I have the flu and my throat is INCREDIBLY swollen?

I've never had a sore throat like this before. I haven't slept in two days because the pain is just unbearable. It's not even a burning sensation, it's a swelling pain on the top, which i think is from sneezing so much. When I try to sleep though, it gets worse so I can only sleep like five minutes before waking up again from feeling my throat.

I also have a stuffy nose, stuffy ears, 102 degree fever and body aches. I've been sucking on ice chips all day and I know that's bad but for the time being it felt so good. I know I should probably stick to something hot. .

Any tips, because I'm completely miserable and don't want to have to take off anymore time from work because of this damn flu!!!

Hey guys, thanks for the help. I know it's the flu because my dad got a flu shot and got sick, then passed it around to the whole family. Nobody has had strep throat, but my throat seems to be the worst out of everybody.

It doesn't sound like the flu. Could be glandular fever or something similar. I've had glandular fever - you get a high temperature, painful swollen lymph glands, either side of the neck, fluish symptoms, very sore muscles, lethargy.

Take some paracetamol in the meantime. That will help to reduce your fever/high temperature. And lots of garlic to help your immune system to fight. Avoid hard foods and dairy for the time being.

read the Wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infectious_...

**EDIT** I'd like to point out that antibiotics probably won't be the solution unless you develop a chest infection and start coughing up gooey green stuff.
If it really is the flu then it's a virus, not a bacterial infection. If it was a strep throat infection, you would probably have white or yellow patches at the bck of the mouth.
If that was the case you may need antibiotics. But don't just assume that antibiotics solve all sorts of illnesses. They are useless for colds & flu and any other viral infection.

here is the link for strep throat: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strep_throa...

strep throat

http://symptoms.webmd.com/default.htm

Sounds like you may have a bad throat infection like strep throat. You probably should see a doctor at this point. Definitely go see your doctor immediately if your fever goes higher. You'll probably need antibiotics before you get better.
Take care

I just had something like that too.. I generally don't like going to doctor unless I have to, so I just tried to sleep as much as possible to give my body the time to fight it off. Just take a ton of vitamins, drink echinacea tea with honey. If it gets too bad.. go to the doctor though. Most of the people I know are sick, there is some crazy stuff going around all over the place.