Adventures In Virulent Viruses

[tourmaline]

Because arse-rain sums it up quite well, unfortunately. On the Saturday between Christmas and New Year I went from bit-of-a-stomach ache to being unable to eat some plain buttered toast because it was too dry, to massive violent puking and diarrhea a few times over, the final episode topped off by me passing out in the bathroom and coming to with a sprained ankle - thankfully Mum was there to catch me and stop me hitting my head, given that in my Dad's words, I fell like a sack of spuds. Thankfully the woeful action was confined to Saturday evening, but that's possibly because my entire digestive system was completely empty by then. All I wanted to do for the next 24 hours was curl up and sleep, which wasn't easy because my mouth was still horribly dry and I had to sip water every five minutes, and I couldn't lay out flat because my stomach hurt too much.

During this time I barely looked online, didn't tweet or Tumblr or anything. Sometimes it was dark out and sometimes it was lighter, and at some point I phoned Dad (rather than yelling) for some oral rehydration things - a revolting-tasting so-called blackcurrant flavour cloudy watery horridness of a drink which I managed to get half-way through. Eventually at 2.30am on Monday I got up and had a shower and washed my hair for the first time in almost two days because the smell of me (a general festering body odour coupled with a vague vomity smell stuck in my nose) was stopping me from sleeping. It was nice afterwards to feel like I had real hair-like hair on my head.

Over the next couple of days I ventured out to top up my water bottle and to try food again. The first food attempt lasted about 10 minutes, I managed to nibble almost half a Pringle before giving up - still too dry despite a drink of water between bites. New Year's Eve (I think, I'm working out days by vague logic rather than memory of days being specific) I ventured downstairs and had a little baked potato with butter which was very nice, and we watched Midway on TV. I actually managed to get up and dressed at some point on New Year's Day, and on the Wednesday I was up, dressed, and working from home - I still wasn't terrifically mobile.

Today after work I went to Sainsburys, which is where I reckon I caught Norovirus in the first place on a post-Christmas visit on the Friday. This time I was armed with an anti-bac/anti-virus wipe to tackle the trolley etc with. Thankfully no-one else was ill, and I've been fine since - almost back to normal eating, lots of Christmas goodies left. Problem now is that any minute suggestion of a symptom and I'm panicking it's back. I hope it doesn't return.



So, happy new year. It's Stargazing Live from tomorrow so am looking forward to that.