Common Sense Health advice

I know everyone's a bit touchy about illness at the moment but has anyone actually had Swine Flu out there? With everything in the news i'm really confused. Are swine flu symptons just like flu anyway eg with a cold you soldier on and with flu you're bed ridden?

I regularly take tablets for vertigo (dizzyness and headaches) and beconase for sinus possible hayfever - runny nose, nasal drip etc.

I've had a headache and dizzyness and a bit of a funny throat this weekend. I was ill a few weeks ago with dizziness and tiredness.

My dilema is how do you know when you could actually have swine flue or just a normal bug/problems.

When i've felt dizzy/headachy i've taken timeoff work but how do you actually know if you have swine flu, the NHS website describes symptons that I regularly have? Most people on the train commuting to work at the moment are coughing.

Is anyone else having the same dilemas as me?

The symptoms are supposedly like very mild flu, bit feverish etc for the majority of people. They are now not confirming diagnosis but just going on symptoms so it will never really be known whether people have this type of flu or something else.
I think the treatment is the same for our 'usual' flu.
Becky

Funnily enough I was talking to my son about this. We're not sure whither he's had it or not
He had a sore throat, blocked ears and felt shivery and just not good for a couple of days. He got a packet of Lemsip and carried on. He didn't even think of Swine flu 'til I mentioned it.
They say you don't get normal flu at this time of year but who knows? As long as its mild I suppose a few people won't even know for sure if they had it.

Some people have such mild symtoms that they don't know they've got it so I suppose that is how it is being spread around!
Becky

My 4 yr old grandaughter has just been getting over it. She had no energy and just slept. A slightly raised tempreture, Dire rear, sore throat, cough and cold and headache and ached.
She had no treatment for it and has slowly improved.
I was with her one day before we realised and I went down with similar symptoms that only lasted about 36hrs, so whether that was a mild dose or just a bug I don't know.
I think lots of people sadly will be taking this Tamiflu when they actually havn't even got it. Especially as you have to start it within 48hrs of the onset of symptoms otherwise you can't have it.
For my grandaughter it was too late before anyone realised, but luckily she is fine and if I had panicked and got the Tamiflu on my symptoms I wouldn't actually have needed it at all and would have taken it for nothing.

I sympathise with you with the vertigo coz I suffer with that, although I'm on a break at the moment, but it can return at any time as you know.

I think you would know if you had the swine flu, or any flu come to that. I've only had real flu a few times in my life, but it's not the sort of thing you can just breeze through with a few hankies and a packet of lemsip, it more like knocks you for six, you can't lift your head off the pillow, you feel like you're dying, every muscle in your body aches, you've got a raging temperature etc. - basically that "man flu" that our men seem to always get I suppose!

Thanks for all your comments. Perhaps i'm just being paranoid but i'll wait and see how I feel in the morning.

My main concern is that (like most people) if I do have anything I pass it on to someone as I have my elderly father living with me. I'd also feel awful if I went into work and if I did have anything gave it to someone else.

I think the very first thing you'd notice is the high temperature which would then give you all that aching, so if you haven't got any of that, then it's probably a cold, which hopefully you can shrug off within 24 hours maybe. Hope so anyways! There's nothing quite like real flu, and afterall, you are female, so you can't possibly have it, it's a "man" thing!

I do hope whatever it is you don't give it to your old dad because oldies can't tolerate colds as well as us, they end up with chest infections, so do your best to keep out of his way if you can until you're over this.

Thanks Helen I hope I don't give him anything either! I haven't got a thermometer to take my temperature but as you know from vertigo problems that your head always feels boiling hot anyway whent he rest of you is cold! Have just been round spraying all the house with dettol just in case.

That's a good idea, I use that Dettol spray. I'm going to buy some of that alcohol gel that I got for my mum when she was in hospital, coz I think it's a good idea for us women to put some on our hands before we touch those manky old trolleys at the supermarket, coz THAT'S where we're going to pick it up if somebody has it, from our hands more than from somebody coughing at us, although I always run a mile in there if somebody starts coughing!!

Good luck with yours, hope you feel better soon. I'd say go and lie down, but having vertigo myself, it's the getting in that position isn't it, with the room spinning, the feeling sick, oh I've had it so bad sometimes I ended up in a hospital bed for 5 days once coz they thought I'd had a stroke until they realised what it was, I just couldn't stand up without falling over, let alone walk,so I do know exactly how you feel with it! It will go when it wants to, but it can come back dramatically when you're least expecting it!