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Original poster

Things you absolutely have to do when ill in bed

115 replies

ElsaMars · 19/01/2023 11:08

Yesterday I felt too ill to eat, sleep or watch anything and DH had to help me put my socks on as well as do pretty much everything else with the kids. I tossed and turned in bed all night and finally dozed off about 5.00am.
Today I'm still feeling terrible and in bed BUT I can just about focus on watching something, so I've put on the latest series of the Batchelor for the perfect trashy, I don't have to think about it viewing.
I'm also eating grapes and I managed a cup of tea.
What I also think is when you feel this bad, you still have Mum guilt but I know 100% I couldn't parent today, so I try to let that go - and having a good DH helps (absolute shout out to all the single parents)
What are your 'I'm too ill to get out of bed' essentials?

OP posts:
Fizbosshoes · 19/01/2023 15:21

Millenials1980 · 19/01/2023 11:25

At 38, I have never been ill enough to have to lie in bed all day. Maybe get up a little later but never all day.
Is that weird?!

Me either. I hope I haven't jinxed myself!

I've had about 5 bad colds in my adult life and I've had sickness bugs twice but none so awful I was in bed all day.

dumbstruckdumptruck · 19/01/2023 15:25

Devineursula · 19/01/2023 13:17

Today I'm still feeling terrible and in bed BUT I can just about focus on watching something,

and tapping away on mumsnet

Scotland Yard, hold the phones – we've found your next lead detective!

SirSidneyRuffDiamond · 19/01/2023 15:38

@Greatly
Yes they do, but there are a number of posters who seem to expect other people's experiences will reflect their own and mock other people when that is not the case. It is a habit not confined to this thread and I see it often on Mumsnet. Offering up one's experience is very different from being dismissive of another person. It's similar to hearing another person's accent and simply recognising and accepting it as different from one's own; instead of hearing another person's accent and ridiculing because it is different from one's own.

So whilst it's fine to acknowledge never having been ill enough to have to stay in bed. It is not fine to say that I would not have stayed in bed as you did because I would have been strong minded enough to push on through regardless. One attitude acknowledges the limitations of personal experience, the other attitude lacks the emotional intelligence to look beyond personal experience.

Pandorapitstop · 19/01/2023 15:38

Sooty and SweepGrin

Waitingforcoffee · 19/01/2023 15:39

I've been bedridden-ill a few times (Covid, norovirus) and literally all I could do was lie there staring at the ceiling for hours, or sleeping. That's it.

If I'm not immobilised, I'm up. It was the same growing up. My mum wouldn't be making me a hot water bottle and all that, if I was well enough to read a magazine in bed then I was well enough to get up. Apparently. So I feel guilty if I even feel a hint of being able to do something other than sleep or lie awake. DH is perfectly capable if I can hear him looking for a hat or asking where a ballet shoe is or something, I just end up getting up to do it.

Chibbers · 19/01/2023 15:50

Sleep.
If you're well enough to be watching TV and posting online then you're well enough to get up.

Mrsjayy · 19/01/2023 15:53

Chibbers · 19/01/2023 15:50

Sleep.
If you're well enough to be watching TV and posting online then you're well enough to get up.

OH GOD 😂

Devineursula · 19/01/2023 15:56

SirSidneyRuffDiamond · 19/01/2023 14:41

I'm chuckling to myself now about the posters who would have just forced themselves to drive the kids to school. Not if you had a virus like I've just had or when I had the flu before. For a start it would have been extremely unsafe and probably would have invalidated my insurance - I was so light-headed and "out of it". Secondly I would have had to crawl out of the house and to the car and I do mean that literally. Standing and walking to the loo was the most I could manage. Yet here I am 3 days later feeling so much better this afternoon that I've cleared out fridge, put a load of washing on and cleaned the bathroom. So my illness was "mild" in the clinical sense of not needing hospital treatment, but completely debilitating at the same time. It's clear that some posters have just been fortunate to have dodged these kinds of viruses or their bodies have responded to them less severely- and that's the luck of the draw, not strength of character.

And now I'm back in the sofa and being wound up by posters who lack the imagination or emotional intelligence to understand that their experiences are theirs alone.

Single parent and no local support network as my children go to school not local.

When my son had his end of year exams, I drove. Pulled over half a dozen times to vomit. It was a horror show.

But…. I knew that it would pass as horrific as it was and I knew that I had NO choice.

and I was right

Devineursula · 19/01/2023 15:57

Chibbers · 19/01/2023 15:50

Sleep.
If you're well enough to be watching TV and posting online then you're well enough to get up.

Yes because being in bed watching TV is basically exactly the same as being up and about 😂

I bet you’re one of those parents that follows the… unless my child is at death’s door, they go to school and I’m damn well proud of that fact!!

VincaBlue · 19/01/2023 15:58

Orange juice tastes delicious to me when I'm ill.

bloodywhitecat · 19/01/2023 15:59

Chibbers · 19/01/2023 15:50

Sleep.
If you're well enough to be watching TV and posting online then you're well enough to get up.

