Hope she is feeling better…no fun being sick!
@frazzled1 is her urgent care (walk-in) clinic covered by her insurance? For me, the co-pay for both the walk-in and my regular doc are the same and when I have something like this, it’s to the urgent care I go because they can get me in quickly.
I’m glad she’s getting a reprieve. Best of luck to her!
My S lost his voice, throat hurt, had some phlegm but no fever and no body aches. We bought Mucinex 12 hour horse sized pills and he got better and regained his voice in a day and a half. Mucinex works great at nipping the respiratory symptoms in the bud…that and lots of rest, water and chicken soup. Also, we beef up on vitamins especially C and D.
I’ve also tried homeopathic remedies with my younger S when he’s sniveling, stuffed up and coughing and that’s worked as well. A 15 min head-under-blanket-over-steaming bowl of water with essential oil mix has cured him.
Hope your D feels better
I just now got over what you describe your daughter having. It’s been the worst flu I’ve ever had, the sickest I’ve ever felt to the point I was worried I wasn’t going to live thru it. She should call her doctor as soon as possible. If she’s so sick she can’t talk, then she needs to be seen. I got Tamilflu on the second day, and it did help, but I’m now on day 10 and still have a bad cough. My fever also spiked on day 7, after the Tamiflu RX was finished.
I found the body aches unbelievably painful. I’ve had a double mastectomy. The aches from this flu hurt more than that.
Wishing her all the best.
If a patient called me with such complaints I would say it is probably part of the viral process (Tamiflu is not a miracle) but I could not know if it’s something to worry about unless she came in and I could listen to her lungs and perhaps order a chest x-ray. Laryngitis is a common viral symptom and typically nothing to worry about.
In general, the symptoms you describe should not cause alarm and getting seen based on the trajectory of the illness makes sense.
@frazzled1 ~ Sending good wishes for your D. I hope she is feeling much better tomorrow.
It’s possible for a viral illness to cause a fever lasting 5 days, but it’s not usual. Also since she got better and then developed a fever, I think it would be worth checking to rule out a bacterial pneumonia. Flu makes people more vulnerable to this.
Laryngitis is typically a viral symptom that is not treatable. Tamiflu does next to nothing and probably shouldn’t be given to people who don’t have a risk of complications from flu (e.g., old or young age, chronic illnesses like asthma, etc.) It can be helpful as prophylaxis for vulnerable relatives of flu sufferers. And the antibiotic of choice for bronchitis is no antibiotic— this has been the case in the 20 years since I graduated from med school, although lots of people still prescribe for this diagnosis. There are enough downsides to antibiotic treatment that I wouldn’t want to take them unless they were going to be helpful.
I think all homes should have a pulse oximeter. These are now cheap as chips and really reassuring along with a thermometer, a reliable electronic sphygmomanometer, and a stethoscope for the motivated self learner. I romanticise that the children of MDs could use a stethoscope for basics.
Huh- pulse oximeter in the home? Not for me, a retired MD. Physicians’ child won’t learn what not interested in, btw. Home BP monitors are good for those with hypertension, but trying to manage the BP cuff/stethoscope- not worth it. A thermometer is a necessity.
Looking through the posts it seems various physicians have the bases covered. No single answer. I go along with the wait a few days with symptoms to see if they improve. Viruses can make one feel horrible and there’s nothing a physician can do. A secondary infection can occur but timing isn’t critical unless meningitis is suspected.
There, added another confusing opinion to the mix. Why it’s the practice of medicine. btw- all physicians learned the basics before becoming specialized, no need to be an infectious disease expert… I find that primary care physicians tend to have a handle on what diseases and presentations are currently happening in the local community. They see the trends in symptoms. btw- it’s a bummer this year’s flu vaccine is only 10% effective. Those pesky mutating viruses.
pulse oximeter in the home? Not for me, a retired MD<<<<<<
Why not? $20 real time pulse and O2 sats. You are retired, like over 70?
Just an FYI. We all got vaccinated in the office. A couple of my coworkers just came down with the flu. Whatever vaccine we got was not effective against this particular flu that has been hitting Seattle. Yes, the coworkers got tested for flu, but I don’t know the details other than it was actually flu.
I know a lot of folks who got the flu vaccine this year…and have gotten the flu. Usually I know no one. As noted above…only about 10% of the flu strains seem to be covered…which means 90% are not.
Good thing I got this free at work!
This has been a really bad year for the flu shot effectiveness. The only silver lining is that usually if you have been vaccinated but still get the flu, you will have a milder case than if you had not gotten it. Which is not to say it will be a mild case, only that it will be less severe than if you had not been vaccinated at all.
It’s unfortunate that the vaccine isn’t that effective this year. Plays into the narrative that people don’t really need the vaccine 
OP, how is your daughter doing? Hope she’s on the mend
Thanks for asking, Romani. She feels better - still coughing, but without as much discomfort, and her temp has stayed below 100 all day. I hope this means she’s almost through with it. Thanks, too, to all who posted with such helpful information.
The problem appears to be that one of the vaccine viruses, the A-H3N2 one, mutated while growing in eggs for production. See https://www.statnews.com/2017/11/07/flu-vaccine-egg-production/ .
The CDC health advisory put out a memo yesterday regarding H3N2 (influenza A) due to the observation of the increase in cases in recent weeks. Their recommendation is for all hospitalized, severely ill and high risk patients with suspected or confirmed flu diagnosis to get the antiviral, neuraminidase inhibitor within two days of symptoms. Even past two days may be beneficial to get the antiviral. (Tamiflu, Relenza, Rapivab) all three medications are approved by the USFDA.
Their recommendation for otherwise healthy people who get the flu do not need to get the antivirals.
A lot of people don’t realize the flu is pretty terrible disease and patients are going to feel awful. They’ll have high fevers, they’ll feel like it’s too much effort to roll over in bed, they’ll ache all over. I myself, as a young woman, went to the doctor for the flu. But-- mostly there is nothing much to do but alternate motrin/tylenol for the fever, drink a lot of liquids, and wait a week.
I have never been so sick in my life as when I had the flu about 15 years ago. The body aches were absolutely excruciating, just agonizing. I had the worst sore throat I’d ever experienced. If that happened to me today, they’d tell me to take Tylenol or Advil, which would not even touch the pain. As it was, I was given a prescription for liquid Lortab, which was a true Godsend. It was a small volume, had no refills, worked like a charm, and I didn’t even get close to getting addicted. Now that the pendulum has swung the other way, I feel for anyone who gets the really bad pain that can accompany influenza.
Probably because people tend to call various kinds of less severe feverish illnesses “the flu”.