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

Interesting Marne, never really associated it with rain before, but that does make sense. Oh well, another thing to obsess over.

Roll on Xmas holidays and a break from noro-anxiety

SO glad for the support on this thread.

So to recap: hand gels = no good for noro but Milton hand gel kills it? And bleach. Can you get a bleach spray or do you make it up yourself? How much bleach/water?

School classrooms are SO hot. Why on earth don't they turn down the heating and open a few windows?

DD has just left home for two days because her brother has been sick (she went to her boyfriend's house). Looks like it's back to square one for her. I coped OK, I even ate at work on Tuesday which is the day he was vomiting. I've eaten today too, less than I would on a normal day but I've eaten and not obsessed about his illness. I did resort to buying a tin of the Dettol airfreshner but I have not attacked the house with mad levels of bleach.

I always believed milton hand gel killed noro. Have read this on their website says

'The Milton Antibacterial Hand Gel has been clinically proven to kill bacteria, fungi and viruses. One of the ways in which the Norovirus is spread is by touching someone with the infection. The Milton Antibacterial Hand Gel will help stop the spread, and its combination of Ethanol and Isopropan is more effective against Norovirius than some other gels.'

- that's a bit inconclusive isn't it...does say it kills bacteria, funguses and viruses though - I thought noro was a virus

Hell hope you and DD are OK.

Sorry to butt in, I hope no one minds...but have been in hospitals a lot the last week or two, only as a day thing but still, I've noticed the hand gel everywhere and everyone seems to use it all the time.

I don't touch it since I had a hospital infection about 4 years ago - which it doesn't kill - I learned at that point that it kills all the other bacteria on your hands, leaving nothing to competewith the really nasty germs so they can go mental, unchecked and that the only way to get rid of really horrid ones is thorough hand washingwith hot water and soap. Which I do of course - just don't touch my face or any surfaces I can avoid when in the hospital or till I get home.

But I just wondered if this has been covered on the thread - do the hospital hand gels kill off noro? Or do they make it a better environment for it to grow, on your hands?

Thankyou guys and sorry everyone is suffering so much over this, I'm terrified of it too, but trying hard to overcome.

Rooney I'm not sure about hospitals but I noticed my GP surgery now has 'Purell antiviral' hand gel up for patients to use and googled it and it looks like it's pretty effective against noro

Oh, good one, guys!

That's great to hear, I don't think ours has purell, and it doesn't have the soap and water thing either but still - good if some places do.

The part of the hospital i take dd2 too has pictures up in the toilets showing you how to wash your hands (great idea), i dont use the gels when i go into the hospital as i'm worried it will make my hands perfect for some bugs to land on but i use it on the way out so it kills any nastys i have picked up whilst in there.

I am now panicking again as one of dd's class mates are off, i'm trying to tell myself 'it might not be a vomiting bug and is probably a cold' but until i know whats wrong with her i will probably remain very anxious .

I am on day 5 of this horrid flu thing, seem to have every symptom other than being sick, i hate being ill, when i'm ill it feels like a life time and feels like i will never get well again, i really dont need one of the dd's bringing home a tummy bug on top of this .

Marne hope you feel better soon. It is utterly miserable when you're ill.

I just remembered there's a public loo (in a lay by by the side of a main road of all places) that I use occasionally and I love the fact they have massive posters up everywhere saying things like 'this is a yellow cleaning zone' 'this is a black cleaning zone' etc in different areas of the loos (one colour in the loo cubicle, another at the sinks, another in the hall) - this is such an obvious yet fab idea - why don't hospitals use this? That way different cloths etc would be used for different areas. I just always feel a bit icky about surfaces being wiped with the same cloths potentially as loos

Ds1 has a horrid cold and its making him cough so upping his asthma meds again. Just hope he doesn't pick up noro as well as it will all knock him for 6.

Have been at hospital this morning for DS eye check. D & V signs everywhere (asking people to postpone visit if suffering from either).

DS went around using every single hand gel dispenser that he saw ( he has asd, and that's another of his little obsessions)

I'm now worried that the dispensers could be contaminated

Devil- our hospital has those signs up all the time, when i first saw them i panicked but now i'm ok as it seems to be something thats there all the time. Last year when dd had an appointment there were signs on the parking metres outside, i did freak out then and almost got back in the car to go home (but was brave and went in and we were all ok). I canceled dd's appointment last week and my appointment (chickened out) and i'm dreading when dd'2s medication runs out as i can only get it from the hospital.

