Is It a Cold or is It Flu?
Tuesday, 06 January 2015
As soon as fall arrives each year, I am first in line for a flu shot. On the one occasion I missed it in the past 25-30 years, I got so sick I could barely crawl out of bed for more water for two solid weeks and when I could finally return to work, I was dragging my ass for another month.
I take flu season seriously. And so should you.
Flu season is also cold season and the older I get the harder it is to tell the difference.
When I was a kid and caught a cold, my mother handed me a couple of packs of Kleenex and sent me off to school. I hardly noticed it except for an annoying runny nose.
A cold wasn't much different during most of my adult life, but now? I don't often get a cold these days but when I do, it may as well be the flu. It hits so hard that bed rest for up to a week is my only choice with follow-up fatigue for another week or two until I'm right again.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has announced that this season's flu has reached the epidemic threshold and deaths are mounting.
One reason (in addition to death, hospitalization and other statistics) is that the flu shot this year does not cover all the virus strains that are loose in the land. The shot is formulated in spring and although the experts do their best to get the mix just right, it can be a crapshoot and some years they are off a bit. This is one of them.
Before the epidemic declaration, the CDC had already predicted a severe flu season and it's you and me and the grandkids – people five and younger and older than 65 - who are most at risk.
Each year, I click around the web for a refresher course in how to stay healthy during the winter months. Here are some precautions that can be helpful in avoiding both flu and a cold:
• Get the vaccine. It's not too late, it covers about 50 percent of this season's viruses and it will reduce symptoms if you get the flu.
• Wash you hands frequently and don't touch your nose, mouth or eyes with your hands.
• Wipe down germy areas in your home
• Keep a bottle of hand sanitizer around for when you're not near soap and a sink.
• Stay hydrated. Drink plenty of water and other fluids.
• Don't slack off your exercise program. It boosts your immune system.
• Get plenty of rest and sleep.
If all that fails and you fall ill – and if you have as much trouble as I do telling the difference between a cold and flu - here's a chart I nicked from WebMD that is a help:
| Symptom | Cold | Flu |
|---|---|---|
| Fever | Rare | Between 100-102 degrees in most cases. Typically lasts 3-4 days | Chills | Not common | Afflicts about half of flu patients | Muscle or body aches | Not common. If they do occur, usually mild | Common and often severe | Headache | Not common | Most cases. May be sudden | Fatigue or weakness | May occur, generally mild | Moderate to severe. May last up to 2-3 weeks | Cough | Common, generally mild to moderate. Usually produces phlegm | Dry cough (no phlegm). May be severe. May last several weeks. | Sneezing, stuffy nose | Common. Stuffy nose may last a week. | Sometimes | Sore throat | Common | Sometimes | Chest discomfort | Sometimes. Generally mild | Common. May be severe | Vomiting, diarrhea | Unusual | Not usual. Most often in children |
Whatever the symptoms, many people insist to their physicians (and too many doctors comply) that they need an antibiotic. Ahem. Antibiotics treat infections caused by bacteria. Flu and colds are caused by viruses. An antibiotic should be used only if your physician believes your flu/cold has advanced to pneumonia.
Antivirals are sometimes used to treat colds and flu - such drugs as oseltamivir (Tamiflu) and zanamivir (Relenza) that are available only by a doctor's prescription.
Mostly, there is little we can do but ride out a flu or cold. Symptoms can be eased with over-the-counter remedies – whatever you have found over the years that work for you. And if you are sick, stay home - don't infect the rest of us.
Here's a video I ran across about the differences between cold and flu. It's mostly repetitive of what I've written today but I like it and maybe you'll find it useful.
Stay healthy out there, my friends.
At The Elder Storytelling Place today, Janet Thompson: Bathroom Humor
Haven't had the flu since 1974 - really! But now that I've stopped teaching and probably no longer have all those antibodies coursing through my system, I've started getting flu shots. In fact, today I finally got around to getting this year's.
Now that I'm on Medicare it was free - the only cost was 15 minutes of my time at CVS.
Now if I could just get my husband, who's much more vulnerable than me, to get one!
Posted by: Marty | Tuesday, 06 January 2015 at 07:08 AM
One more hint: Stay away from family members who arrive at your house for Christmas eve dinner and announce that they have just gotten over the flu...
Posted by: SusanG. | Tuesday, 06 January 2015 at 08:10 AM
Luckily I've not had to deal with a cold or flu in recent years (knock wood!), the result, I suppose, of living alone and not going out much. I do wonder, though, every time I see a Tamiflu commercial, how people are supposed to know "within the first two days" whether they've caught a cold or the flu. Seems to me until the symptoms settle in and you can see how sick you really are, there's no way of knowing. Oh well, maybe it will be obvious if and when it happens.
Posted by: PiedType | Tuesday, 06 January 2015 at 08:16 AM
The good side of having to stay home all the time is that I am no longer exposed to the germs that used to plague me.
On the few occasions when I do leave my home, like shopping for groceries or a visit to the doctor, I wash my hands the minute I step inside my door.
At the risk of seeming inhospitalbe, I make sure my visitors do not have colds of flu symptoms and, knock wood, so far I have avoided being sick.
Posted by: Darlene | Tuesday, 06 January 2015 at 08:17 AM
I got my flu shot in September and I got the type A flu and spent Christmas in the hospital. The fever and the muscle aches were the tell tale clues. See your doctor right away especially if you have an "underlying condition" such as heart trouble, COPD, or diabetes. No messing around. I did and even with Tamiful I had a rough time. I am just beginning to feel normal.
