That was always my impression of the flu, until this year. My husband, infant daughter, and myself all came down with the flu within 3 days of each other. The infant had been vaccinated, while my husband and I were not. The infant and husband were confirmed via a nose swab to have the flu, while we just inferred that I got it since we all had classic flu symptoms.

Despite not being vaccinated, my husband was feeling 80% better within three days and fully recovered within four days. He was miserable for the first two days, but still not the level of ‘got hit by a truck’ that I remember from previous cases. I took five days to recover and also had relatively mild symptoms - it was undeniably different from a common cold (muscle soreness, chills and night sweats, fatigue) but I wouldn’t have thought it was the flu if the rest of my family wasn’t infected. My daughter seemed to be recovered within 48 hours, though she later contracted pneumonia. Even that was managed within 24 hours of starting amoxicillin and a nebulizer.

This post has gotten pretty long, but my point is that, for whatever reason, we came down with a flu that wasn’t nearly as bad as the norm. Even the doctors were skeptical until the test results came back.

And you may not 'feel better again' for a month, or two, or more.

My anecdata from a few influenza events is that it is truly awful. A week of slowly worsening fever. I got close to admitting myself to hospital before my fever broke and I recovered. Symptoms dissapear very quickly once it's over, but it took me months to recover my fitness.

Some people may have only mild fever and some are even asymptomatic.