To think most people with norovirus don't make a "full recovery" in a couple of days?

[Acky123]

And that that is pretty stupid advice to give out anyway, as you can still be infectious for up to 48hrs after you stop puking and pooing? Hence why you shouldn't go back to school/work straight away?

Oh the hell :( I feel dreadful and have done since Saturday morning. At least the projectile vomiting has stopped.

This is the second bout of this I've had in three years and it's hideous.

I just want to ring up the NHS Choices website and tell them that no, most people don't get over this in a couple of days.

Anyone else poorly today? Let's feel sorry for ourselves together :( = puke.

Bumping this a bit because YANBU, definitely. I had it in February and was off work for four days, completely unable to do anything apart from groan. Spent most of the first day lying on the bathroom floor semi-delirious and sobbing in between puking my guts up

Even after the 4 days I was off, it was about a week and a half before I could face eating anything that wasn't very plain and simple like rice pudding or toast. Norovirus really knocks you out, it definitely takes more than a couple of days to get over it!

Commiserations to those who have had this.

I'm feeling like crap still. I have barely eaten for a week but my stomach looks six months pregnant and I have terrible, ahem, wind.

I think it's made me lactose intolerant. I'm starving, freezing cold and fed up of this now. Taking the piss :(

Maybe that's not what I had then, but DP and I were both absolutely knocked out, fully evacuated both ends, for almost precisely 24 hours, then recovering but feeling OK the second 24hours, and fine the next day.

Took DS 10 days to clear it all (and he couldn't drink cows milk for a month because it went straight through him)

These colds are taking weeks to kick though.

Depends on the severity - the first time i had noro / gastric flu: i was ill with it for 2 weeks then caught a bad cold straight afterwards!!

I had food poisoning once & recovered after 2 days.

Noro tends to take a bit longer than 2 days generally, but so does food poisoning at times.

You are infected & can pass on noro / gastric flu for at least 48 hrs after your last symptom.

Gastroenteritis was awful - caught it abroad & was ill for 2 weeks of hell. Similar to noro but worse (if that's possible).

You have my total sympathy, hope you recover soon x

Has anyone had back pain after norovirus? Had the sickness and diarrhoea Thursday and Friday and can't seem to keep awake for more than two hours and still no eating but my main problem is really bad back pain

One of our local schools had an epidemic last week and closed for 5 days.
As far as I know though, like most viruses, it's most contagious before any symptoms.

it is horrible I have had it twice

I was back at work a few days after felt a little weak. ds has been fine the next day but had infected everyone he had come into contact with

it effects people differently

I am mot really bothered if people call a stomach bug norovirus or a cold the flu its sympathy they are wanting and I can give that it is horrible being ill and some people struggle more than others for various reasons

Oooh no, OP. My poor friend was terribly ill. The constant projectile vomiting and diarrhoeia weakened her dreadfully, she was in bed for a week and wobbly after that. It's a horrible bug. No wonder they close whole wards due to it. Two days is highly unlikely to produce a complete recovery, although it's what they'd have us believe.

I thought Norovirus was the "24 hour bug" where you feel wonky for a day or two, then it comes to a head and you shit and vomit for hours and hours but and then get back to normal fairly quickly, and Rotovirus was the one where the vomiting goes on for days and days and knocks you out for a fortnight.

No idea about contagiousness, but hope everyone feels better soon, these bugs are bloody horrible whatever they are. x

I thought rotovirus was the 24 hr one and norovirus was the really horrid flu type with sickness and runny bum.

It took me a good few weeks to feel normal, was having tummy cramps a week or so after. It really is vile.