I should've told DH that when he was texting me and browsing Facebook from his bed in ICU post Whipple's surgery, I always knew he was a wimp. Not.

Devineursula · 19/01/2023 15:59

SirSidneyRuffDiamond · 19/01/2023 14:41

I'm chuckling to myself now about the posters who would have just forced themselves to drive the kids to school. Not if you had a virus like I've just had or when I had the flu before. For a start it would have been extremely unsafe and probably would have invalidated my insurance - I was so light-headed and "out of it". Secondly I would have had to crawl out of the house and to the car and I do mean that literally. Standing and walking to the loo was the most I could manage. Yet here I am 3 days later feeling so much better this afternoon that I've cleared out fridge, put a load of washing on and cleaned the bathroom. So my illness was "mild" in the clinical sense of not needing hospital treatment, but completely debilitating at the same time. It's clear that some posters have just been fortunate to have dodged these kinds of viruses or their bodies have responded to them less severely- and that's the luck of the draw, not strength of character.

And now I'm back in the sofa and being wound up by posters who lack the imagination or emotional intelligence to understand that their experiences are theirs alone.

Offering up one's experience is very different from being dismissive of another person.

but in the above post you do exactly that with your comment I'm chuckling to myself now about the posters who would have just forced themselves to drive the kids to school. Not if you had a virus like I've just had or when I had the flu before.!

Mrsjayy · 19/01/2023 16:00

Poor Op just wanted to chat whilst in bed ill but no pp had to just point out what a waster she is !

OriGanOver · 19/01/2023 16:02

I always go to bed when I'm poorly. My dc have always been sent to bed too. If you're too poorly for work/school/life then you need to be in your room recovering and not spreading your germs about. Absolutely hate the type of people that selfishly think because they're ill it's okay to give it to everyone else!

My go to is Fraiser, full fat coke and ready salted crisps. Depending on how bad I am, soup with cheese toasties is my ultimate comfort food.

Emmamoo89 · 19/01/2023 16:03

Chibbers · 19/01/2023 15:50

Sleep.
If you're well enough to be watching TV and posting online then you're well enough to get up.

🙄🙄

Original poster
ElsaMars · 19/01/2023 16:26

Letting all the strange comments go, thanks for the lovely (and funny ones) Not that I should have to justify it but I have CFS so a virus knocks me out of action completely.
My period decided to make an appearance earlier too, wonderful timing!

OP posts:
Greatly · 19/01/2023 16:27

Nice drip feed OP 😂

EarthlyNightshade · 19/01/2023 16:31

Lordofthebutterfloofs · 19/01/2023 12:17

Always one what?

It is odd when grown adults can't seem to care for themselves and crack on with life when they have a minor virus.

I accept those with individual complex issues may struggle more. But your average healthy adult? C'mon now 😂

Show quote history

You seem to have missed the point of the thread. It's about what you do when you are too ill to get out of bed.
If that's never happened to you, then maybe this is not the thread for you.

I was really sick early last year, I rewatched Gavin and Stacey over the course of two days, while sipping water and eating dark chocolate. If I hadn't felt so awful it would have been bliss.

NoWordForFluffy · 19/01/2023 16:32

Millenials1980 · 19/01/2023 11:25

At 38, I have never been ill enough to have to lie in bed all day. Maybe get up a little later but never all day.
Is that weird?!

I'm 46 and the same!

Devineursula · 19/01/2023 16:32

Greatly · 19/01/2023 16:27

Nice drip feed OP 😂

Exactly

and of course it is relevant! 😂

Chibbers · 19/01/2023 16:36

It doesn't knock you out that much if you're watching TV and posting online.

MourningTea · 19/01/2023 16:39

I was so ill when I had the noro I couldn't even look at my phone, had to get my dh to email my boss I was so sick.
It was even more fun when later that day he came down with it, we had to call our parents to take DS who was 1 at the time as we were too ill to look after him.
That was probably the most ill I have ever been, I couldn't even watch anything on TV, was either being sick or laid out on the sofa.
My dh meanwhile was on the floor hallucinating.
I think we started eating normally again 2 weeks later, I remember having 1 slice of toast and feeling full all day. 😅

Devineursula · 19/01/2023 16:41

Chibbers · 19/01/2023 16:36

It doesn't knock you out that much if you're watching TV and posting online.

let me guess…. You see yourself as a sturdy, robust (retiree?) with strong views on current trends on parenting? 😂

ShowOfHands · 19/01/2023 16:42

I've never been ill enough that I couldn't get out of bed. I felt bloody awful with Covid and I've had pneumonia and labyrinthitis before. I hate lying in bed though so get up, do a jigsaw and watch dinnerladies or Pride and Prejudice (BBC version).

I've actually never known my parents too ill to get out of bed for example, or my brother or husband. The children yes, but none of the adults I know. Oh DH had meningitis once and was in a hospital bed but that's it.

I'm not judging, just musing. We must be very lucky.

OriGanOver · 19/01/2023 16:48

@ShowOfHands or maybe you just like getting up.

I secretly enjoy having a cold that's awful but not awful enough to prevent me enjoying cheese toasties and lying in bed all day 😂