Originally Posted by jenh22

Even before "swine flu" hit, I know tons of people that every time they get sick, say they have "the flu" even when they didn't seem that sick. Some people will get a mild case of the flu, but I would bet most of these illness were another virus.

I'll run into people at wallyworld and they'll tell me they have the flu (if it were true, why are you out spreading it to everyone else?) or call me on the phone and tell me they have they flu, then go on to ramble about everything else going on in their lives.

The last time I had influenza was 12 years ago. Me, dh and our 10 month old son got it. We all stayed in bed together for about a week. Going shopping was out of the question, the only time one of us got up was to use the bathroom, get a drink, or throw away a dirty diaper. I don't think either of us showered or ate that whole time. We finally had to get up when our son started having seizures. I had to call my mom to come take us to the hospital (other than the doctor that was the only phone call made during that time). There was no way either of us could drive, we got dizzy just standing up. Running around telling everyone we had "the flu" was out of the question.

Now granted not everyone has that severe of a case, but true influenza makes most people extremely ill and unable to function all that much.