I just popped out to Tesco's to get dd2's magazine and trod in something in the shop, totaly freaked out as i didn't know what it was so spent the next 5 minutes scruffing my feet around tesco's to make sure it has rubbed off (got a few odd looks) .

I was doing rather well today & then dd2 (2yrs) was sick a tiny bit after tea. She had just pigged herself on ice cream & had hiccupped & burped afew times first, then her sister made her jump & laugh & she was sick a bit. She now is feeling sad & sorry for herself. She seems bright enough. I am trying to keep calm & rationalise things & put them in perspective. I'm ok for about 5 mins & then my mind starts racing away.

roundabout- sounds like it was just the amount she ate followed by the hiccups, dd1 used to be sick quite a lot at that age, mainly due to choking on food laughing or crying too much.

Marne - thank you, I know that deep down but needed someone to say it!

Last night I was worrying they were going to be sick as I'd underdone the fishfingers, they weren't they weren't just cremated as normal. Kept waking up at the slightest noise convinced they were going to be ill. I really need to get a grip.

roundabout I THINK under-cooked fishfingers don't pose a risk. Remember people eat totally raw fish.

I'm up with dd2 and freaking out, she climbed into m bed 20 minutes ago and then decided to get up, now led on the sofa watching tv and looking pale, dd1 is coughing upstairs, feel like i'm in hell, dh is asleep as has to get up for work in the morning (dont want to wake him)

She's now happily playing, looks like a long night for me

Still here. DS is now better, DD still has a bit of the runs but not too bad at all. I've been fine so far apart from nearly ill with anxiety of course Hands are really dried out from all the washing them

Starting to feel a bit less worried today, yesterday and the day before were just horrendous. For the worrying, not for actual ill people.

On the plus side, both DCs were quite ill and we all survived. I hope that's it for ever a good while now.

Well done to everyone dealing with this, you are all doing a fantastic job.

Tomorrow we have dd1's school Christmas Fair/Sale.

Today in the newsletter the Head said she had been off with a 'virus' (could be flu though) and later on she said about some of the girls being struck with noro and reminders about hand washing and keeping them off school if sick.

So tomorrow we have to go to this hot, crowded event that could be full of germs. Don't want to go but of course I can't convey this to dd1.

Dd3 (5) has been acting a bit strangely tonight. V bad mood, much worse than normal and when I went to turn her light off after reading, she was sound asleep which is unheard of. Could this mean she is coming down with something?

God, I sound completely neurotic reading this back.

Dancegirl-hope your dd is ok, probably just tired (both of mine are due to all the activities at school and change in routine), hope the christmas fair goes ok, we survived ours even though some of dd2's class were struck down with a bug 2 days before.

Dancer how did it go? Hope your dd is ok

moaning well done for getting through it

I how everyone here overcooks stuff - I do the same. DH calls my food 'nuclear' as it's always so hot

Can I ask something which has been playing on my mind recently. People here who have actually been sick in recent years with the phobia at the time of being sick - has it lessened your phobia or made it worse or no different? Ive been to a couple of therapists and they both took the vein that if I were sick it would cure me. I don't think this is necessarily true though, or else the people here who have been sick with the phobia would be cured. I've read around emet and it seems like it's a more complex than normal phobia, and, although other phobias can be cured by doing the activity (e.g. going in a lift if you are phobic of them) it's not necessarily the case for this, although as it's not always that well know and quite specialist it's often treated in this thought by specialists. My thinking was sparked off by a couple of you saying you were ill and the anxiety we have was worse than actually being ill, but yet the phobia is still here for you. I'm wondering if this phobia is just like a loose connection in our brains badly wired so we fear it so much more than is normal for the situation but it's become over time a way we cope with stress and anxiety (albeit ineffectively) and if we took away the actual fear we'd still resist changing our thought patterns and behaviour because we've developed tham as a way of coping and trying to feel in control of our lives. That was deep for 8am on a Sunday wasn't it . Anway, would really like to hear from people who have been sick since the phobia and how it affected (good or bad) the severity of the phobia

reastie forget we are in the 21st century and forget about modern medicine. Our phobia makes sense. As cave people we would avoid the sick and join forces with the strong.

We have a primitive fear response. It's the same for those with arachnophobia as a lot if not all spider bites several thousand years ago would have killed, just like being ill/sick would have likely killed.