Want to know what the Swine flu is like? Here it is!

reply to post by XXXN3O


I appreciate your responses and you make a lot of valid points. You are right, it is just the flu. Regardless of the strain, whether it be A, B, H1N1 or otherwise, it is still the flu.

As some other posters have already outlined (so I won't go into detail) there are some differences. The main difference I have seen is the infection rate. Yes, I think the media hype is ridiculous and I agree that this whole vaccination program is 1. a dry run for the government for any future true killer bug and 2. MONEY

It was not my intent to add to the hype by starting this thread, but to just bring it into focus and perspective. Yes, it is the flu and you get sick. For most you get over it with no problem in a short period of time.

reply to post by Symbiote

It was followed by a few weeks of coughing up green chunks. Finally kicked it with a combination of erythromycin and tetracycline from the aquarium store.

I can't believe what you typed here. Are you serious?
I'm not sure which sentence is the grossest. Antibiotics from a pet store?
:

edit to fix the emoticon

[edit on 10/20/2009 by wayno]

reply to post by wayno


The antibiotics they sell for fish are the same exact ones given to people. Tetracycline, erythromycin, amoxicillin, etc.... The only problem is you have to know which antibiotic to take for your particular illness and the proper dosages.

I have read you can give them to pets, but that they are not human quality. I will not even give them to my pets though.

This is from an email I just received from a friend who sat in on a meeting with a group of doctors in the Western U.S. last night:



"I sat in on a meeting last night regarding a discussion of the Swine Flu Injection.

The number of serious side effects of this CURE are not at all being covered in the Media. You should hear the doctors who are treating people who have SEROIUS AND LIFE THREATNING health issues as the result of the injection.

The MAIN obvious issues: the CHOICE of Preservatives used in the injection are the current MAIN culprit of the list of KNOWN PROBLEMS, which are always the list of ISSUES when these chemicals are used in vaccines.

The questions that everyone has is WHY WERE THESE CHOSEN when there are many other choices.

The German Military ordered 200,000 immunizations WITHOUT these preservatives , which was a bit of a secret, but the cat is out of the bag. I was told this in a confidential manner months ago by a friend in Germany.

Canadian Doctors REFUSED to give the normal Swine F Injection, as required, to Pregnant Women, as these additives produce an array of lethal side effects in a high percentage of cases , so they ordered batches without the additives, this has also made the media.

This issue is now the first line of concern, prior to people commenting on the strange issue of the Virus and the weirdness surrounding the development and deployment and the passing of STATE LAWS which require people to receive the injection.

THEN, a more interesting issue, is that all of the Medical people that I know and trust, are willing to look at the data and intellectually will agree with some aspects of vaccines, of course…

But if you ask them: WHAT IS YOUR GUT LEVEL FEELING : The answer ALWAYS IS: SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH THIS.

IF YOU ASK THEM: Are you going to give this to your wife and kids: THE ANSWER IS ALWAYS THE SAME: NO- not my kids and family.


And there are laws being passed in states which state that the STATE can require people to receive injections as defined by the CDC. NOW that truly frightening."

Nice to know what to look out for. I've been sick for 5 weeks now. Doctor says everything looks normal. Started with a cough, then progressed to the point where I've constantly got that feeling like I've swallowed wrong, that choking feeling, hard to explain. Breathing has been difficult at times as well, some days are better than others, some days I barely have the energy to get up, but with a demanding work schedule and a 6 year old I really have no opportunity to relax. Last night my throat was bothering me so bad I couldn't sleep, it's now 9:30 in the morning and no better. Doc had prescribed me erithromycin (sp?), didn't do a bit of good. Hopefully I'll just tough it out but it's been a long time.

Thank you very much for a great post, i know quite a few people who have had it and recovered, a couple of them have had the tamiflu and it worked. I dont think this disease is going to be the next plague, we can all calm down and get on with living our lives!

S+F

reply to post by expat2368


Interesting post. Do you have any more details? Such as...what are said side affects that are not being discussed?

I have heard the same thing numerous times, that a large percentage of docs and nurses will not get the vaccines. Suprisingly though, at the hospital where I work, I seem to be odd man out. There are only two or three other healthcare workers there that say they will not get it, but say so in hushed tones to me. I am the only one that I have heard openly declare my opposition to it. I have even gotten into heated debates with some docs about it all. I guess it just depends on where you are.

Having said that...I am sick. But the vaccine was only made available this past week so even if I had gotten it, it would have been too late. I am told numerous other employees have been out sick this past week also. Last year I was one of a few that did NOT get the seasonal flu vaccine and pretty much everyone BUT me got sick. I think I have only had the flu maybe once or twice in my life, so it is unusaull for me to be like this.

It is now day five and my fever is almost gone and the aching is just about gone. Only thing really holding on is the cough. It's not bad enough to make we concerned yet although it is a bit deeper than yesterday. I think it'll just run its course...

