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Health and Beauty 1908 Spanish Influenza - Early and Later Symptoms As already stated, influenza in its early stages is often mistaken for a cold, but little attention, therefore, being paid to it. Generally the patient has had influenza one or two days before he or his friends realize the fact. The first symptom is a slight rise of temperature, which may be noted by some congestion of the eyes and a red flush on the face. The fever may reach 100 degrees or 101 degrees Fahrenheit before the patient feels the severity of the ache or pain that accompanies it. Frequently there is a tinge of headache and a little indisposition at meals. The trouble may start with a slight cold, a gradual tightening in the chest, or some dis-turbance of urination, such as going for from five to twenty-four or more hours without voiding urine. Fullness in the head and dizziness are also early symptoms. Sneezing and coughing usually occur early in the disease, and the ordinary symptoms of a bad cold should be viewed with suspicion as the possible beginning of influenza. Sometimes, however, no catarrhal symptoms appear — only a general lassitude and fever. This early stage is the most effective time to cut short the progress of the disease by radical treatment. In some cases, this will prevent the high temperature and delayed recovery that are attendant on fully developed cases. The symptoms of the disease
when well established are backache, restlessness, tendency to shift
the position because of aches and pains throughout the body and
the discomfort arising from lying long in one position. Headache,
either frontal or occipital, and sometimes involving both areas,
usually occurs. There is sensitiveness of the eyes to light, watering
of the eyes, congested eyeballs, some redness of the nose, a cough,
and in some stages of the disease, a retention of the urine. Oftentimes
the patient will vomit bile with considerable relief. Prostration
is extreme, and not infre-quently there is considerable nausea,
with a fever ranging from 101 degrees to 104 degrees Fahrenheit.
It is an excep-tional case when the temperature runs up to 104½
or 105 degrees. All such cases are the result of failure of proper
elimination, and should have very heroic eliminative treat-ment.
Constipation, rather than diarrhea, is met in some cases. The pulse
is usually very rapid, especially in the case of a high temperature.
There is a tendency throughout the disease toward a chilly sensation
and an abhorrence of all cold. At any time during the progress of
the disease, chilli-ness may develop and cause an immediate rise
of temperature. The appetite is fair, and the tendency is to feed
the patient too much. |