WWYD - Partner with Vomiting Bug

[notamum3210]

Hi,

My partner is visiting his mums house and due to meet me in Edinburgh for New Year Celebrations with his brother and his sil and then we would travel down south together on New Year's Day. All is booked including an Air BnB in Edinburgh.

Last night my partner developed norovirus symptoms - it's done rounds in his household and he feels awful awful awful - I feel very sorry for him.

Here are the issues:

I don't think he should travel tomorrow and he is certainly in no fit state for a street party. He feels like he should go because all is booked and he'd have to fork out more money to get home eventually. He also has important tickets to pass on to his brother and sister in law. He thought about going and staying in the flat but I think it's selfish as we are sharing a bathroom with our host.

I think he should stay at home and travel home when he is feeling better. He has a vital meeting on the 1st but I think he needs all the recovery time he can get.

I also don't want to get ill if I can help it but I think that's inevitable.

He says he will now play it by ear. I'm due to travel to Edinburgh in the morning to meet him there.

WWYD if you were me/him?

So he's decided not to travel as he feels even worse today.
I'm staying at home.
Happy New Year everyone!

What does it matter if you're infected for up
to two weeks - no one is going to stay off school/ work that long. Just not possible.

Hope you're New Year is ok without him OP

Bloodyteenagers you are misinterpreting the information. It very clearly says that it is spread through vomit and poo. So yes if you are sitting next to someone who has it after they have just vommed and they breathe on you then you catch it. But not a significant time after they were last sick. The 48 hours thing is toilets in the main barrf.

It is contagious yes but it is highly containable also. Op it is not inevitable you will catch it at all. Its this attitude imo which causes spread. Bleach Bleach Bleach, don't share bathroom, bag, boil wash and don't get too close to DP.

Norovirus is notoriously hard to kill. Bloody - most of what you say is correct, except the bit about breathing on someone (unless as Tobysmum says, its just after they've vomited) norovirus is not airborne. It is spread through either being close to someone as they are vomiting (inhaling/ingesting particles) or from touching contaminated surfaces and then spreading that contamination into your mouth (ie eating without washing your hands)

Norovirus is a VIRUS. Antibacterial gel will not and does not kill it. To my knowledge, there is only one handgel which works on Norovirus and that is Purell Advance (the stuff they use in hospitals).

However, the simplest and most effective method of not catching it is to wash your hands thorougly (and by thoroughly, I mean more than a splash and dash - sing two verses of Happy Birthday to You in your head whilst washing your hands - thats about the length of time you need to wash them for). If you wash your hands before you eat or before you touch your mouth, you will generally not catch it.

By the way - I'm not a doctor, but am a recovering emetophobe

I'll try and get some purell advance in, thanks for the tip . And important point antibacterial kitchen/ bathroom cleaners also don't eradicate it. I keep gloves and a brand new bottle of bleach at all times.

How I detest stomach bugs, we are well overdue one also it has been a long time

I had it in September last year. Worst time of my life. I have never felt so awful. The throwing up part was bad enough. But the next two days I was aching and shivery and exhausted. Not fun. No way would I have wanted to travel.

Interesting read as an emetophobe.

Does it have to be pure bleach (diluted of course) to clean or can it be a spray containing bleach?

Does Milton work?

We are well overdue a bug too (DC1 has just started preschool) so I want to be prepared.

Going to invest in some of the hospital handwash mentioned too.

Boots sell an anti-viral hand foam - it's dearer than anti-bac but worth it!

I get my purell online. Make sure its the anti viral one.

YY bleach and not shitty antibac.

Also have a google on how to wash your hands, don't assume you know how to.

When your bleaching things remember to bleach door handles, light switches, tv remotes, loo flush button or handle, taps and chuck out the toothbrush.

My Christmas was cancelled a couple of years ago thanks to my pen-friend picking this up on the sleeper back from Edinburgh; thinking she had a migraine; & coming to stay with me as planned.

Became apparent that night (Christmas Eve) that it was NOT a migraine. My brother had given up his room for her expecting it to be a couple of nights & when she was cold I'd given her my (beloved precious & irreplacable) camp blanket to go on her bed.

I had a really awful feeling when she first told me she'd been sick that it wasn't a migraine. And when I picked her up at the station migraine seemed even less likely but I suppose I wanted to believe it was (iyswim?).

My brother was absolutely livid about the whole thing, mostly because I wasn't very long out of hospital & my Broken means that if I'd caught it I would have ended up back in hospital. It was less than a year after I'd been seriously ill with appendicitis & simultaneous burst ovarian cyst (0/10, do not recommend) where the ambulance crew completely failed to realise how unwell I was & I was left writhing & weeping in A&E waiting room, begging my poor brother to make it stop [then my father when he appeared] until my lack of anticonvulsants caught up with me & I had a massive seizure there in the waiting room with everyone having a good gawp. On the plus side I did then get seen AND I was too massively dehydrated to wet myself. Always ALWAYS a win to retain continue when fitting. Always. But yes, essentially my brother was envisaging a repeat of that, which he'd found hugely traumatic-distressing.

We only have one bathroom so HAD to share & obviously I had to look after her as would've been totally inappropriate for my brother to do so. There was basically continual bathroom cleaning going on & my hands were raw (my incredibly fragile skin & eczema were really not happy, but...) with the constant washing.

My brother & I were both meant to be going to see family on Christmas & I was meant to be going to Mass but instead we were stuck at home (with v unfestive food) as we didn't want to risk spreading the infection if either of us had caught it.

Luckily - well, it wasn't luck, thanks to Constant Vigilance & All The Cleaning & All The Handwashing, neither my brother nor I caught it. But we neither of us even countenanced going out until were quite sure we weren't going to put anyone else at risk DESPITE THE FACT THAT MEANT CANCELLING CHRISTMAS (well, apart from for the cats, who had a very lovely day). I'm astonished that any grown adult could be so utterly selfish & irresponsible & while I'm sorry your plans fell through I'm really REALLY glad he didn't attend the event & spread the virus around!

When your bleaching things remember to bleach door handles, light switches, tv remotes, loo flush button or handle, taps and chuck out the toothbrush.

Don't you worry you're preaching to the converted. You could pass out from the fumes walking past my house if someone voms. Add mobile phones, stair hand rail.....

And another potential way of spreading noro is food preparation, so I only eat hot, freshly cooked food if there is someone ill. I read once it might help and it does no harm if it does no good

It sounds mad but now I have a plan I cope much better if it happens (I'm obviously an emetophobe, not sure if I mentioned that earlier).