Emetophobia - terrified of this sickness bug

[nellyraggbagg]

This sounds so stupid, but I'm completely terrified of the children (not to mention DH and me) catching this Norovirus that's doing the rounds. I've been emetophobic for as long as I can remember, and it has become even worse since having children. Every time they open their mouths, I'm terrified they're going to say they feel sick. When I go to bed at night, my last waking thought is: "Oh my God, what if they're sick in the night?" My DH is working away a lot at the moment, which makes matters even worse (he is good at dealing with sick, thank goodness!!) I have dealt with both children being sick (I have found that manic cleaning helps very slightly to take my mind off the blind panic), but am rigid with fear following newspaper reports of this current bug. How will I pick DS up from school if DD and/or I get it? My Mum is miles away, unfortunately. And what if DH gets it? I don't know how I'd cope if he were sick. Please, please help, someone - even if just by saying that I'm not the only person who feels like this!

I don't think i am as bad an emotophobe as many on here.
I was last sick just over a year ago. And was very bad with morning sickness with my DD's.
Finybunny i too would keep him off. not worth risking more illness.

Hello girls. Quiet night here in the end, thank goodness. Had a call from friend whose dc spent a couple of hours with my dc yesterday morning. Friend rang me this morning to say dc has been throwing up all morning. I am surprisingly calm today. Tired but calm. I have been told that sickness bugs are contagious from the moment you begin to feel unwell until several days after the symptoms stop. So as they spent yesterday am together there is a chance we may escape this???

Tortoise it would appear many of us on here simply won't give in to that dreadful feeling of wanting to be sick. I'm afraid that I am one of those!

Hello everyone! BB so impressed that you've gone 34 years withoug v'ing. I can normally withold it - labour, pregnancy, 60 foot waves on the North Sea, a very drunken youth, travelling to some pretty unhygenic countries etc. But that damn bug has floored me twice now!

Hope everyone else is OK, and for those with gippy tummies, remember it's far easier for us to avoid passing bugs to our dcs than vice versa. Keep up the handwashing.

Hello ladies! How are we all?

Funnybunny - Glad you got thru the night ok, bet you didn't sleep much though, always got one ear out listening for the dreaded!How is ds today? Hope he is ok. I would def cancel the Sat playdate as well! I too am v superstitious about telling anyone when i last v'd coz so afraid it'll tempt fate and it'll come back and bite me in the bum! My dh was trying to get it out of me and i was terrified to tell him, it's been years, thats all i'm saying! Let us know how you get on with your analytical therapy, be interested to know if it helps. Keep us informed. x

Nelly - How's your funny tummy today? Hope you feeling better. To not want chocolate is awfully worrying don't ya think...how can anyone not want chocolate..definitely cause for concern!! x Have you been in touch with the friends who are visiting this weekend? I'd be doing my 'checks' before they came!

Tortoise - How's your DD's? Hope all ok at yours. You sound quite together with all this actually. I def wouldn't cope on my own. Don't even like dh going out in the evening incase anything happens while he's out! But console myself that usually he isn't too far away and would come home like a shot if i needed him.

BB - How's gripey tum today chick? Have you been to work? Hope you are ok. Know you will be because you've trained your brain not to allow you to be sick...(34yrs!!!)still mega jealous! heehee xx

Hi Notalone, where are you mate, am missing ya! Hope you ok. x

Hello Wiggleit!

Thanks for the thoughts. My dodgy tummy slightly better today - I did manage chocolate, so that is a good sign . DS has started with a cold, so I'm obviously convinced that it's going to turn into sickness.

I am unfairly suspicious of the friends who are coming at the weekend. She was the one who invited us in at Christmas, only to tell us that they all had gastric flu... I have had to ask her not to come to ours once when her DS was v-ing. She would have come otherwise!!

Tortoise - I just wish I was as calm as you about this whole thing...

DS is coughing now, a sound which strikes terror into my heart!! I feel a bad night coming on...

