diagnosed with flu, told we can't have tamiflu rx

pantherlj

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Aug 21, 2006
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My 13 yr old woke up with the classic flu symptoms. I took her to a Minute Clinic (should be Hour Clinic, took almost 2 hours to be seen). She slept in the car while waiting. Dr (nurse?) confirmed it was the flue and told us rest, fluids and tylenol. I asked about Tamiflu to reduce symptoms and time of flu - that was really the only reason I took her was for the RX. She said they are only doing it for high risk groups. She first said the general population is over using anitviral meds so they aren't working as well (my child has never had an antiviral and on antibiotics once in her life). When I pushed, she said they have been advised to only give RX for high risk.

I am guessing there is a shortage. Wish they had posted that on the door to the clinic so I could have saved my $100 and 2 hours of time.

Wondering if i should call her pediatrician in the morning and see if he will give us the RX - closing in on those 48 hours that I have heard is best for Tamiflu.
 
My 13 yr old woke up with the classic flu symptoms. I took her to a Minute Clinic (should be Hour Clinic, took almost 2 hours to be seen). She slept in the car while waiting. Dr (nurse?) confirmed it was the flue and told us rest, fluids and tylenol. I asked about Tamiflu to reduce symptoms and time of flu - that was really the only reason I took her was for the RX. She said they are only doing it for high risk groups. She first said the general population is over using anitviral meds so they aren't working as well (my child has never had an antiviral and on antibiotics once in her life). When I pushed, she said they have been advised to only give RX for high risk.

I am guessing there is a shortage. Wish they had posted that on the door to the clinic so I could have saved my $100 and 2 hours of time.

Wondering if i should call her pediatrician in the morning and see if he will give us the RX - closing in on those 48 hours that I have heard is best for Tamiflu.

AFAIK and according to the CDC, Tamiflu is recommended only for high risk patients.
 

Yeah, a very high resistance rate is developing with Tamiflu. Doesn't matter if your child has never taken it. It is the bug that is developing a resistance.
 
/
In all reality, we are overusing medications and it is indeed causing many problems, such as resistant strains. So, it would make sense that they would say no to someone who is otherwise healthy and the Flu should be done in the normal course of a few days.
 
We all had the flu :( this time around. Took me about 5 days and the kids 6 days of fever, cough etc (they are 11, 8 and 3) before they felt better. All in all, it was not too bad on the kids. They just did a lot of lying around and resting. I did have to rotate a bit with the Motrin and Tylenol for two of them. They would be uncomfortable before another dose of Motrin so I would give a bit of Tylenol. It was over the holidays so they did not miss any school so I was lucky that way.

The eight year old did get the H1N1 a few years ago and he seem to fair the best this time around. His fever seem to come and go for the duration. So at least she will have some resistance for the next time :P.

Good luck!
 
I think Tamiflu is bologna. If not taken within the first 2 days of getting the flu it is basically ineffective. If you do take it in time it only reduces your illness by one day. It's been know to cause GI problems. It might ease some of the symptoms but so does NyQuil. Best thing to do is drink lots of water and wait for your body to get better.
 
mad madam mim78 said:
I think Tamiflu is bologna. If not taken within the first 2 days of getting the flu it is basically ineffective. If you do take it in time it only reduces your illness by one day. It's been know to cause GI problems. It might ease some of the symptoms but so does NyQuil. Best thing to do is drink lots of water and wait for your body to get better.

I very much disagree with this. My 5 year old daughter woke up with a high fever and body aches the Friday morning before Christmas. I took her to the doctor that same morning and she tested positive for type A flu. She started Tamiflu that day and by Sunday (two days later) she was feeling fine and was able to enjoy Christmas. It's a miracle drug to me.
 
Correct me if I am wrong but I thought it was available over the counter or something similar

No, it must be prescribed by a doctor.

My DD just got over the flu and pneumonia. It took her a week to feel good enough to go back to work.
 
I had the flu starting on Christmas. DH the day after me. We went thru it with no meds at all. I only took mucinex after to help get rid o the remaining mucus. We had all the symptoms. Honestly I expected it to be tons worse. Nothing I had to call a dr or go to ER for. Just stayed hydrated and lots of rest. Few days without any real food, then started on easy foods. Worse was over in a week. Then another week for just a bit tired and some remaining post nasal drip and little throat clearing.
 
