indoor group encounters short.

Thanks, just the usual after flu shot symptoms. Headache, tired, just overall a little not right all over. Feeling better this morning, and it’s better than the flu for a week.

How long has it been since it was first established?

Reminder that it takes 2 weeks to kick in. Next year late August (if under 65) or September if older.

Upon rereading my comment, I can see how you could misconstrue it. Poor clarity on my behalf, and I apologize.

Kids are just sick, with what, I’m not sure, but I’m assuming it’s the flu, because it’s not your usual 1-2 day absence. It’s gone for 4+ days, with doctors notes.

They aren’t dying, just getting ill. My class attendance has been shrinking all week, with a couple of kids getting sent home mid-day by the nurse. They are all out for an extended period of time, versus the usual 1-2 absence, hence the dropping like flies comment.

I just had Influenza A last week, and it was awful. Worse than the second time I had Covid. And I always get a flu shot!

Had me down for six days now and still not completely gone. The good part is that I dropped 12 pounds since Black Friday.

Thanks! I got it primarily for my newborn niece that I get to meet for the holidays; should be perfect timing. It did occur to me that it was late for the season in general, tho

Have you had your Tdap within the past 2 years? If not, make sure you get that at least 2 weeks before too!

Congrats on the new nibbling!

Thankfully this past January I got that as well! Thank you and thank you for your reply! 😊

Yep. I don't normally get sick but I got hit with the flu and RSV back to back. It sucked.

Definitely sounds like RSV. I'm just getting over it now, if it's a viral strain of RSV the only thing they'll do is subscribe you a cough suppressant which actually helps a bit if you're having a lot of muscle aches and your lungs hurt from coughing.

Locking us down and making us mask for two years altered our immune systems. We can’t fight the common cold (aka RSV). I know these may be fighting words, but here we are.

you don’t need to apologize!!! it just caught me off guard lol

Mask up? Go fuck yourself. Weak fuck scared of getting sick.

Reminded me of last year during Covid when there was like one week where the new variant came out and all my classes had like -10 to 6 kids.

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This is exactly what I and my doctors have been saying!

I really appreciate yours and the other comments. I had a phone appt w a Dr yesterday and was given an Rx for cough medicine w codeine, along with prednisone, since I’m asthmatic and am displaying bronchitis. He didn’t weigh in on it being RSV, but I’m pretty sure that’s what it is. Day 7 here, feeling a bit better…finally. I think I’m out of the dark.

Friendly reminder that RSV is spreading like crazy, there’s no vaccine for it (for adults), and it can kill a newborn. Don’t kiss the baby!

End of 2020 was the first paper suggesting it — as it states above, but there have been many many papers further elucidating the mechanisms since then.

That’s exactly how this past week has felt! Hopefully they are all feeling better and back on Monday.

Lol! Yep, bacteria & viruses definitely respect machismo! It’s well known that you can intimidate microbes into submission. Scare them and you won’t even get sick! The germ-theory of disease is really just a suggestion, if you believe in it! Like a cuck!

I hope you’re vaccinated against measles… or are you not sufficiently scared of measles yet? Wait,.. are you a bug chaser?!? Damn! That’s hardcore! Mad props to you!!

If wearing a mask altered your immune system you may have other problems.

Are solid for secondary infections like bronchitis or pneumonia though

Vitamin C, D3, Zinc are generally cheap supplements and can be purchased online and at Costco. Vit C has a high safety threshold. If you have lots of flem and the 600 mg 12 hr (only) Guaifenesin is now too expensive(!!), go to the Pharma counter, show your WA CDL to get (only) pseudofed (usually 12 or 24 hr) for a cheaper price.

Some of us use Copper-Zinc and NAC supplements as well. Not a doctor, just a survivor.

Guess what it’s just like any other year. Eat better, excersize and move your body more and then activity of flu will dramatically drop everyone too sucked into their phones and computers