About two weeks ago the kids started getting sick it lasted for a day or two then went away then the next got it, it is still going around in an endless cycles.

Last night we had to take the 15 year old to the hospital he started to run a high fever and was having bad pain in his back and sides and vomiting.

They did x-rays of his lungs then said he only had the flu didn't say swine flu just flu.

He was in hospital approx. 4 hours they gave him:

600 mg motrin
Sodium Chloride 0.9% Intervenous (Sodium Chloride)- Dose 1 liter(s): IV Bolus
Tylenol- Dose: 650 Milligrams
Robitussin- AC (Codeine Phosphate)- Dose 5 milligrams
Zofren -Dose 4 milligrams IV push

They sent him home with no medicatons/prescriptions

Home care instructions:

Tylenol or Ibuprofen, Advil or Motrin for aches, pains, temp.
Pepto or Lomotil for diarrhea
Drink a lot of clear liquids

Was told not to go to school until after temp. (which was 103.6) has been gone 24 hours.

Great thread westcoast. I appreciate the efforts in providing a forum for first hand personal accounts regarding possible "swine flu" cases for other ATS members to read. Thank You.

I think I had the "swine flu" in August based upon symptoms and the fact that this was the worst flu I have ever had. I have never had anything even remotely like it. It had taken me about a month in bed to recover from it.


My symptoms for the first week started with a high fever that hovered around 101/close to 102 at the highest point, I had a sore irritated red throat, and I had a persistent cough. My lymph nodes right under my ears by the back of my jaw line were sensitive & swollen. I generally felt tired and my joints ached.

Then the second week it progressed to a situation where I would switch between a fever with sweats and then right to severe chills. That continued back and forth for days. About this same time I also started to feel nauseous and had no interest in eating at all. My coughs became more frequent and I began to have headaches from coughing so much. My chest hurt from coughing and my throat was sore. About week two was when I felt the worst overall with the most symptoms present. This is also the time when my partner became ill - she presented the same symptoms in the beginning as I did. She did not handle being ill that well and even despite being healthier than I she decided to go to urgent care for help. They had given her a strep test that ended up coming back negative which didn't shock us we assumed that it would come back as negative. My partner has had strep many times as a youngster and knew what it felt like and this did not feel like strep to her.

Somewhere between the end of week two and the beginning of week three my coughs became productive and this is when it really started to complicate things. I had really thick mucous on the back of my throat (to the point that you could readily see it when looking in the mirror) and my chest felt real congested. It was a cycle of I have to cough and I couldn't help but to cough, but every time that I coughed I ended up feeling as if I couldn't breathe so I would have to take deep gasps of air in. I was often woken up from a deep sleep with a coughing fit. This coughing/gasping for air continued for the entire third week. There was a point in time where I was going to go to urgent care, but didn't for two reasons I didn't want to cough and get anyone else sick and I also didn't want to pick something else up being so sick already. It was around this time that my partner had become quite well. She had only been sick for about a week, but I attribute that to her being much more healthy than I am.

Once the mucous went away towards the end of week three I could breathe much more easily. I still had a sore throat, but the fourth week mostly consisted of me feeling exhausted and needing to sleep for pretty much all day and all night.


The next month after this flu, in September, I was sick with what seemed like something else. I was extremely dizzy to the point that all I had to do was turn my neck to the left and the entire room spun around super fast. I was in bed another month on and off trying to fight off that symptom.


[Background Information]

I do have health issues related to my endocrine system that often make me more prone to being sick in general. In August just right before I had fallen ill with the flu I had taken Dexamethasone (Decadron) to test my cortisol levels. I was informed that this would hamper my immune system. And that it sure did. Shortly after I was sick with the flu described above. I have never in my life taken a flu shot of any kind nor any other vaccines other than typical childhood requirements for school and in 2008 I had a Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria, acellular pertussis vaccine) and also at the age of approximately 12 I had a tetanus shot due to stepping on a rusted nail.

reply to post by Elpida


Wow...sounds like you've really been through an ordeal. It's impossible to say what you had ofcourse, but just based on your descriptions it sounds more like the seasonal influenza A, which tends to be longer in duration and more severe. Ofcourse your meds complicate things too.

Good luck in a complete recovery!

Odd coincidence. Shortly after posting on this thread a friend of mine called me. His sister in Eureka, CA has come down with flu, she was put into a medically induced coma, she has bad asthma (as do I) and her lungs are failing, they now think it's probably the swine flu and aren't sure if she'll make it, scary stuff. I don't think that's what I have, least I keep hoping it's not. Seems every time I get the flu it turns into pneumonia, and with my asthma (and one lung at that!) that's never a good thing.

Glad you mentioned it my Grandson was lightheaded and dizzy when he tried to get up.

We are starting week three now I have three home today we can't get rid of this.

The headaches, sore throats, coughing, pain, vomiting, lightheadedness/dizzyness seem to be never ending.

reply to post by Terra Serranum


It is scary, especially when it happens to people we know.

