The method your personal health care practitioner uses to diagnose whether you have the flu depends on whether an epidemic of the illness exists.
If an epidemic already exists, then your practitioner’s job is easy. He only has to observe your symptoms. He may take blood to ensure that no complications are present alongside the flu. An uncomplicated case of the flu shows a lowered white blood cell.
Once your health care practitioner has confirmed your influenza, she’ll send you home. But not without a list of instructions. She’ll advise you to get plenty of bed rest and to drink plenty of fluids. In addition, she’ll recommend you take aspirin or acetaminophen to alleviate the fever and some of the muscle aches. She may write you out a prescription for cough medicine or simply recommend a good over-the-counter cough syrup.
Amantadine – an effective antiviral drug – has a good track record in helping to alleviate the symptoms of the flu. Your health care practitioner may prescribe this,
If your case of the flu is compounded by pneumonia, then you’ll definitely be required to take fluid and electrolyte supplements. You may be administered oxygen to assist your breathing and you may even be placed on a ventilator, depending on the severity of your pneumonia. You probably will also be treated with antibiotics for a bacterial infection.
There is really nothing more your health care practitioner can do. Hospitalization for an uncomplicated case of the flu is normally not required.
Here are some steps you can take, though, during your recovery that should provide you with some relief.
First, when your personal health care physician tells you to increase your fluid intake, listen to her. The last thing you want is to get dehydrated.
Take warm baths to ease your muscle soreness. If you have an herbal therapy bag that you can warm up and place on some of the sore areas, now would be a good time to use it.
Keep your social calendar to a minimum. If you have to, cancel meetings. Don’t go out visiting unnecessarily. Similarly, limit the number of individuals you invite into your home. This works both to protect you as well as your potential guests. You don’t have to worry about developing any bacterial infections from others. It also protects your guests from catching the flu from you.
Be extra attentive to the proper disposal of used tissues. The virus can lurk on a tissue for a while. If another person accidently bump it or touches it, he may be the next victim of the flu.
Similarly, be ever mindful of washing your hands. Once again, your mother’s advice proved to be correct. You can eliminate the transmission of the virus with some attention in this area.
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