Ugh, got struck with a bout of stomach flu Tuesday afternoon, and man does it suck. I wouldn’t wish it upon even my worst enemy. Nothing like being stuck on the throne holding a bucket. Everything hurt, the fever, chills, aches, and headache just added to the misery. The UP ended Tuesday night, but the DOWN continued until at least early this morning. I slept most of the time from Tuesday afternoon til now, drinking water and ginger ale between bouts. Over 36 hours of agony - no fun.
Feeling a bit better today - no ‘episodes’ yet, fever broke, but stomach muscles hurt, and a slight headache (probably a little dehydrated - going to drink a lot of water today). Fingers crossed that there is no more ‘episodes’ today.
And what makes it worse is, my employer was offering overtime this week, and I’m going to miss out on all of it
Ah yes, the stomach flu! If they invent immortality in a few years and I live to be 1000 without ever being sick again, I will never forget the stomach flu. Such memories… of staying up all night because only a conscious effort of will was preventing continual heaves. Of cholera-level diarrhea. Of vomiting back up water, let alone anything more substantial. Of being so hot and so cold at the same time that I had to chill the room to 50 degrees, then lie under three quilts, with a fan blowing on my feet sticking out just enough to regulate my temperature.
The best part is yet to come. Picture the day when you finally make it out and back to work again. Invariably some cow-orker will walk past you and make a quip like, “Wow, you look like you lost 10 pounds! Whats your secret?”
Can I widen this to “viruses that strike about two days into a one-week break, take out both me and Mrs M., and the only reason for dragging myself out to the shop this morning was we were out of pain relief”?
What’s funny is, I joined the weight loss challenge at work, and I was in second place after 8 weeks in a ten week period. I was 2 pounds behind the leader…will she be upset if I zoom past her at the last minute?
Not that I would want to be sick to lose weight, mind you…it just hurts too much.
No, it’s actually a useful memory. I now have a standard of malaise to which all other sicknesses I’ve had so far come up short. Sort of like if you ever try to eat Dwarf bread you’ll never complain about any other food ever again.
When I had the infamous Tummyflu (Trademark yet to be registered), I looked upon it as proof that I was mortal. At some point I recall at least hoping I was mortal, so that it would end one way or another. Is this what mal-de-mer is like?
I can’t quite pinpoint where it came from, and I’m typically a healthy person, rarely getting colds or flus. This came out of nowhere (as is typical for this type of illness), but I’m guessing either: doing work in the yard, and managed to get a bit of dirt in my mouth; from my mother who was sick last week with diarrhea (no vomiting, fever, or achiness however); or it could have been from fruit I ate that I just didn’t wash well enough.
If it was bacterial, then the fruit or the dirt may be the culprit. We may never know. Thankfully I’m feeling a lot better now. Going to stay home an additional day, rest up and get some food and more fluids in me to get back to normal.
