Because I am still All The Sick

[commodorified]

Poll #17162 The Worst

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 75

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What is Ther Worst Viral Thing? (Based on personal loathing, not actual/potential severity)

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Head cold, the runny kind
5 (6.7%)

Sinus cold, the stuffy kind
9 (12.0%)

Tonsils/strep
6 (8.0%)

Chest cold
6 (8.0%)

Stomach bug
27 (36.0%)

Influenza (get your flu shot, everyone!)
22 (29.3%)

ETA: "stomach bug" includes viruses causing *both* kinds of digestive distress. Possibly I ought to have said "digestive system" rather than "stomach", but I am the sort of person who would rather clean up after Norovirus for a week than discuss the topic for ten minutes, sorry.

Comments

[recessional]

I got unlucky two different flu seasons and got the full flu in spite of the jabs. (Which I get for free because Asthma.)

The nausea wasn't quite as bad as the times I got norovirus (I managed not to actually throw up), but while norovirus had me camped out in the bathroom et cetera, in both cases the sheer overwhelming misery of the high-fever and the way that full doses of all available meds merely brought everything down to "I can fall asleep again"/bad cold level (intense headache, sore throat, full chest congestion, full nasal congestion + post nasal drip) plus the way my HIPS ached no matter what I did . . . eeeyeah. It's just the sheer knock-me-flat weakness and misery of it, really. It feels like someone turned the gravity up.

The first time, as I was coming down with it, I decided to have a shower because showers make me feel better. When I got out I had to sit on the floor and lean my arm against the under-sink cabinet in order to dry my hair enough to crawl back into bed, where I remained bar pee-breaks and stumbling upstairs to get more ice-water, for the next 48 hours. (I actually have no memory of those two days beyond a blur of "sleep, wake up in pain and coughing and too hot, take drugs, drink water, go to bathroom, sleep, rinse, repeat").

The second time wasn't quite as bad, but still knocked me out for a week and a half. That year the littlest sister ended up in the hospital because her bout of the flu came with stomach trouble so bad that she couldn't keep water down and needed IV rehydration.


. . . so everyone get your shots! And hope you don't catch an outlier. >.>

(eta: also I have to admit - while I loathe nausea and related stomach stuff deeply, my stomach is so goddamn sensitive and so responsive to my moods etc that at this point while miserable stomach stuff is as familiar to me as colds are to most people, which I suppose may have the salutary effect of making morning-sickness non-traumatic if it ever becomes relevant.)

[commodorified]

UGH. I haven't been that sick to my recollection since the tonsils left; before that I used to come down with the full house - infected throat leading to infected sinuses and lungs, high fever, - about twice a year.

I'm not sure I've HAD the flu, actually, but I figure it's probably comparable, which is to say dire.

[recessional]

It's pretty dire. It's also unfair because even after you've stopped being classically symptomatic - that is, you're no longer stuffed up or fevered or pukey, and unless you're asthmatic like me you've probably stopped coughing - you're actually not recovered for all the way up to another week - or more if you're unlucky. You're weak and easily tired and vulnerable to secondary infections liek woah.

I've had strep, noro, food poisoning, Exciting Psychosomatic Whatsis (which in my case was severe abdominal pain plus distress for no apparent reason) and regular colds, and I can say hands down that the two rounds with the flu are the most miserable I've ever been, and heartily recommend not getting it.