Nelly - how's things with you today hun? How is DS? Hope it is just a cold.. we are serious hypercondriacs (sp?) don't ya think? Any symptom at all can turn into sickness in my book, even a broken toe! (slight exaggeration!) But ykwim? How cool is tortoise hey? Wish i could be like that in a crisis..(very admirable tort! x) How is your tum today nelly? I've had right bad ibs all week,not nice. Hope you ok, at least you back on the chocolate which had me seriously worried i have to say! I've took you off the critical list now..phew! xx

How is everyone else on here? Sending you all some bug free vibes!xx

All seems fine here, thank goodness!

Though why does sickness have to crop up in every conversation? One minute I was having a nice chat to a school mummy today, and the next, she was telling me that her baby was throwing up all morning. And her DD is in my DS's class!!!!!

OH Nelly!! Isn't it a pain?... kwym. I was chatting to my neighbour and just saying how we'll have to do coffee one day or a walk with the kids, when she drops into the conversation that the lad she childminds threw up all over in tesco's!aarrgggghhhh!! I'd just got back from tesco's btw! Luckily it wasn't today but then i was still wondering what aisle he was sick on etc etc...

Wow! Have surprised myself at how long it has been since I was last on here!

Wiggleit - Glad you have stayed on here with the rest of the paranoid!! This thread is such a godesnd when you need to vent / worry / speculate etc. You made me laugh with the Tesco aisle comment cos that is just the sort of thing I would think! I was in Meadowhall Boots last year and to my horror a lady had thrown up everywhere in the moisturiser aisle. The smell was horrendous and it took me months before I dared to venture down the particular aisle again! What am I like?? It wasn't Tesco in Wath was it lol??!! x

BB That is amazing. God, I hope I am like you. That means I would be 62 at least before I V'd again!!! Was 28 the last time and its been a couple of years. So sorry about AF. It must be hard when you want it so badly.

Tortoise - you are so brave the way you dealt with it. Being a single mum must make it even harder so I applaud you.

Nelly - how are you? I am exactly the same when it comes to cinemas. I remember going to see 28 weeks later a while ago on the day it came out, and Cineworld allocated us seats in the middle. Actually, it wasn't even the middle, I was going to be one from the end and I still freaked that I couln't just get up if I wanted to. DP told me I was being ridiculous as I fretted about it all day. When we got there the person who was supposed to sit next to me never turned up and luckily I had the only empty seat in the whole cinema next to me. Phew! Maybe they had noro

FunnyBunny - glad your DC's are ok. Think you coped brilliantly too

PS - why has everything gone upside down on MN????

Notalone!! You're back! Where have you been mate?? Glad you are ok hun. All fine here, DD gave us a scare in the week by being sent home early from school, but she was ok in the end ...phew!! No, it wasn't the tesco's on Wath so you'll be able to do your shopping! Years ago i worked at WHSmith and a customer threw up on my floor!! I was on the till at the time and just fled the scene..queue's a mile long but no way could i stay there and breathe! I had to tell my manager the problem.so embarrassed. They put me to work on another floor for the rest of my shift. It wasn't long after that that i handed my notice in x

Well, that's Meadowhall Boots off my shopping map!

I have never returned to Pudsey M&S ever since DS v-d in the car park there, ooh, about three years ago. I just can't face going back to the place where it happened.

Now here's another very saddo thing. I was watching Shaun the Sheep yesterday (no, that's not the tragic thing!) - and one of the episodes has the farmer v-ing. I had to sit through it for the dcs' sakes, but it was very difficult. So even Shaun the Sheep isn't safe!

I had to venture to a soft play place today as DD was invited to a party there. Goodness only knows how clean her hands were, and where the food had been. I will now fret all night!

DS's school newsletter this week reminds parents not to send children back to school until 48 hours after sickness symptoms - which must mean that noro is still hanging around there. Oh fab. He breaks up on Thursday, thank goodness. I am hoping to spend two weeks outdoors! He has a rotten cough at the moment, so I panic every time he coughs. Ah, there's so much to worry about!