Rota virus is the 24 hour one and Norovirus is the " lying on the floor of the bathroom puking and diarrhoea, I want to die one"
It is Brutal

I have never had it, despite caring for people with it.
A certain amount of Northern Europeans have immunity ,but there are 36 different varients YAY

Rotavirus can be just as deadly as noravirus :(
My ds was hospitalised for 10 days when he was 14mths old, his kidneys were beginning to fail as result of severe dehydration. Would like to think that the introduction of the rota vaccine will mean less children will be so unwell.
The best defence for all these viruses is to break the cross-contamination cycle with rigid hygiene strategies as others have mentioned. Probiotics post the virus can also be helpful - pills are better than the yogurt drink things.
Hope you feel better soon op!

I'm terrified of being sick! Id say the vomiting goes within 12 ish hours, rear end within 24 hours. Takes about 7-10 days to stop feeling nauseous/washed out and more like myself.

I hate arse flu :(

weird. just never known anyone in my family be that ill with a puking bug. reading this thread has been
do most people get this at least once, bit like flu, or is it rarer, or are we possibly immune?

although i have had dysentery. that was like some of you are describing noro i had no idea

think it depends on the person -i was hospitalised with it (they thought it was meningitis at first) but within 2-3 days of coming out i was fine

Oh I am so happy to be on maternity leave over winter this year. Norovirus brings the whole hospital to a grinding halt and what's worse is when people come back to work to early and potentially infect others just to prevent their bloody Bradford score from going up. Or visitors who have the "dodgy tummy" coming onto a ward full of 30 elderly, frail pre/post operative patients. Yeah thanks for that, 12 hours of running from patient to patient just mopping up.

I had it as a student nurse, I remember laying on the bathroom floor, alternating between shivering and boiling, afraid to move for leaking from one end or the other.

Our bed management team now say that if half a ward have norovirus then to split the ward (by closing the fire doors) and working as two separate teams, apparently germs can't get through doors.

Could it be the fact that most cases do clear up within a couple of days but it's the longer lasting ones that stick in people's minds???

I managed to avoid sickness bugs of any kind for ten years until October 2012 when I came down with this little bugger. Worst thing was I was breastfeeding two month old DD to I had to feed her lying down then pull myself away from her so I could sit up to vomit in a bucket every five-ten minutes, it was so shit. Worst still I caught the bleeder again in December, January and the final time in March! Haven't been sick since then touch wood but four bouts of it in the space of five months was brutal. It was as if my body was playing catch up for l the years of missed sickness bugs .

You do feel weak, shaky, still have a low appetite and generally just feel naff for a few days after the vomiting is over, yes. Given the fact you've just violently spewed up every last fluid within your body I don't wonder why.

DS2(17) had Noro 3 or 4 weeks ago. He woke me up at 6:50 on the Monday morning saying he'd been sick, not made it to the loo but would clean it as I'm an emetophobe. (I wouldn't have made him) When I saw the bathroom I couldn't believe it, he'd projectile vomited everywhere. I Was cleaning thinking "no way am I not going to get this".

He went on like that for 36 hours, most of the time sat on the loo with a bowl on his knee. He could hardly move from the bed to the toilet. Just as I thought he'd stopped vomiting, he did again 12 hours later. I went through bottles and bottles of bleach.

He lost half a stone. He was off school for the whole week and off his food for longer. DH and I, very fortunately didn't get it. He works in a bakery and stayed off work when theoretically he could have gone back, we didn't want to take the risk for one day and £30 of wages.

It's so bloody selfish when people have it, or have had it and haven't been clear for 48 hours, and go to hopsitals, back to school etc.

there's a lot of misunderstanding on this thread.

Rotavirus most people are immune to by the age of 5. Practically impossible to contain.

Noro is more like flu in that it mutates and therefore you don't ever become immune. It is only contagious at the point of active symptoms and after (generally via toilets or food). The vast majority of tummy bugs are noro and you can get a bad or mild dose so there is no point in comparing symptoms. It is easier to contain noro than rota with careful hygiene - bleaching/ boil washing/ thorough hand washing.

Some people families do seem to be more prone than others. But very often they are of the 'spread is inevitable' ilk in my experience and tell me that my approach is a waste of time