I’m just recovering from a nasty, short-term bout of gastroenteritis. I left work at 3 due to cramping and nausea, lay down for a few hours, and then the south end of the freeway opened right up and I started spending a lot of time in the bathroom.
Still, I didn’t feel relieved, or better in any way. I was still crampy and nauseaus, still tired, though I couldn’t sleep, and still feverish. I also felt full, and getting fuller, as if I was continually eating, though I’d only been sipping a bit of water to keep my mouth wet. So I went to bathroom and manually opened the north end of the freeway with the handle of my toothbrush.
I hadn’t eaten anything since lunch, though I’d been drinking coffee. Still, a truly prodigious amount of discoloured liquid came out of my stomach in three great, body-wracking heaves that mean I’ll be cleaning my own traffic jam out of the corners and crannies of the bathroom for a while. I was really surprised at how much was in my stomach, and the immediate sense of relief I felt. The fever went down; the nausea was gone (hello, sexy soda cracker), my energy went right back up.
It’s like my stomach just shut down for several hours. I checked sites about stomach flu for symptoms and such, and none mentioned that one’s stomach stops digesting, or passing material to the small intestines.
Am I imagining things, or does gastroenteritis actually shut down your stomach, causing most of the symptoms? After I vomited, I felt totally recovered. But all sites I checked recommended a very slow, gradual return to normal foods; in my little theory, this is required because one’s stomach returns to functioning only slowly after being completely unconscious for several hours.
Is that crazy? Or is that what stomach flu actually does? I’m considering a career change, here.