So has this been a cold or the pig flu???

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drLaurie Posted: Sat, Oct 3 2009 1:17 AM

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Hi everyone,

If my voice sounds funny, it's because I'm still a bit congested ;-)  So, a week ago, I got a sore throat -- all of a sudden I noticed it when we were out.  Turned into a bad cold, congestion, sneezing, coughing.  Happily, I couldn't feel the sore throat thru all the congestion.  Off & on for a coupla days, I felt as tho' I had a low grade fever and I had to raise my basal about 20% to get my bg in reasonable range.  Took my temp once and it read below normal still (normal for me).

Hubby got it a coupla days later and seemed to have had a worse time of it, including headaches.

No loss of appetite or any other digestive woes.

We both had seasonal flu shots several weeks ago.  Anyone know if there's a test to determine whether we've just had the pig flu ... well, a test where we'd not need to go sit in a doc's office with a lotta sick folks.

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Ron AKA replied on Sat, Oct 3 2009 10:35 AM

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My understanding is that the single distinguishing characteristic between a cold and a flu is that a flu (both seasonal and swine flu) come with a fever. My daughter came down with the same symptoms as you describe, and had no fever. A couple of days later I got a milder version of it. My guess would be that we all had the cold.

Yes I believe there is a test to see if you have been exposed to swine flu, but it is not likely they will want to do it. I think all countries have pretty much given up on trying to track how many have been exposed.

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Ron AKA replied on Sat, Oct 3 2009 11:01 AM

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On the flu, the CDC has some interesting data on flu activity in the US. It is currently running at about 4 times the normal for this time of year, and is even higher than it was in the Spring, when the swine flu arrived. See this graph:

There is also so very good information from the WHO on the incidence of swine flu vs other flu's in their Virological Report which gives the world, southern hemisphere and northern hesisphere incidences.

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Ron AKA replied on Sat, Oct 3 2009 11:05 AM

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Seems to be a bug with the edit feature on board. Cannot update the graph. Will try to post it here:

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jen1229 replied on Sat, Oct 3 2009 12:40 PM

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Dr.Laurie:

There is a "bug" going around with the symptoms you describe.  Many people are getting Laryngitis as well.  Half of our choir at Yom Kippur was suffering from it in varying degrees.  Doubtful it is the flu.  True flu lasts longer and really knocks you down (have to take to bed) with fever, chills, etc.   

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shortie replied on Sun, Oct 4 2009 7:24 AM

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My husband had it first about 3 weeks ago and came home from work at noon and slept the day.  He had a low grade with chills, and it turned into head then chest congestion, but nothing overwhelming.  Tired most of the time---no sorethroat ---but mild headache.  No vomiting or diarehha but did not feell hungry and had more bathroom visits than normal.  I got it a day later, but no fever. Mild headache and congestion in sinus that is still 3+ weeks later dripping down the back of the throat and causing occasional coughs.  We both believe we had this virus 2 years ago where I ended up at the doctor's with antibiotic and saline nasal spray and Mucinex!  During harvest, sickness is not welcome at all!  Other than the couch sometimes, we are back to normal--we hope! ha

Note---we both had flu shots last year.

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PumperB replied on Mon, Oct 5 2009 11:20 PM

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My daughter was diagnosed with the swine flu- her symptoms were unbelievable-- she came home from school not feeling well and had a stuffy nose. Within 2 hours she developed a horrible cough, a fever of 103 and she said she thought her head was going to explode! She was in the hospital within 3 hours. Fever up to 104! And there is nothing you can do - the next day she began the coughing to the point she couldn't breathe and then started the stomach throw up stuff- still 103 fever with cold drugs and tylenol. Took her 3 days with cold pills and tylenol to get her fever down and some color back to her face other than her total blood shot eyes. She looked like a zombie.

After 5 days her fever is finally down to 99 to 100 and she is able to keep food down.I wish more people would stay inside and way from school and others when they are sick. - We have become hermits!!

