There's No Doubt

I was reading an article, which explained the difference between common cold and flu symptoms....as if someone would need to ask.

You have no doubt you have the flu. The last time I was stricken, the only description that best fits is: I felt like hammered crap.

The symptoms: They started with an unexpected headache one morning at work. I don't get headaches very often, and this one hurt enough to drive me to distraction.

As the day progressed, I felt a fatigue coming on that was more than any day's work should cause. By quitting time, I felt as though I'd spent days working without rest and my throat was now sore.

By that night, I was vacillating between feeling as though I was freezing and burning up with a fever. My head was pounding, my throat was aching and my sinuses were burning. I went to bed almost delirious, with aches and fever tremors.

I awoke in the middle of the night literally soaked from sweat. To make things worse, I was having a hard time breathing and my sinuses were clogged. The cough I'd developed was dry and I could hear rattling as I breathed.

I stayed home from work the next few days. My symptoms weren't worse, but they were far from better. I spent the entire day suffering between the other symptoms, and new symptoms of intestinal problems. Nauseated, I dared not eat anything, although the thought was far from my mind. Diarrhea appeared somewhere during that time, and I was hard pressed to keep from being dehydrated.

Eventually the symptoms lessened, and I was left with inflamed sinuses, a severe sore throat and a cough that would bring up terrible looking gunk.

It took weeks before the symptoms disappeared and I felt half-human.

So, if you catch the flu, you don't have to ask. You'll know and the best thing is to drink as many liquids as you can, treat the symptoms with over the counter medications and hope for the best. The flu can kill you. After you've had it, there's no doubt in your mind it can.