Emetophobia - my worst nightmare

[zonedout]

Ds1 goes to a school set on several different sites. Today one of the sites has been closed for deep cleaning due to norovirus wiping out hundreds of children this week. There are loads of siblings in ds1's building/class and 8 of his classmates were off today.

I am a single parent (really outing myself here!) and terrified of what feels completely inevitable right now. I was awake all night last night, waiting. Shall be doing the same again tonight.

You know, I feel like I have improved a lot with my emetophobia recently. I am no longer worried about the odd v. It's the awful, debilitating violence of noro that terrifies the life out of me.

The waiting is utter torture

He wasn't ill at the time he wanted to visit the hospital and 18 days!!!! That's what I thought as I've been lying on my material sofa so I don't have to go upstairs :(

Stef- if i was you i would leave dh upstairs and i would sleep on the sofa, fingers crossed its just something he has eaten. I wouldnt let him go to the hospital either. Let him sleep it off, stay out of the way and when he is better iwould wash all the bedding and bleach the bathroom (but thats just me).

Is there a spare room step?
I agree with Marne...after he has recovered I would wash bedding on a hit wash and bleach the loo.
Not much else you can do.
I hope you have a peaceful night - all of you x

I intend to sleep on the sofa which I'm not very comfy on but I'm now worried about the 18 day thing! He's not going to hospital that was a few weeks back. Ill make him strip the bed when he's better and bleach the bathroom although I will probably bleach it again after just to make sure! Does ur throte ever feel like its closing up when ur fear kicks in pretty badly?

No only my sons room he's at his nans and he was sick last night so daren't go in there. So I doubt ill be having a peaceful night :(

Yep, my throat eels like that when i'm very anxious. Try not to worry about the 18 day thing, apparently it only applies to norovirus, if your dh has noro he would probably be a lot more ill than he is (when i had it i was glued to the loo).

I tell dh 'if he ever gets a bug i'm booking myself into travelodge until he's recovered'

Wish I could do that but I have no money ATM :(, he was on the loo a lot then he was sick now asleep I handed him a bucket just in case as wouldn't want it on the carpet :s

Fingers crossed he is over the worst.

Can you get to a boots tomorrow and buy 'Motilium'? i took this when dd2 had noro a couple years back, i did catch it but took Motilium and was not sick (just felt rough and had the runs). Theres also something else i have seen in boots (but have not tried it), its in a pink bottle and is for stomch upsets and vommiting, someone else on here may know what it is?

I hope tonights not too bad for you, i realy feel for you and i know you probably wont be able to sleep, i think you are doing a great job and being very brave, i think if it was me i would be running for the hills.

Pepta bismol is the pink one I think, I feel like running for the hill :(. My stomach has been hurting for hours do you think it's just the stress and anxiety from the last 24 hours?

The anxiety will make your stomach hurt. I'm just waiting for it to hit our house, haven't had a hot meal since tue as once I get the real gripping fear, hot food scares me.

My stomach is killing and my back aswell my throte feels swollen too :(, I haven't eaten anything since about 2pm yesterday apart from a tiny Kipling cake at about 6am.

Can't sleep just waiting for my partner to wake who has been asleep since 5pm hopeing to god he's ok when he wakes

Even the road noise outside is making me jump as sometimes at first it dosent sound like a car and I think it's him making a dash for the loo

Have you got any sleeping tablets? Or know any tricks to make you go to sleep? Favourite film or book so your not just sat there wondering whats going on upstairs?

No I haven't if anything the tele will make me fall asleep but my backs hurting and I'm worried about being sick myself makes it worse when my throte is swollen, and my stomach keeps making noises too, I managed to get sleep this morning but kept waking up to every noise I heard jumping /: and with me being downstairs I can hear the road noise

Have you got ear plugs? they may help

stef I hope you managed to sleep last night - how are things this morning? So sorry you're going through this. I also get my throat closing up. Infact I remember as a teenager at school that started and I'd get in a panic in lessons that it would make me sick and I felt trapped in the classroom. It took me a few years to know it was just anxiety and it wouldn't make me sick. I still struggle with it though and also get it with PMT.

Re: medication. In addition to motillium, there's also buccal (or something like that) which you can get over the counter. It's in a purple box. I was prescribed it when I had awful nausea when coming off of the pill and it worked wonders for that. I also took it when I was pg the first time (but then had a mc ) before I knew I was pg and was suffering ms (but didn't know it was ms) and it worked really well then too. You don't swallow it, you put it on your gums to dissolve.

