h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm home with a case of the "creeping crud" today. It's probably just a serious cold, but I feel rotten all over. I had just two words to say to my friend at the office when I called off sick this morning ... "fk it". "I'm sick, and I'm staying home. Bleh." She laughed at me. I know -- my feminine gentility knows no boundaries.

Unfortunately, there is a pervasive idea in this area that having the flu involves vomiting and intestinal distress. There is no understanding that influenza is, in fact, a respiratory illness that is akin to the common cold on steroids. Noooooooo. If you're not blowing chunks and Hershey squirting, you don't have the flu in the opinion of a Northeast Ohioan. As a result, thousands of people in this area regularly attend school, wo*k and other activities with what they label wrongly as a cold ... making far more people sick than is necessary. They simply will not stay home, because it is considered culturally unacceptable to be down sick with anything less than bodily spewage. I dread the day when a serious outbreak of infuenza will be greeted with such ignorance and stubbornly willful behavior. I can only hope that people will wise up before it's too late.

I'm sick today because an elderly boss of mine insisted on showing up last week when he was very ill. I was forced to sit several feet away from him all day as he caughed, sneezed, and sucked on 'Hall's Menthol-Eucalyptus Cough Drops' ... all of it wafting my way. I detest the stench of 'Hall's' because you just *know* you're breathing someone else's virus crud when you catch a whiff of them.


*has a Howard Hughes moment*

I wonder, is this confusion with the flu a common problem everywhere, or is it just a local phenomenon?

That is a very widespread misconception.

You are correct about influenza being a respiratory ailment.

I hope you feel better soon.

Thanks, I've already blown my way through two boxes of tissues, Mav ... fortunately, I made a large pot of chicken soup at the first sign of trouble, so I'm well stocked.

*miserable*


So, how do we go about edjmukating the American public about flu?

for Maverick

Get well soon. Being an older geneation worker (68yrs), and self employed I can't afford to be sick. The pension fund went belly up. so have to keep going. Not that I mind, I enjoy my work and it will be a sad day when I can't get my bones out of bed to do it.
My advise to you is to retire to your pit with a book and a large whisky and lemon. My own preference is to take this without the lemon, as a preventive measure that is, but there you are. It's worked so far this cold and 'flu season. Got here wiothout a sniffle, says he touching a very lage chunk of wood.
Take care and good luck with it
All the best from Peter

Yes, it's a commom misconception in this area too.

The attempt to educate people about the difference between a cold and flu - has resulted in even more confusion though. Now, people will say they have the "stomach flu".

Maybe that's progress, maybe it's not. I don't know if they're getting the concept that it's not really *the* flu.

Over here influenza is considered to be a separate and far more serious virus than a cold You don't have to be vomiting. You ache all over and have no energy and feel like absolute sh*t, far more ill than any cold. In my life I've probably had hundreds of colds, but the 'flu maybe once or twice. The last time was around 20 years ago and for a week I felt like hell on earth. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. I'm terrified of ever getting it again........

I've slept a bit and now my mouth tastes like it has been dragged through the inside of a camel ... backwards ... five times ... slooooooowly.

Thanks for the whiskey advice, Peter ... whiskey should be just the thing to cut the remnants of the aforementioned 'camel'.



*s off to brush and floss just to be sure*



Perhaps that is progress, Lady Scott. I certainly hope so. What I have probably isn't the flu, but this sure is a miserable cold. I don't blame you for wanting to avoid influenza at all costs, Red. Flu is nasty stuff.

Avenging. You may not literally have the flu. But there's such a thing as a fluey cold which is halfway between the two and pretty damned nasty. You need lots of warm bedding, plenty of whiskey and damned good telly - oh and a big from those who care about you!

My grandfather never got ill. Anytime he thought there might be the possibility of coming down with something he had a whiskey with lemon and honey.

I think if you catch it early enough the whiskey scares the influenza virus right out of your body!

Lots of "flu" going around here in KC, the rarest right now is the stomach flu, the most predominant is a very nasty strain of upper respiratory that turns into pneumonia almost in a matter of hours after the "heavy" symptoms hit. People have been out of work/school for a couple of weeks, and then have the cough to deal with for a month longer. I'm "crossing my fingers" so hard they're cramping in hopes that you don't have anything like that AW!

Get well soon - good move on the chicken soup! *wraps herself in sarann wrap before she s AW* Can't be too careful you know...

Awwwwww. You're sweet to say that, Red. I haven't actually got any whisky in the house , so I'll have to make do with kerosene and a match.

I suppose I may have been more vulnerable to another infestation since having the pneumonia recently. Mind you, I hardly **ever** get sick with anything infestuous ... but this hasn't really been my year.

*s at Michele's saran wrap suit and s her carefully. *

A cold feels a lot better when you have friends to talk to.


You know what I hate? I hate the way your nose gets all red from wiping it constantly, then it turns into a leathery appendange and peels for several days like a sunburn? I'm using the fancy-pants tissues with lotion, even! What more does this cold want!! I followed a friend's advice to smear 'chap-stick' on my nose yesterday ... which promptly made me rush to the bathroom to wash it off since it started to burn and turn my chapped nose beet red. Lovely. So much for that tip with my sensitive skin.

AW - Try vaseline instead, it doesn't have the stuff in it that burns like chapstick does.


Michele, I started keeping a pump bottle of hand sanitizer in the cup holder in the front seat of the car, and use it when I get back to the car if I think I may have touched anything that might be germy out in public. (door handles, grocery carts, money handed to me by sneezing and coughing salesclerks, etc.)

This idea came from a friend of mine. Granted, she's a little phobic about germs, but she hardly ever gets sick, and in this year when there are fewer people who had flu shots, I figured it was worth the trouble to hopefully avoid getting sick so much this winter.

In the final analysis, it may not make much difference, since most of the time I only get sick when one of my kids is sick and breathes directly in my face. But occasionally, I'm the one who gets sick first, so I must occasionally be picking things up elsewhere.

Lanolin's good too. Assuming, of course, that you're not allergic to wool THough there is stuff that's suposed to be OK to use even if you are. Spendy, and you'd need to look in the baby section of the store, but I know it works quite well on chapped lips, so it only stands to reason tht it'd work on a chapped nose... (One of the zillions of free samples I got right after Faith was born, that I never needed for the regular use, as my nipples never cracked. I figured that if it was safe for a newborn to ingest, it certainly couldn't hurt for me to see if it's help my lips!)

*checks to make sure that terrycloth and paper can't catch each other's germs (I know there's an actual word for that concept)*

Maverick, Amy, Lady Scott, and AW, all together in one thread.

Paul

Thank you, AW, for not letting Redpeckham spork me.

In any event, I wasn't laughing at her. Rather, I was laughing at the Evil Army's naivete at thinking they could attack the Thingites in the "No, No, No" thread.

I long ago abandoned the idea of engaging the Thingites on their own turf. Besides, I have forgotten about that thread anyway.

Paul are you/were you a thingite? Whatever - you are very welcome on nonono, I'll look after you if you're a little nervous I'm on dialup as well. I find I've developped a certain special patience to post on nonono.........Honestly it is possible. If not I look forward to your friendship at the MotMV tearoom

Has your dreaded lurgy run its course yet Avenging?

Oh no ... I've *always* got the dreaded lurgy ... but the cold/flu seems to be on the way out.

Unfortunately, my Mom has caught it now.


Red

How are you today?

I'm okay. This poets we have a session for artistic performance at a local cafe - I'll be doing some stuff - I feel quite nervous but it should be fun - I like the buzz of performing to an audience.......