8:39am November 9, 2013

➸ slashmarks: oldfuckingsport: "Oh man I’m not feeling too good" "Oh no, what’s the...

oldfuckingsport:

“Oh man I’m not feeling too good”
“Oh no, what’s the matter?”
“I have the flu, that’s all.”
“Did you go to the doctor?”
“Nah, I can’t really afford to.”
“Um then you shouldn’t be saying you have the flu, you’re not exactly a medical professional.”
“….No, but I know the…

Except that if ALL they’re doing is vomiting all day (with or without diarhea), with no other symptoms, they likely have either a stomach bug or food poisoning, but not the flu.

If someone tells me in person that they have the flu, I PANIC.

Because I think they mean the actual flu.  Influenza.  Respiratory virus.  (Which can involve vomiting, but that’s never the main symptom.  The main symptom is cruddy lungs with a cough, usually a fever, and achy muscles.  Sometimes vomiting goes along with it but it’s not the most obvious symptom you notice.)

As in, the virus with a potential to kill me or at least make me very sick, given that I have bronchiectasis and several other risk factors.

If they have to insist on calling vomiting the flu, they can at least call it the "stomach flu” and save people like me the panic of thinking that we might have just been exposed to something life-threatening that could put us in the hospital.

Other than that, good post, but bad example.

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