. . . or intestinal virus or sudden onset of massive abdominal cancer, or aliens breeding in me, or whatever the hell it is I had all day yesterday. Not only couldn’t I get some important errands done at the bank, post office and library (all of which are closed today), but even crawling from the bedroom to the bathroom and back was like Scott of the Antarctic.
I called my doctor after 12 hours of this and he said, “that’s a bit excessive, maybe you better call 911,” but I knew darn well all they’d do is hydrate me and “observe” me, which I could do myself (and you feel a little silly screaming “Kill me! Kill me!” in the ER, whereas in the bathroom it’s OK.
So, this morning I am trying to get up the strength and courage to to grocery-shopping and to the laundromat . . . On the bright side, I’m about 20 pounds lighter, and I cannot say enough for Glad Zip-Lock Bags. I can just see myself as the new spokeswoman: “You know how when you’re doubled over on the toilet but you also have to throw up now? Let’s see what happens with those Brand X bags . . . Ewwwww. Now let’s try Glad!”
Thanks for the Zip-Lock tip, Eve. I not-so-fondly remember sitting on the toilet and having to lean over and puke in the tub. Even so contained, it wasn’t fun to clean up.
May your innards calm down soon and your Zip-Lock bags be used once again for storing cookies and other yummy goodies.
The only time I had this I was fortunate enough to live in a place with a small bathroom so I could sit and puke into the sink at the same time, because, as you know, when you puke and that little bit of abdominal strain gets everything else going, there’s no stopping. That was a very very bad experience. First you’re afraid that you’re going to die soon. Then you’re afraid that you aren’t going to die soon. . .
For exactly this situation–I have a box of them under the bathroom sink, and went through about a dozen this weekend. I can now keep “sick people food” down (applesauce, oatmeal cookies, cola syrup over chopped ice), but I still feel like I’ve been kicked in the midsection by horse.
One disadvantage of living alone is there’s no one to bring me chopped ice and go “poor baby,” which is why I have to come here for sympathy.
Any of you prone to this? I get it two, three times a year, though it doesn’t usually last this long.
I get really, really sick when I have cellulitis attacks (DO NOT Google for images of cellulitis), but I also run a very high fever (103-105 F) during these attacks, and you didn’t mention a fever. I do get the “overflowing at both ends” problem (my sink is right next to the throne, so I don’t have to store any sort of bags in the bathroom, not that I really have any room to store anything in that room).
The traditional bad belly diet is BRAT, bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast. It’s hard to keep bananas on hand just for illness, but if you eat them regularly, that’s all right. I also keep a couple of cans of chicken & rice soup in the pantry because I’ve found that I can keep that particular recipe of soup down. I can sometimes keep vegetable beef or vegetable chicken soup down, too.
IANAD, of course, that’s just what works for me.
Speaking of which, have you discussed this with your doctor? I mean, if you’re incubating aliens surely there’s something s/he can do about that. Since my doctor and I know what’s causing my problems, she allows me to keep a prescription for antibiotics, with the understanding that I will use it if I can’t reach her, know that it’s my cellulitis acting up again, and don’t want to go to the ER just to be hydrated and put on antibiotics. If I can start taking the antibiotics within a few hours of the onset of symptoms, I’m usually feeling a lot better in three days or so, otherwise it’ll take me a couple of weeks to recover.
Thanks, all. Had to e in sick again today, and since we get no sick days at work, there goes another vacation (read “Mom emergency”) day . . . I can keep food down, but still feel horse-kicked, can’t walk upright, or be more than 30 seconds from a bathroom.
Coincidentally, I have a check-up app’t. with my doctor tomorrow, so I will have to be able to stagger into the city for that. Will have to practice walking today, so will try to do those errands I couldn’t on Sat.
(Googled and was relieved to find the bleeding is probably nothing to worry about. Just tore-up innards. Ewww.)
Glad to hear you’re still among the living. My son puked til he bled once. It freaked me out, but it’s not the beginning of the end as I’d thought. That’s when “save your puke” started. I always had to inspect it before he flushed. I get grossed out just thinking of that!
Years ago, I spend a week on vacation with Mom; had to go straight to work the next day for three 12-hr nights, one day off, 3x12-hr nights, one day off, 3x12-hr days…
Spent the whole first week after the trip doubled over in pain in my chair in the lab, when I wasn’t running an analysis or having a conversation with the porcelain god, all the time still managing to be somewhat grateful that I’m as puking-prone as a bronze statue, so most of those conversations weren’t face-to-face and I never needed to do both at the same time. But since my shift manager was a sonabitch who’d informed me, on his first day, that “nobody pays you to think” and since I’m a serious, conscientious non-thinking peon, I sucked and grunted through it.
A few days later, some Barça player was on TV because he’d been hospitalized for “gastrenteritis”. I asked whazzat? “Oh, when you’re running at both ends.”
O-k… so, this coward who gets paid 800M€/year for running after a soccer ball gets hospitalized after being like that for a day and I was at work for ten days of it?
I’ve been sick that bad only a couple times more… in my case, it’s usually nerves. Spent two weeks being unable to have anything but water, followed by three more of being able to eat only Golden apples, once: made sure my boss knew that I was soldiering along but that, in strictu sensu, I oughta have been at hospital and any complaints that I “wasn’t socializing properly” could be adressed to my intestinal fauna, care of my ass.
Ever since I had salmonella I can’t eat out unless I’m assured access to a bathroom for the next couple hours. I get it baddish more frequently than pre-salmonella too.
Since someone bumped this . . . Saw the doctor on Tues. and he said yep, sounded like classic food poisoning, that I probably should have gone to the hosp., and I would have cramps and, ummm, “lower intestinal difficulties” through at least the end of this week.
So, I’m back at work, chugging Mylanta, nibbling on Lorna Doones, and doubled over with cramps. Upside: I’ve lost seven pounds!
Definitely a poor baby day for you then, I’ve had the dreaded FP before and it’s not pleasant. I was home alone and eventually had to crawl downstairs to phone the emergency doctor because I couldn’t stop throwing up and I was losing the feeling in my hands and feet.