Ouch WebKat!

I sure hope that Tamiflu helps you out. Get better soon and getcherbutt back here! Take care of yourself,

Shore

Hi Guys...sitting here with my cat on my lap....she is "massaging" my arm for me....I think she is tired of having to wait a little longer for her food. All of my animals are frustrated with me....boo-hoo.

Thanks so much for the well wishes...I really hate being sick (I don't make any money lying around in bed) and you know, Barb, that is the only bright side about it (immunities)...maybe the worst is over for awhile. :o)

About the garlic...I don't have cloves...what about garlic powder...I could make some garlic toast...would that provide the same benefit?

WebKat, take Ontario Barb's advice on the garlic. My backyard neighbor from Poland swears by it. First sign of a cold, eat garlic, any way you want to prepare it, but make it fresh. She just minces the fresh cloves, about a half-teaspoon and eats it at the very first sign of a cold. That's how she wards off colds each year. Maybe the colds come in with the vampires and the garlic fends them both off!

Eat chicken soup, too. You probably already know this, but in lab studies, they isolated a particular enzyme, whose name escapes me, that actually does speed the body's recovery from a cold or flu. Another old-fashioned remedy backed up by science.

Hope you feel better soon.
Barbara in Virginia

WebKat, I would use fresh garlic, right from the bulb. My husband thinks I'm nuts but I swear to you that I've had a sore throat start with that tight muscle feeling and razor blade sensation in the inside of the throat and swollen nodes and eaten the garlic and been right as rain the next day. The other food I swear by is anything with capsaicin. At times when I have a wicked sore throat I put a dab of hot pepper sauce on my finger and rub it onto the raw spots on my throat. I have a wicked gag reflex but the capsaicin in the pepper sauce really does have an antiseptic as well as anesthetic effect just the same as any products you can buy in the store. One application lasts for 12 hours and in some cases has completely gotten rid of the sore throat infection if I catch it early enough. I have no idea how or why it works but I saw a news spot on tv that said patients with mouth ulcers that are due to cancer treatment are being treated with "taffy" of all things...taffy that is made with heaps of capsaicin. To make it palitable they flavor it like cinnamon. The capsaicin in the taffy heals the ulcers better than any treatment that has been previously prescribed.

Now send someone to the grocery to get you some garlic bulbs. 2 aught to get you through this nastiness. :o) I make shrimp scampi if I don't feel like eating just the garlic. I've tried to eat raw garlic but it's just too much and I end up tasting it for days afterward.

Barb (the other one) ;o)

Owww. Take Barb's advice. I got awfully sick last winter. A good friend pried me with a concoction made of lime, honey, a little salt and RED HOT peppers & very warm water. I still make a concoction like this and drink it when I don't feel good.

Take care.

There must be something to your concoction pitimpinai because as soon as I get a fever with flu symptoms (lung infection, severe aches all over etc) I send my husband to the Chinese restaurant to get "hot & sour soup". Every restaurant makes it a bit different but the gyst of it is that it is made with chile peppers and has some sweetness to cut the heat. It has some meat, tofu, cloud ears (a fungus/mushroom) and veggies in it but it's the broth that breaks the fever and seems to bring me out of that "misery" part of a serious infection. Most Chinese restaurants either call it "Hot and Sour Soup" or "Chile Vinegar Soup".

Your concoction sounds strangely similar. :o)

Barb

I got the flu like that once about 8 years ago. It hit me HARD for 4 days, and then I was literally like new on the 5th day. Just like you: achy, fevery, just all over YUCKY. Weird. Had never gotten anything like that and hope it keeps away for another 32 years!

Ditto on the garlic...
I usually make a pot of chicken soup that is so heavy on the garlic no one else can eat it. I stand by it as great for building up the immune system.
Glad you're feeling better, WebKat. It does suck being sick.

I'd describe influenza (the "real" flu) as feeling like getting run over by a truck. It happens out of nowhere, and you just can't do anything but lay there and feel horrible (and probably cough a whole lot).

After several bouts with influenza over the years, I finally wised up and now get the vaccination every year. It doesn't always work--there was a poor match in 1999 and it DIDN'T work, but most years I'm influenza-free.

If your influenza type (usually docs look at the CDC website or get updates from a county health department and base their diagnosis on what's prevalent in your area) is susceptible to one of the anti-influenza drugs AND you've gotten to the doc within about 24 hours of onset of symptoms, then the drugs cut your time spent just laying in bed because you are too weak to do anything else from 7 days to about 3 days. They don't do much for the weak, shaky recovery period other than start that recovery sooner.

Right now, most H3N2 strains (the ones most commonly in circulation) are resistant to Amantadine (Symmetrel) but still susceptible to Tamiflu/Relenza. How long until the flu strains develop resistance to those is unknown.

Bottom line: Get the vaccination every Fall, unless you are allergic to something in the vaccine. It's better than spending 7 days in bed too weak to get up except to go pee, better than spending 7 days in a hospital bed delirious with a high fever too weak to get up except to pee, better than losing 20 pounds in 5 days because your body is just burning itself up (NO, influenza is NOT a good diet plan...), better than spending 2 to 4 weeks slowly recovering and regaining your strength, better than getting bronchitis along with it and coughing for months, better than getting a secondary pneumonia infection--get the picture?

Lisa

Yea, Lisa, this was the real flu...they even tested me for it (shoved that giant cotten swab down my nose...)

I should have gotten a shot...I started working in the schools as of the first of the year and it was too late by that time to get the shot....

Maybe I am immune to at least this strain and similar ones for the rest of this year...keeping my fingers crossed!!

Next year, for sure, I will get the shot!! And it is like you said...looooong recovery period...I am really watching for pneumonia....but I think I am getting better and stronger each day.

Just found this thread and hope you are feeling back to normal webkat. I know the feeling when you also have animals to care for (besides children...). Stay well - Carrie

Hi Webkat,

Glad to hear you're feeling a little better. Take it easy and try not to overdo it. Hope your recovery goes quickly.

Cindy

I got the flu shot Oct 2007 and now I have the flu. I was in the 3rd or 4th day of this flu when it dawn on me to get the TamiFlu shot. Too late for that. I was told that my flu will be milder with the flu shot. I am beginning to to feel a little better after the fifth day.
I feel that my homemade chicken, rice, carrot, onion, garlic soup with lots of herbs helped some. I let it simmer all day and once in awhile I would inhale the moisture from the soup.
How long does the flu usually last?

Aw ((Webcat)), I hope you're feeling a whole lot better!!!!

I didn't realize garlic was all that good for what ails you, but I believe I shall get a few bulbs to have on hand.

I use Zicam 2x a day when I have those symptoms, this October I used it for a full week! I'm not saying it's the flu because I'm not sure. I just know I knock it before it comes calling.

But if garlic will help, then I am all for it. I never had a flu shot before. It seems like they are always running low on the vaccine and old people get it first and what do you do if you rely on it and then in 2011 there is no vaccine available? I'd rather jest takes my chances warding it off on my own. Of course in 2015 I'll be one of the old people who gets it first LOL! I can wait until then.

Lime

I like to make chicken soup with lots of garlic and onion or fresh salsa when I feel a cold or flu coming on. Lots of yummy garlic, onions, hot peppers, parsley or cilantro, chopped tomato and lime juice. Lots of vitamin C in salsa and it will open you up! The salsa is also good for sinus stuff. Garden Sage tea is a very ancient Middle Eastern cold remedy. Sounded nasty to me when a friend told me about it years ago, but it's not bad at all and it does help (with a little honey) and is always in my kitchen cabinet or garden. Hope everyone feels better!