I hope that you all get better quick!! Thankfully I have avoided catching it so far- thanks to Emergen-C drink vitamins.

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Ron AKA replied on Tue, Oct 6 2009 1:59 PM

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At least in the US, the swine flu vaccine is finally making it out to those at most risk. Here in Canada our politicians and medical people have made some serious mistakes in responding to this pandemic. The US went with just a variation of the standard seasonal flu, while Canada opted to go with a Canadian supplier and use an new adjuvented version of the vaccine, which requires more testing. It appears November is the earliest we may get it, and they haven't even started testing yet! So, it may more likely be December, and probably too late.

Confusion was also created by a partly completed study of questionable quality that suggested getting a seasonal flu vaccine increased your chances of getting swine flu. So now some provinces have delayed the seasonal flu program until next year. Mass confusion! But, at least our province is sticking with doing the seasonal flu program in mid October, which is about normal for Canada. May be a very busy season for our health care workers.

I'm not so worried about it personally, as I had the controversial vaccination in 1976 for the swine flu pandemic that never happened. I think that will provide some immunity. Also I'm in the older age group which seems less susceptible to this one. Still plan to visit Mexico in December!

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donw replied on Wed, Oct 7 2009 9:18 PM

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Well Laurie, in reference to your original question, that all depends...do you feel like rolling around in the mud?  If so, it's swine flu!

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shortie replied on Tue, Oct 13 2009 10:18 AM

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 Oh Don that is making me laugh this dark damp October morning....where was summer and actually Fall too...winter has just budged its way in!!!!  Laurie how are you now?  My medical building is out of the seasonal flu shot already and one has to call a hotline to see when they get more in...saw on the TV that it is not just one area not having enough...all have decided to get the seasonal flu shot this year.  Swine flu shots are not available yet here either.

Both my husband and I still have a coughing jag from our September " flu" incident.  Entire family had a form of it, little ones seemed to have a fever more.  Son at college got " something" which made him very very sick and high fever with hallucinations. I wanna say I hope next year is better.  Whattausay?

Happy Halloween and do not forget to wash your hands to the ABC's.....

Shortie

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Dee replied on Tue, Oct 13 2009 5:00 PM

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Shortie, I had the worst luck finding a seasonal flu shot for hubby and me.  My FPs office has been out for two weeks, I kept waiting for them to get it back in to no avail.  Finally, calling around to Kroger Pharmacy got results, but the times open weren't convenient.  DD told me that KMart Pharmacy was giving them on certain days only...and finally we got them last night. 

 My insurance covered 100%, and DH got his covered by Medicare.  I was starting to get worried, the Pharmacist said the same companies make the H1N1 shots, they stopped production on the seasonal shots to ramp up for the onslaught of the swine shots and left lots of patients in the lurch this year.  My FP wasn't happy we got the shot at the Pharmacy, I told him tough luck, he should have ordered enough while he could.

And wouldn't you know it, today I have started in with conjestion and aches and general yuckys.  Oh well, I will have protection shortly!  Dee

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drLaurie replied on Tue, Oct 13 2009 6:32 PM

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Dee,

You're probably "just" having a mild reaction to the shot last night.  It'll pass within a few days.

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Ron AKA replied on Tue, Oct 13 2009 7:53 PM

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Info, I have seen suggests 100% of flu now is swine flu. I think the reason there may be a shortage of seasonal flu vaccine in the US is that they may have switched production lines over to swine flu before getting all the seasonal out. This is the opposite to what was done in Canada and I think the US made the right decision. Likely lots of time left to get the seasonal flu shot. In any case I got mine today, because they made them available. Swine flu vaccine for us is likely late this month or early next.

If you interested in seeing how flu is developing in the US and a number of other countries in the world, Google has an excellent tool called Google Flu Trends. It predicts essentially in real time the flu activity. The US is currently the worst in the world (or at least what Google reports on), for activity. I suspect Canada will be following shortly behind. The bad news is that the swine flu shots are coming out too late in both countries to have a major effect.