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

Glad he's feeling better.

I think i have been on the emetophobe threads sinse i had dd1 , i think in a way it gets easier as they get oldrer, last time dd1 was sick she was only sick once and luckily it was on the bathroom floor (lino) so was easy to clean and bleach. With dd2 its harder as she cant tell me she feels sick and tends to be very sick (lots of washing), i keep hoping the day will come when they can take themselves to the loo to be ill.

Sounds like your ds is on the mend, sounds like a 12-24 hour bug, kids seem to bounce back fast. I end up being anxious for a week if the dd's are ill, of course they have fully recovered by then and i'm a nervous wreck .

I had always been especially not keen on d and v compared to others but it got loads worse when DD, my eldest, got her first bug and gave it to me. It was a huge surprise the first time, I don't know why though

Since then, any slight symptoms in either of them convinces me I am going to be horribly ill. I haven't always caught it, but probably suffer more from the worrying than I do from the symptoms IYKWIM. Plus the anxiety with it kicks off my IBS too, massive vicious circle in some ways.

It's so disproportionate, that's what makes me feel so silly. The DCs had chickenpox, one quite badly, DS had a broken bone, DS admitted to children's ward as a baby with a prolonged very high temp - none of them really worried me at all. But one tiny heave and whoosh panic stations.

Sorry you have been in hospital belgian

Theres only been a few cases here but my head is blowing it out of proportion (sp), would happily lock my door for a few weeks. This is the first week for ages that i havn't been out other than a quick food shop and picking the dd's up from school.

Everyone at DSs' school talking about sickness bug today. I said 'oh I thought it was nearly over now', the reply was 'oh no, it is still rife, so and so was sick yesterday, then so and so came out and had been sick in school' etc. Oh crap!

Last year it was rife for most of the winter here (seemed to spread slowlly through the school a class at a time). I hate winter so much.

I'm getting obsessive. DS1 comes out of school just now looking very solemn and needing a hug (unlike him, he doesn't normally do PDAs) and immediately I jump on him 'are you ok? Are you feeling ok?' etc. He's fine! I need to take a chill pill about this.

I'm the same Becky (any change in behaviour or change in face colour). I think i am going to be brave and send dd1 back tomorrow (as she seems ok, not peeing as much) and take dd2 to her hospital appointment (armed with soap and water incase she touches anything).

We had a meeting a dd's school y'day & I observed that the head & dd's teacher looked very tired & first thing I thought was they were coming down with a bug. In the meeting it emerged that y'day that had almost full attendance in the whole school (only 5 classes) & I thought yay, no need to panic. Today dd has come home saying her teacher was off sick, I asked what was wrong with her, she said she's sick I told you that & I asked again, off sick or actually sick. The head covered for her & said that was sick. So now panic stations again!

BB - Hope you are feeling better now. I remember you from an Emet thread a few years ago.

I know this is completely off subject but I was just wondering if any of you know what grandparents and senior friends is classed as on a school letter as I know most of you have children?

How is everyone today?

I too feel stupid it's such a silly thing to be scared of when you think about it but it just can't be helped :(

magi how is he doing now? Sorry to hear it wasn't just the cough

Ok just realised my phone hasn't refreshed properly will read though new posts now

Can I ask, does baby sick bother any of you? When ds2 possets, even though it makes me squirm I can catch it in my hand and clean him/me up as needed with only a slight shudder because its just forced up milk due to gas.

Baby sick never bothered me and all mine have done the projectile milk thing. It didn't bother me because I knew it was just a reflux thing and not a bug. I knew it wasn't catching.

I was always ok with baby sick until she had her first bug.

Right. I have been a lurker and occasional poster on this thread but I'm going to say good bye and good luck to you all. I've noticed that I am becoming more restrictive etc since reading this and I think it's because it's rationalising my behaviour iykwim whereas for me, personally, I need to remind myself that this is not normal. Hope you understand what I mean.

Dd1 didn't eat her dinner so i was panicking, she said she had tummy ache (double panick), there was me panicking and getting more anxious and she came up to me and said 'its ok mummy, i did 2 farts and now my tummy is better' , she's now running around playing with a balloon. She had eaten quite a lot to day and i have been pushing drink into her due to the UTI. Fingers crossed thats all it was.

Sorry to hear that Bea I think I know what you mean about rationalising and sorry this thread is making things worse for you rather than helping.
I am aware that to cure anxiety and phobias it is sometimes better not to become fixated and focused on them. However what I find helpful about this thread is the knowledge that there are other people who share the same worries as me. We may not be 'normal' in our thinking and some of us have more extreme fears than others but what I do know is that sick phobia is much more common than we think.

One child in bed coughing like mad and another moaning that she feels hot and poorly, i think its going to be a long night , not sure if dd1 is laying it on, she doesn't feel hot to me but she didn't eat all her dinner (so i'm stll freeking out). I'm now petrified that the electric will go out (as its very windy and chucking it down with rain) and dd1 will be ill .

Baby sick never bothered me either

My son has a cough at the moment and I keep worrying that it will make him sick :( never really thought as much about it before he was sick for his first time on Friday, then today he said he had a tummy ache before his dinner and that's what he said before he was sick on Friday. Seem to keep panicking now :(. He's had a glass of milkshake and a yoghurt before bed now I'm worried he'll keep coughing and be sick. Hate this phobia! :'(

Both of mine are now asleep, i said i would take calpol up to dd1 in half an hour, just went up and she's asleep. Lets hope for a quiet night for all of us.

Does anyone else find night times the worst? i know they could be sick any time of the day but i seem to be more anxious at night (lying awake and jumping at every little sound).

Oh Marne, sorry it's turning out to be a worrying day. So many false alarms that wear you out isn't there?

Bea - I know what you mean and if that's the best thing for you then fair enough. I am already so anxious about it that reading about other people doesn't increase it TBH

Although I so wish that people on FB wouldn't document their childrens sickness bugs, because then I think ARGH we saw them yesterday

Santas - baby sick/posset didn't bother me because it's not contagious. Other people can vomit away and as long as it won't cause me to vomit, it doesn't bother me. I have dealt with people vomiting up blood - fine. Vomiting from virus - not fine at all

My DS is improving nicely, has drunk, wee'd, eaten what he was allowed (not the sweets and chocolate he was asking for!) had one bit of dodgy poo but no vomit all day

Nights are much worse for me too. Feels quite relaxed when I go up to bed, then hear a bit of coughing or sleeptalking or an odd groan and my ears prick up for sounds of illness. I have really really good hearing and wish I didn't!

It's more frightening in the dark and more of a PITA to change beds/clean them up and you are already really tired so feeling more easily upset I think. I know I wanted to just cry when I was woken by the sound of DS last night.

And he was so flaming cute with it too Said 'I don't want to be sick like this again Mummy', thanked me for giving him a little drink, and tried his best to vom into the bowl instead of his bed. He was really adorable and I was so hoping he wouldn't feel how much it all scared me.

Dd2 now coughing non-stop, just hope she's not sick, poor thing , have put the vapouriser thing on and put carvoil on her pillow, not sure what else i can do?

I think i will take the lap top up to bed so i can keep an eye on her, maybe try and sit her up a bit.