The Unhappy Me thread

[pinhodecarlos]

How come since I took last year the flu jab that I’m hit monthly by flu. I was much much better without it. Now struggling since last Sunday.

[nomead]

Originally Posted by pinhodecarlos

How come since I took last year the flu jab that I’m hit monthly by flu. I was much much better without it. Now struggling since last Sunday.

Because flu is not flu. Influenza is quite different from common cold, which is caused by many groups of different viruses, although the symptoms may be similar. And there's probably no correlation between your flu shot and whatever common cold bugs are floating around in the air and on surfaces. Wash your hands, folks.

[Dr Sardonicus]

Originally Posted by pinhodecarlos

How come since I took last year the flu jab that I’m hit monthly by flu. I was much much better without it. Now struggling since last Sunday.

I seriously doubt what you're getting every month is the flu. For one thing, it would have to be a different strain every month. If you get the flu and recover, you'll be immune from that strain for some time. The flu virus mutates fast, but not that fast. And there usually aren't more than a few strains extant at any one time.

My first guess would be, as already suggested, you're getting whatever common cold bugs are going around. Cold viruses mutate so fast, you might well be one of many in the "cold of the month" club.

Another "purely logical" possibility (commonly occurring, but put forth in the absence of information of your current status) is that you're "run down" in some way, making you more susceptible than usual to whatever bug you encounter. Inadequate sleep and unusual stress would be my top two suspects in that regard. My third suspect would be diet, perhaps a vitamin deficiency. Hopefully, you can exclude all of these.

It is however possible the flu shot could have compromised your immune system, or somehow caused that to happen. I've never heard of such a reaction, but that might simply mean I'm ignorant.

In any case I would suggest seeing a doctor.

[pinhodecarlos]

Tomorrow I’ll call my GP for an appointment. Will be working from home this week. Thank you both.

[xilman]

Originally Posted by pinhodecarlos

Tomorrow I’ll call my GP for an appointment. Will be working from home this week. Thank you both.

I can pretty much guarantee that you have not had flu this year. I can absolutely guarantee that you've not had flu more than once.

Were you bed-ridden with a body temperature >= 40C? If not, you almost certainly did not have flu.

Common colds are, well, common and uncomfortable but hardly ever kill anyone. Influenza has a significant mortality rate. The global pandemic in 1918-19 killed more people than did WWI.

[pinhodecarlos]

Originally Posted by xilman

I can pretty much guarantee that you have not had flu this year. I can absolutely guarantee that you've not had flu more than once.

Were you bed-ridden with a body temperature >= 40C? If not, you almost certainly did not have flu.

Common colds are, well, common and uncomfortable but hardly ever kill anyone. Influenza has a significant mortality rate. The global pandemic in 1918-19 killed more people than did WWI.

Copy that. I meant cold, my brain is not working properly. Max temperature I had was 38.9 degC which comes and goes in cycles.

[ewmayer]

Pretty much any incident of broadly similar immune-system-fighting-something-off-ness goes under the common rubric of "flulike symptoms". Even if it's not a cold (distinguished by nose & throat irritation), it could be mild case of food poisoning, or any of thousands of other pathogenic bugs we're exposed to during our lifetimes to the extent that they generate a discernible immune response.

BTW, one of the things that made the incorrectly-named Spanish Flu following WW1 so deadly was the continent-wide weakening of immune systems attendant to that ruinous conflict. Millions of sick, injured, starving and displaced persons made for highly fertile soil for a pandemic. If memory serves, that particular strain was also notable for more-greatly afflicting people who would normally be considered in their physical prime. It's a bit of a condundrum - widescale immune weakening allowed the virus to spread like wildfire, but once it did, the relatively healthy young people who caught it were in greater danger, because with the strain in question, it was their own resulting out-of-control immune response that killed them, something that is reminiscent of e.g. cholera.

[Dr Sardonicus]

Originally Posted by pinhodecarlos

Copy that. I meant cold, my brain is not working properly. Max temperature I had was 38.9 degC which comes and goes in cycles.

"Comes and goes in cycles" is worth mentioning to the doctor. That's really unusual. The only "cyclical" illness that comes to mind is malaria, which as far as I know doesn't present like a head cold, but is quite serious. It has been called the greatest of the great pestilential fevers. So I hope to heck that that's not your problem!

(The malaria "illness cycle" varies with kind, but it's on the order of a few days. It reflects the life cycle of the animalcules that cause it.)

[masser]

Have you ruled out sinus infection or seasonal allergies? I have experienced both of these and at times they seem like colds that ebb and flow, but take weeks to fully recover.

[Dr Sardonicus]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

BTW, one of the things that made the incorrectly-named Spanish Flu following WW1 so deadly was the continent-wide weakening of immune systems attendant to that ruinous conflict. Millions of sick, injured, starving and displaced persons made for highly fertile soil for a pandemic. If memory serves, that particular strain was also notable for more-greatly afflicting people who would normally be considered in their physical prime. It's a bit of a condundrum - widescale immune weakening allowed the virus to spread like wildfire, but once it did, the relatively healthy young people who caught it were in greater danger, because with the strain in question, it was their own resulting out-of-control immune response that killed them, something that is reminiscent of e.g. cholera.

I note that the "Spanish flu" killed a lot of people on this continent as well as in Europe. And, just as in Europe, many of them were notably young and in good health.

I also note that people don't generally die of cholera due to an "out of control immune response." They die of dehydration and loss of electrolytes. "Oral rehydration therapy" is an effective treatment in most cases.

Cholera (formerly also known as the "Bengal Plague") has an interesting place in the annals of medicine. A Doctor Snow in London did what may be called the first epidemiological study, of an 1854 cholera epidemic. He was able to convince the authorities that it was coming from the water being drawn from a specific public water pump (the Broad Street pump). The pump handle was removed, and the epidemic stopped.

It is also one of the first diseases laid to a specific microbe, a "comma-shaped bacillus." Much later, it was discovered that the bacillus wasn't acting alone. There was a virus that lent it its lethal punch. This may explain an incident described in (IIRC) The Microbe Hunters in which a skeptic swallowed a whole test tube full of cholera bacilli without apparent ill effect.

It also bears the distinction of having killed a former US President shortly after he left office. James Polk died of cholera in 1849.

And, as noted above, it is peculiar in the sense that a fairly simple symptomatic treatment generally leads to recovery.

[Routeee]

I need to do an essay for tomorrow, and my professor said to completely redo it