But please keep in mind that it's all about odds and statistics. Your chances of developing a complication are no greater now than they were last year.(IMHO) The only thing that has changed is the infection rate. We all have a greater chance of contracting the flu this year (namely the most virulant strain, H1N1), but the complication rate is no higher, so far as I can tell from the reports I have been reading. (if anyone disagrees with me, please post. I am interested in learning as much as possible about this)

For example, I'll completely make up a number and say that half of all asthma sufferers will go on to develop complications (again...fictional numbers). So if last year there were 100 asthma sufferes that got the seasonal flu, 50 people developed complications. Let's say this year 1000 asthma sufferers got the H1N1, so 500 of them went on to develop complications. Yes, a lot more people would be hospitalized, but only because more people got sick, not because it was more deadly. Make sense?

So while it is good to be informed and educated, I don't think that anyone needs to panic.

I've had it.. It felt like normal flu, but the hot and cold flashes drove me nuts.. I had it on a Saturday, and was able to go back to Trade school the following Monday..

About two weeks ago, I had something. I've never felt like that it my life before (and I've even been through chemotherapy).

It started on a Monday night, and hit me almost immediately. Honestly, 5:55 PM, I was fine, 6 PM, I thought my head was going to burst. All I could do was close the blinds, turn off the TV, and lay on my bed with my head covered. After a while, I had to get up, and I didn't have any balance. I started to think it might be ear infections in both of my ears. I went about my normal routine to the best of my abilities the rest of the night. Then it was time for bed, and I just laid there for hours. My body just felt weird, I guess you could even say achy. About 5 AM it was so bad I had to go wake up my parents.

A couple hours later I was at the doctor. My normal doctor was out of town, so I had to see someone else. I didn't really care, I had seen him before and he was a nice guy. He comes in the room and I tell him about everything and how I think its ear infections, or maybe even Strep Throat. He says it's probably Flu, but he'll go ahead and test for both Flu and Strep Throat. A few minutes later a nurse comes in and does the tests, both involved sticking the equivalent of giant Q-Tips in my throat and nose (which I hated, it was the wrongest feeling ever). About 10 minutes after that, the doctor comes back in the room and said that both tests came back negative. But he then goes into this whole thing about how I hadn't had symptoms for 24 hours yet, the Flu test accuracy can be as low as 60%, and my mom had had Flu not too long before that, so he was going to treat me with Tamiflu. I felt so bad that I really didn't care what he was saying to me at the time (probably a big mistake), so I took the Tamiflu, rested, and drank lots of liquids.

And here I am today, still sick. I went back to the doctor (which was my actual doctor this time), and she said I probably have a secondary infection now, so she gave me some antibiotics. The real kicker for me was when I called in and talked to the nurse, she told me that it said last time I had been diagnosed with Swine Flu, which is a crock of s***. As far as I'm concerned, I wasn't diagnosed with anything, let alone a type of Flu. I've known several people that have had the regular Flu every Flu Season, and I DID NOT have what they had (not to say that Swine Flu exactly like the regular Flu), and I was no where near what my mom had right before me (nor the other people I know that have been "officially" diagnosed with Swine Flu, for that matter).

It seems like everyone at the doctors office just assumed that I had Swine Flu, which makes me angry. I know they've had a lot of people come in with Flu-like symptoms, but come on. I really don't want to have it down that I had Swine Flu when I really think I didn't even have the Flu.

And to top it all off, my regular doctor said something about how it might have originally been Mono. Would've been nice to have known that in the first place.

You can have a very low fever or none at all and be very sick. Everyone is different. Even on the CDC website, it states that not everyone presenting with flu symptoms has a fever. I'm at day 5 today. I'm really tired of it. My fever was only slight, but the body aches were awful. My neck swelled and my throat burned so bad I could hardly stand it. I had to put ice packs on it. Sneezing and coughing so much my sides are hurting. Then I had really bad intestinal cramping. No diarrhea, but cramping. I have been nauseated off and on even up to today. I did have a migraine headache off and on for about two days before the sniffles started. I have asthma and last night I started to have a little trouble breathing, so I took an updraft breathing treatment. I haven't had to do that in over a year. I just feel like crap.

reply to post by Roid_Rage27


You are right about fever reducing meds. It can cause the illness to last longer or get worse. It's tough to get that through people's mind, especially if a little one has a fever of 103.

reply to post by Donkey_Dean


A drop in medicare claims? What are you getting at? An 11 year old student where I teach also died two weeks ago from complications of H1N1. She has a severe viral pneumonia.

I just want to thank the OP for this. I have a 6 month old and took her for regular check up last week. The doctor was appalled at me for refusing to give her the vaccine. Over the past week Ive been fretting and talking to my wife thinking maybe we should give in.

Hearing from you and a few others in the medical proffesion it sounds like this is a rapidly transmitted version of an otherwise normal flu. The media has hyped this up to panic everyone. Especially parents.

For what its worth thank you. S&F.