I very much disagree with this. My 5 year old daughter woke up with a high fever and body aches the Friday morning before Christmas. I took her to the doctor that same morning and she tested positive for type A flu. She started Tamiflu that day and by Sunday (two days later) she was feeling fine and was able to enjoy Christmas. It's a miracle drug to me.

The problem with that is she may have gotten better without the tamiflu in that period of time. That is the controversy over it....they just don't have any proof that it does anything. There are milder and more severe cases of flu, so to assume that it was Tamiflu may not be accurate.
 
I think Tamiflu is bologna. If not taken within the first 2 days of getting the flu it is basically ineffective. If you do take it in time it only reduces your illness by one day. It's been know to cause GI problems. It might ease some of the symptoms but so does NyQuil. Best thing to do is drink lots of water and wait for your body to get better.

My kid took Tamiflu within 8 hours of his first temperature after swabbing positive for A. This was back in early December. (He was prescribed Tamiflu because there are two high risk people in the household.)

Fever came down with first Advil and never came back, never developed a cough nor the typical aches and pains, was feeling absolutely normal in 24-36 hours.

In our case, the Tamiflu worked wonders and took off almost a week of the flu. And we are pretty sure we know from whom it came and the same bug knocked a bunch of his friends on their butts. A close knit group of boys all came down with it at the same time. All swabbed positive for A. None had Tamiflu and all had symptoms for over a week. DS was the only one on Tamiflu and was the only one who did not develop symptoms except for that fever that first day. Not scientific evidence, but still a pretty good control group.

There are a ton of flu-like illnesses going around. Our ped told us that many of the clinics aren't even swabbing for flu unless high-risk. Just saying 'it looks like the flu." And because the non-high risk patients are not swabbed, they can't prescribe Tamiflu because it is not known if it is absolutely the flu or one of the flu-like illnesses going around.

It has been a couple of years now that the flu virus has been mutating to have a resistance to Tamiflu. Not prescribing it for non-high risk patients is prudent because you need Tamiflu to work for high-risk patients.
 
I had influenza A and ny doctor said Tamiflu was not recommended for A. :confused3 Any drs. Out there in disland? I was good between day 3 and 4 anyway, so I tend to believe her.
 
DH was given Tamiflu prescription yesterday but the pharmacy won't have it until tomorrow. So useful, right?
 
I had influenza A and ny doctor said Tamiflu was not recommended for A. :confused3 Any drs. Out there in disland? I was good between day 3 and 4 anyway, so I tend to believe her.

It is recommended for type A and B.

http://www.tamiflu.com/hcp/hcp.jsp

My DD's worst days were 4 and 5. After that she actually started eating the chicken noodle soup I made for her:) Heck, even getting her to drink was like herding cats:lmao: She did not take Tamiflu.
 
I will never waste my money on tamiflu again. Okay, at least that is my story for now. In the last 10 years, at least one of us has been hit by the flu 4 times (not coincidentally, these were the only times we missed flu shots). The first time, no tamiflu since I'm pretty sure it wasn't even out yet. The next 3 times, we were all prescribed tamiflu. None of us were able to even hold it down. Pretty sure it isn't doing us a bit of good if it keeps coming back up within 30 minutes of taking it. At $50 a person, I consider it a waste. We will continue with flu shots, and in the event someone becomes infected, we will treat the fever and congestion with otc drugs. DD is the most at risk due to her asthma, followed by me with much milder asthma symptoms.
 
I think Tamiflu is bologna. If not taken within the first 2 days of getting the flu it is basically ineffective. If you do take it in time it only reduces your illness by one day. It's been know to cause GI problems. It might ease some of the symptoms but so does NyQuil. Best thing to do is drink lots of water and wait for your body to get better.

As takers of Tamiflu, it works for us. I took it recently as a preventative.

My dd took it and she had Type A 2 weeks ago.

It does make you feel like crap though. It gave me a headache.

However I was taking care of my DH who just came home from Triple Bypass surgery and 2 kids with the flu in the same house. I erred on the side of caution.

This week we are going for our flu shots if they are available. DH got his before coming home from the hospital, since we had flu in the house.

My older dd can get one as she has a heart issue. I will be interested to see if I can get a shot.
 

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