Posted by: Celia | Tuesday, 06 January 2015 at 08:19 AM
Listen to Celia. Good advice.
Posted by: Ronni Bennett | Tuesday, 06 January 2015 at 08:30 AM
Working with kids all these years has taught me a great deal. Yes, don't touch your hands to your face. Wipe down surfaces. Wash your hands. And my big advice--take probiotics. Those have helped me the most with staying healthy while having small children cough and sneeze on me.
Posted by: dkzody | Tuesday, 06 January 2015 at 09:00 AM
I have had the flu 2 times—1958, I was a H.S. senior and sometime in the mid-70s when we had the Asian Flu nomenclature for the year. (I took a flu-ridden friend to the Dr--went in with her--2 weeks to the day, I was afflicted.
Many in my community of 55+ (most way over +)
had many with a deep upper respiratory "infection" and lingering cough the past several weeks. None have said they were told they had the flu. At least one was treated with 2 rounds of antibiotics. All say they have had flu shots (and the shot given to
we elders is the extra strength.)
I have gotten a flu shot every year since 1961.
I appreciate the list of things to do or avoid including keeping up your exercise program.
So many people in my community think that going out to walk when it is cold makes them susceptible to getting cold or flu.
My thought is that wearing layers of clothing, scarves for the neck and a head cover--if only ear muffs (I can't stand a hat or scarf on my head.) and being out in the fresh air is better for you than being in an over-heated home or having company who (as Darlene suggested) have symptoms they can spread.
A reasonably cold day (not in the minus category) is a refreshing rather than a debilitating boost when you are well insulated with clothing and can keep moving.
And then you can have a cup of hot cocoa with a marshmallow!
Posted by: S C Jones | Tuesday, 06 January 2015 at 09:09 AM
Kudos for the reminder. My husband and I got our flu shots in September.
Unfortunately, the video got it wrong. The presenter very emphatically says that colds and the flu are caused by entirely different viruses.
This is a huge issue because antibiotic resistance, the generation of bacteria--such as MRSA--which are resistant to certain antibiotics--is spreading alarmingly.
Posted by: Madeleine Kolb | Tuesday, 06 January 2015 at 10:31 AM
I have had the deep upper respiratory infection that so many people have complained about and it is still causing me coughing spells even after 6 weeks and I am soooo tired of coughing --- it is not the flu.
I have had the flu twice in my life and you know when you have the flu. If you wonder if it is the flu it isn't.
Posted by: victoria | Tuesday, 06 January 2015 at 10:41 AM
Last week I had a sore develop in my nose, possibly a result of a cold. The cold left, but the sore got worse, obviously infected. The first thing my doctor did was swab for CA-MRSA (HA-MRSA is the dreadful one in hospitals). Immediately I carried a cloth with vinegar, etc. so I could use it on everything I touched. And, while taking on a pinch of paranoia and sleeplessness, I washed down nearly every inch of my house. It is spread by contact. The lab found no MRSA.
So, I'm relieved not to have it, and for all the worrying, my house is really disinfectedly(new word) clean right now!
Posted by: simone | Tuesday, 06 January 2015 at 12:21 PM
DH and I get our flu shots every year.
We both volunteer in schools, take public transportation weekends, ride the Montreal metro.
We wash our hands every chance we get.
Think of all the surfaces people touch in a day.
Keeping hydrated is important.
I get one nasty cold a year, end up going to the clinic. This time my doc prescribed a puffer and antibiotics.
It was the first time I had pneumonia.
Was happy to be done with that before we headed south.
Take care.
Posted by: doctafill | Tuesday, 06 January 2015 at 01:12 PM
Good information and timely. I almost never get more than a short-term sore throat or drippy nose, which I treat with Vitamin C ( my son & scientific articles say it's bogus, but it's worked like a miracle for me for decades. I always think that it's compensation for having first one, then several, chronic diseases for 58 years.
I worked with little kids for decades, so perhaps my immunity came from that, but it continues on after 2 more decades. I honestly cannot remember having the flu since 1956, and that I got while hospitalized. I count my blessings.
Posted by: Lyn Burnstine | Tuesday, 06 January 2015 at 07:44 PM
Since being diagnosed with chronic bronchitis and allergic asthma, I have developed what I call a "Lady Macbeth syndrome", i.e. I wash my hands A LOT! I also carry disinfectant wipes and a spray with me always, for my hands and for the surfaces I touch (airline trays and videos are at the top of my "wash down" list). Having gone back to teaching this year, I have tried to be super-careful but, inevitably, I suppose, on the last day of classes in December I realized I was sick. So I went to bed and that helped. I've found that reflexology helps, too. Since I started my reflexology sessions, I have been able to avoid the usual "doses" of antibiotics and cortisone I was prescribed. I loathe being so "hyper" about possible contagion ... used to pride myself on "Don't worry. I'll just build up my antibodies" but one DOES learn!
Thank you, Ronni, for the good advice and reality touch.
Posted by: laura | Tuesday, 06 January 2015 at 11:27 PM
I had the flu several years ago; it seemed like I was fine one minute and the next I was very ill. It was nothing like a cold. I had very few respirotory symptoms, but I developed pneumonia a few days after I thought I was over the flu. Missed nearly a month of work. (And I had had a flu shot that year.)
Posted by: PattyS | Wednesday, 07 January 2015 at 02:11 AM
PS Loved the (slightly-adapted) Hill Street Blues salutation!
Posted by: laura | Wednesday, 07 January 2015 at 07:00 AM