Tamiflu is Garbage: My Personal Opinion

Okay. Typing and I still aren’t getting along that well. My fingers keep finding the wrong letters. However, I’m recovered enough to at least protest publicly about how little Tamiflu did for me. I’d read about it ahead of time–Denisa had been sick for days before I came down with the bug, after all. From everything I’d read, Tamiflu could possibly maybe make a difference if you took it within 36-48 hours of showing symptoms of the flu. What difference? It could reduce the total length of the bug 1-2 days, and reduce its severity.

I came down with a tickle in the back of my throat Friday late evening. By Saturday morning, I was coughing and feeling pretty awful. Our doctor phoned in a prescription of Tamiflu for me, and I took it right away–less than 20 hours from when symptoms started. Saturday evening, I was a feverish mess. (How much of a mess? Apparently (according to Denisa, who I don’t think is making it up) I was convinced that I had infected George Bush, that Tamiflu was called “Floost,” and that I was actually part groundhog.

It wasn’t my best evening ever.

I’ve taken the medicine on time and faithfully. Has it helped? That’s the thing. There’s literally no way for me to know. The flu’s supposed to last 7-10 days. So if I’m sick for 8, does that mean Tamiflu did nothing, or does it mean I would have been sick for 9 or 10 days without it. It’s supposed to reduce symptoms of the flu. If I hadn’t been taking it, would I have been having conversations with pink elephants on Saturday evening instead of just thinking I was a groundhog?

Meanwhile, it’s got a whole slew of potential bad side effects . . .

Would I take Tamiflu again? Not likely. I’d only recommend it for people who are at risk otherwise from the flu. People who need every bit of advantage against the bug they can get. Then it makes sense. But for everyone else, I’d save your money and just get some extra chicken noodle soup.

Anyway. I’m slowly working my way back to the land of the living. Yes, it’s snowing quite a bit here in Maine. Grateful for a snow day, and doubtful I’ll be back at work tomorrow yet. If I get tuckered out just writing a short blog post, I can’t imagine I’d be up to 8 hours of work, never mind the people I might still infect.

Except George Bush. If he’s got the flu, I’m pretty sure I didn’t give it to him.

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