Norovirus Victim

Yup, that’s me.

I’d been feeling unwell since last Sunday, as you know, but Thursday, the diarrhea and vomiting hit me in the afternoon.  Well, my stomach started feeling really unwell in that way you know it’s going to be “upset” right before lunch.

Anyway, the low-grade fever, the stomach cramps, headaches, dizziness, nausea,  diarrhea, and vomiting that they’ve been reporting on the news — all true.  Two days of misery — true.  And if you think you get to sleep between “episodes”, you’re wrong.  You get to stare at the wall and the ceiling.  You try to avoid the quick moving scenes on a television.  Oh, and you’re suddenly more aware of all the food commercials that are shown on television, which now will really make you never want to eat that food again.

Some things I found out from the doctor:

• Do call your doctor’s office.
• Try not to go to a doctor’s office or ER where you will infect other people without being told to do so by your doctor’s office.
• For those first 48 hours, do not take a diarrhea-suppression medication.  This is a virus that needs to run through your system and taking such meds will only slow down the process, which you do not want to do with this — fortunately I was too sick to listen to my mother when she advised me to do this Thursday night.
• Do not eat or drink anything for 2 hours after vomiting.  Then try sipping a clear liquid every 20 minutes for an hour. If that works, then attempt every 15 minutes for an hour; then every 10 minutes, then every 5 minutes.  Then you can attempt a plain carb like dry toast or crackers.
• If you find yourself becoming seriously dehydrated or your symptoms worsen or do not get better after 48 hours, call your doctor’s office again.

What I learned in my bathroom:

• When I clean the bathroom, I need to pay more attention to the dust around the toilet.  This is something more evident when you are hugging your toilet before or after vomiting.
• You can throw up and poop involuntarily at the same time.  It’s best to take the vomit bucket with you even when you’re just going to the bathroom.
• No one ever believes me when I say that you can carry around 6-8 lbs of poop in your body every day. I can now verify that book-read fact.

tags: Norovirus, wellness

6 comments

1. on January 20, 2007 at 9:40 pm

   bill said:

   see all about it at www.about-norwalk.com and www.noroblog.com

2. on January 23, 2007 at 11:16 am

   Sparky Duck said:

   -shivers-I am glad all I have been saddled with is the fever/sinus infection thingy

3. on January 23, 2007 at 11:17 am

   Sparky Duck said:

   oh and duh, hope your feeling better by now

4. on January 25, 2007 at 7:26 pm

   Susan said:

   you poor thing! I hope you’re feeling better soon. Sending lots of anti-dehydration vibes

5. on January 31, 2007 at 11:46 pm

   Laughing Muse said:

   I hope you’re feeling a little better by now!!

   Do you know if you can have Gatorade? If so, that helps wonders with both dehydration and giving your energy level a tiny boost. Your doctor might be able to tell you if that’s a good idea - though all that vomiting *is* plenty of physical exercise.

   Best of luck getting over this thing!!

6. on February 1, 2007 at 10:59 am

   madkat said:

   Uggg… yep… had that myself. Sucks horribly.

   I second the advice for Gatorade or other sports drink. We make our own using Morton’s Lite Salt, sugar and Koolaid, and I had as much of that as I could handle.

   Thanks for the great blog. I just discovered it today, while doing a search for Molly Ivins quotes. I’ll be back.

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