Norovirus (just venting)

[kat999]

Well, one way to get yourself off a weight loss plateau is to contract norovirus! Whee! I shed three pounds in a day. I'm almost back to 100% now but now my husband has it. We thought at first I might have gotten food poisoning, but now that he started having symptoms three days after I did, clearly it's noro.

Also, I am still masking against COVID because of some minor conditions that make it dangerous for me to get it too many times, even vaccinated, and I really just go to and from work and occasionally the grocery store these days, so let me just say that norovirus is surface-transmissable and even excellent hygiene and other viral precautions don't really do much against it. I had to miss three days of work, and in addition to the intenstinal symptoms I was extremely achey and fatigued, lost my appetite, had chills despite no fever, and a really bad headache.

I'm back to eating mostly normally, though, and my only other advice is to hydrate and don't be afraid of taking Immodium if needed. It was the only thing that finally got the symptoms under control.

Be careful out there! If you or your family get this, be EXTREMELY gentle with yourself, but it will pass fairly quickly, in my experience. I hated losing that many days of fitness, but I'm planning on a very gentle, very short walking video today to ease me back into the land of the living.

My poor DH is going to be through the wringer until at least Monday, if his trajectory mirrors mine (I was sickest Tuesday through Thursday of this past week).

If anyone else has had this recently and has some helpful tips, I'm all ears since I'm now moving from patient to nursemaid! Everything I read online was basically just "hydrate and ride it out," so that's essentially what I did with myself. Spent a lot of days in bed with the lights off half listening to true crime podcasts.

[Erica H.]

I'm so sorry! Norovirus is the worst. I read that it's really spreading right now and it is so incredibly contagious.

Glad you are feeling better but sorry about your poor DH.

I have emetophobia and am terrified of norovirus.

Erica

[txhsmom]

Yes! Your Local Epidemiologist (on Facebook) had a great post about norovirus this past week and transmissible it is. Who knew?

Carol

[OSusanna]

Because norovirus virus lives on surfaces, i used heavy duty, anti-bacterial antiviral bathroom cleaner afterward. My understanding is that it lives on surfaces for a long time and people get reinfected.

I had complications after mine, and had to see a digestive disease specialist. It was mostly considered post infectious IBS. The treatment consisted of a typical IBS treatment, such as probiotics and intestinal muscle relaxers. They said it was a really common occurrence to have symptoms for a long time after because sometimes when your body gets a complete clean out, some of the enzymes and such used to digest food aren’t there anymore. Their advice to me was to cut out fruit and I did for about four years. It just gave me such a stomachache.

I hope you’re doing well And no complications arise. It might not be a bad idea to start a round of probiotics now or as soon as you can.

[kat999]

Originally Posted by OSusanna

Because norovirus virus lives on surfaces, i used heavy duty, anti-bacterial antiviral bathroom cleaner afterward. My understanding is that it lives on surfaces for a long time and people get reinfected.

I had complications after mine, and had to see a digestive disease specialist. It was mostly considered post infectious IBS. The treatment consisted of a typical IBS treatment, such as probiotics and intestinal muscle relaxers. They said it was a really common occurrence to have symptoms for a long time after because sometimes when your body gets a complete clean out, some of the enzymes and such used to digest food aren’t there anymore. Their advice to me was to cut out fruit and I did for about four years. It just gave me such a stomachache.

I hope you’re doing well And no complications arise. It might not be a bad idea to start a round of probiotics now or as soon as you can.

Oof. Okay, well, I'll start the heavy duty cleaning regime then, for sure! There is no way I want this again! I'm so sorry you had long term problems from it!

[eventmom]

OMG my dh and I got this one time, we were out of town (fortunately in our small house in Taos, I couldn't have survived in a hotel). I ended up in the ER for IV fluids. Just as I finally got better DH got it (of course) at least we knew what it was. Then the snow started and it was either we leave right now (and my telling DH, hey I'll pull over long enough for to vomit out the door of the truck) or I ration the food we have left (not too hard, DH wasn't going to be eating for a few days) and leave when the snow stops here. (no way to get to a grocery store). We stopped half way home to be behind the storm as it hit oklahoma. Man that is not a fun or easy virus. And contagious, the ER doc that treated me was from Sweden or Denmark and told me that if it broke out in a school in his home country they just closed the school for a few days.

no advice you don't already have - just commiserating, it's a tough but fortunately pretty fast.

[txhsmom]

Originally Posted by OSusanna

Because norovirus virus lives on surfaces, i used heavy duty, anti-bacterial antiviral bathroom cleaner afterward. My understanding is that it lives on surfaces for a long time and people get reinfected.

I had complications after mine, and had to see a digestive disease specialist. It was mostly considered post infectious IBS. The treatment consisted of a typical IBS treatment, such as probiotics and intestinal muscle relaxers. They said it was a really common occurrence to have symptoms for a long time after because sometimes when your body gets a complete clean out, some of the enzymes and such used to digest food aren’t there anymore. Their advice to me was to cut out fruit and I did for about four years. It just gave me such a stomachache.

I hope you’re doing well And no complications arise. It might not be a bad idea to start a round of probiotics now or as soon as you can.

Norovirus can live on surfaces for weeks. Use bleach based cleaners on surfaces.

You can spread it when you are pre-symptomatic and for up to 2 weeks after your symptoms resolve.

It takes very few viral particles to make you sick, and each infected person infects another 2 to 7 people.

Yuck!

Carol

[kat999]

Oh, you poor thing, I can't imagine getting this while traveling! That sounds awful! And going to the ER!

I really had been hoping I just had food poisoning. My poor husband. He's already turned a corner on it, but now just the resting and whatnot has him extremely bored, which is where I was early Wednesday. It seems like it got hold of him more abruptly and worse at the beginning but is easing off him faster, thank goodness.

[frogribbit]

Originally Posted by eventmom

OMG my dh and I got this one time, we were out of town (fortunately in our small house in Taos, I couldn't have survived in a hotel). I ended up in the ER for IV fluids. Just as I finally got better DH got it (of course) at least we knew what it was. Then the snow started and it was either we leave right now (and my telling DH, hey I'll pull over long enough for to vomit out the door of the truck) or I ration the food we have left (not too hard, DH wasn't going to be eating for a few days) and leave when the snow stops here. (no way to get to a grocery store). We stopped half way home to be behind the storm as it hit oklahoma. Man that is not a fun or easy virus. And contagious, the ER doc that treated me was from Sweden or Denmark and told me that if it broke out in a school in his home country they just closed the school for a few days.

no advice you don't already have - just commiserating, it's a tough but fortunately pretty fast.

Same thing happened to me & DH. We had gone on vacation and 1 day after getting there my husband got it and then I got it the next day. It was the WORST sickness. It's been 4 years and I still remember vividly how bad it was. We were afraid to eat or drink anything so we made the 8 hour trip back home without even stopping.

[kat999]

Originally Posted by frogribbit

We were afraid to eat or drink anything so we made the 8 hour trip back home without even stopping.

Oh, that sounds utterly miserable. I'm so sorry!

Fortunately, my husband and I are fully recovered now. I was really only acutely sick for one full day and then just needed two more days to get my strength back. My husband was acutely sick a little bit worse than I was but then seemed to bounce back a little quicker. But because he got it slightly after I started to feel better, it was basically most of a week that our household was affected. Fortunately, he was able to kind of take care of me, then I could take care of him. I've cleaned the house surfaces to avoid retransmission, too.

Crazy and bad. I don't think I've actually been ill in over three years with anything, so this was just out of nowhere.