"it lasts 5-8 days, and has symptoms that include a high fever (between 101 and 105), aches and pain in the legs and hips, a cough, sore throat and fatigue, followed by a few days of what seems like a cold with swollen lymph nodes."
I've been saying to the flu, "bring it ON." Because I have nearly all those symptoms all the time, so who really gives a damn. Pardon my French, but how will I know the difference? Seems like the only difference will be the cough, sore throat, and fever. What are those three little things, compared to what I already deal with on a daily basis.
So here's a fun little comparison between this horrible, dreadful flu and Fibromyalgia.
Flu:
"it lasts 5-8 days, and has symptoms that include a high fever (between 101 and 105)"
Fibromyalgia:
No fever, usually. Sometimes people with Fibromyalgia have unexplained fevers. Both are rough, but the flu is over in approximately a week and it's rough, as I will go into further...keep reading.
Only God knows how long Fibromyalgia will last. It may last the rest of my life. Years. Decades even. 5-8 days, flu? Waaah. Cry me a river, baby.
Flu:
"aches and pain in the legs and hips."
Fibromyalgia:
Try aches and pain ALL over the body. Either deep aching pains, throbbing pains, sharp, shooting pains, appearing anywhere at any time, migrating to different parts of the body. The pain I get in the hips is Bursitis. Oh and not to mention Allodynia, which is skin pain that feels like intense sunburn.
With the flu, you can take some Tylenol, rest and drink water and you'll likely be okay within 5-8 days. So put on your big girl panties and suck it up.
Flu:
"a cough, sore throat."
Fibromyalgia:
Ok you got me there. In Fibromyalgia, we don't have cough and sore throats. But I do have swollen lymph nodes sometimes for no known reason. I would gladly take all the flu symptoms if I could KNOW it would be over in 5-8 days.
Flu:
"fatigue."
Fibromyalgia:
Crashing fatigue. Do you know what crashing fatigue is? That's the kind of fatigue that causes you to have to practically crawl to and then pull and drag yourself up into bed. Until I got Fibromyalgia, I had never had THAT level of fatigue, and I've had bad cases of influenza many times.
Today at dinner, I suddenly had to leave the table to go lie down. This is a normal day.
Also and I'm sorry to keep harping on this, with the flu, the fatigue is OVER in 5-8 days. Just a bit over a week people! I would love for Fibromyalgia to have the media coverage that the flu is getting.
I'm not as fearful of the flu as "normal" people, I guess that's one advantage of having Fibromyalgia. I'm ready at a moment's notice to be even more sick than I am now. It doesn't seem like it will be much worse.
Of course the flu has an element of IT CAN KILL YOU that Fibromyalgia doesn't have...which is something I try to keep in mind, I may feel awful but Fibromyalgia is not going to kill me!
I hope you do not get the flu. But if you do, please remember to rest, drink plenty of fluids, and give it time. Be grateful that it will be OVER in a week or so. For many people with chronic pain are not so lucky. That's all I ask...that you think of how it is for those who have to feel that way...
.... day after day after day after day after day after day after day after day after day after day after day....
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