Marne so you took anti emetics when you had noro and they stopped you being sick? That's v interesting. Did it make it worse in other ways? I often wonder if it's OK to take them when ill incase your body needs to be sick to get rid of the bug IYKWIM. I worry about if it's OK to take in that situ.

I ended out having a horrble evening - my tummy got worse after I thought it was improving, tried gaviscon but didn't help. I couldn't sleep as it hurt too much and got in such a panic I was coming down with something and would be sick. I ended up taking a cyclizine (anti emetic I was prescribed when pg) which also has the efect of making me quite spaced out and drowsy. Part of me wondered if I had a tummy ache from all the stress of the past week of worry about noro where I work etc and seeing the GP. When I've been under intense stress in the past very occasionally it has made me nearly sick (argh!). ANyway, thank goodness the cyclizine made me sleep. This morning so far it just feels a bit upset but not as bad as last night so hoping I'm over the worst as it was awful

Hi everyone.
Well, had an awful night :(
Ds1 was coughing a lot so brought him into bed with me but ten I started coughing...proper coughing fit and was nearly sick!
Stomach felt off so took a motillium. Have no more left now.
Didn't sleep too well after that.
Won't eat much today just in case.
Oh, and dh goes Way on a work trip tomorrow for 3 days :(

When i too motillium for noro it did make the other end worse and you are poorly for longer as obviously it takes longer for the bug to exit your body, i still felt quite sick and was unable to get out of bed (though i still had to tend to dd2 who was recovering as dh was busy looking after dd1 and i didnt want him to catch it), i felt pretty rough for a few days but was not sick. I'm not sure if it was the motillium that saved me as i know someone else who caught it of their dd and still managed to olny have it one end (the same time she had i caught it too and had it both ends, gp gave me tablet to go under my lip to stop me being sick which seemed to stop it). It is possable to have noro and not be sick but you still feel vey poorly.

Motillium makes the food move faster through your stomach and out the other end so will encourage a bug to leave at the rear end and leaves your stomach emty so theres nothing the throw up, it also ezes the 'feeling sick'. Not 100% guarintie it will stop you from being sick though but it does help. When i feel realy poorly i take 2 but often they take an hour to work so with noro its hard to know (as it can come on very suddenly) so my gp told me i can take them 3 times a day if one of the kids is ill and i'm worried i will catch it.

I still dread catching a bug though incase it doesn't work. When the dd's are sick i do deal with it, i am the one who cleans it up as i need to know its done properly, i wont let them in my bed though and i dont give cuddles (just reasure from a distance). First time we all had noro was a nightmare, dd1 was only 3 and dd2 was 10 months old, dd1 had it first and it lasted for over a week, as she recovered the rest of us came down with it at the same time, we had to call the gp out and he gave us injections to stop the sickness (which worked very quickly).

There are things the gp can give you, they dont like giving you things as it can cause problems and make recovery slower (and make the other end worse) so the best way to clear a bug is to be sick, but its worth asking your gp for something in case of an emergancy, explain how scared you are and they might be able to give you something.

Stef- i hope your dh is now on the mend, if he has made it through the night wiothout being sick he should be ok. I hope you are ok xxx

stef I hope you are all ok.

Well I didn't get much sleep last night I finally drifted off and my bf came downstairs his tummy still didn't feel right so he went back to bed then it took me about 4-5 hours to get back to sleep and then he came down at 7am feeling better thank god. I've stressed that much I've lost any weight I had on my stomach and the muscle hurts still worried I might catch it and I haven't eaten but also worried that not eating will make me ill so I'm in a catch 22

And thanks to everyone for asking :)

Glad he's feeling better. Try and eat something as it might make you feela lot better and drink lots (apparently drinking lots of water can stop you from catching bugs, doctors do this, apparently it flushes things through your system quicker stoping bugs from taking hold). Keeping everything crossed for you xxx

Right, i am avoiding fb today (too many ill people), dont you hate it when people post 'we re all ill' but dont say whats wrong? one part of me doesnt want to know but then the other does so i can avoid them. Why bother posting but not saying whats wrong? another person posting about having a bug (same one as yesterday), so i'm logging off and going to my mums to wrap christmas presents, christmas helps me focus on other things (something to look forward too). Hope you all have a ok day and sty bug free xxxx