Hello again Wiggleit and Nelly. And Hi to you too AD - so sorry I missed you out earlier!

Wiggleit - just been working and getting used to not being on the pc as much. Am not going anywhere though so don't worry! That must have been awful when you were on the tills. I would have done exactly the same. Thanks god your DD is ok now. At work this week we had to buddy up with someone else cos we are new, and my "buddy" told me she had been throwing up for a week. Thank god she told me a few hours later she was pregnant or I think I would have combusted with the worry. We had been sharing a mouse and keyboard and I had filled her water bottle up for her and had touched the mouth bit. Aaarrgghh!!!!

Nelly - I think its the association isn't it with places etc. When I was a kid I v'd after eating a sausage roll and Breakaway bar and was not able to eat either again for a good few years. Ditto with quiche. I am not surprised you are anxious about the soft play, its just the fact that so many kids have touched everything. Still, I guess its the same as school - all the kids touch the same books tables etc there too, so I am sure she will be fine. Think a glass of wine or something similar may calm those nerves.

So what is everyone doing tonight? I have had to brave the delights of shopping in Wakefield today with a 6 year old DS in tow so deserve a tipple or two tonight me thinks!!! Hope you all have a great one!!!! xxx

Notalone - I've not touched ginger ale since I was five. My mum swears I had a bug, but I still blame the ginger ale!!!!! I also had an episode following a Breakaway bar, spookily enough, when I was 15 (the last time I v-d, if I dare say that - now touching every available bit of wood). We are not a good advert for Breakaways!

Nelly and Notalone - i really like breakaway bars but will think twice about tucking into one now! Notalone - yes you definitely deserve a tipple or three after a shopping trip with DS. My DD has drove me to the whisky bottle tonight, she's been totally full on today and i'm done in! Rather that than her feeling poorly like the other day though! xx

Thanks Notalone. I think i just cope becaus i have no choice not to. Would run a mile if it was anyone but my kids!
Well, no one has caught anything off DD1. Been a week now! Still time for them to get something from school i suppose. Mine only have Good Friday and bank hol monday off. Easter half term is at the beginning of april!

nellyragbag, I was an emetaphobe for as long as I can remember, last year I went for NLP/TFT and I can honestly say I am no longer an emetaphobe. DD had a tummy bug a few weeks ago that lasted for over a week and i was fine, I dealt with my poorly dd, I looked after ds, I even took time of work to look after dd while she was poorly and I ate through it all without a single symptom myself (normally my nerves would have given me the runs). My biggest problem was that I couldn't be close to my ds as I was always so worried that he'd picked something up from school and if he was poorly, i couldn't look after him which is what I deperatly wanted to do. I also avoided social situations, public places, overcooked all food, washed my hands way too much, refused to go to places with lot's of children and had butterflies at all times. I had one hour session of TFT and spent the last 20 minutes chatting. Please look into Thought Field Therapy or NLP.

Hi calvemjoe - where did you go for your TFT? What is NLP? I'd be interested to try anything because i've had all sorts of therapies over the years but nothing has worked. My fear is so deeply rooted, it can't be tracked back to a specific incident. Really would appreciate any advice on other therapies that have worked. How did you get this therapy, thru your doctor or private? Thanx

I'll second that!! My fear is, like Wiggleit's, not related to any one incident. I'd love more info please, calvemjoe!

Lol about the Breakaway bars Nelly! I didn't think they existed anymore. Maybe I should force myself to buy some.

Are you hungover today after your whiskey last night Wiggelit? I had quite a few beers in the end but am feeling ok today thank god!

Tortoise - so glad your family are all ok

I will third that Calvemjoe - please tell us more

I didn't even know what exactly I was scared of until after my treatment. It was a private treatment that cost me £80. It did involve thinking about vomit involving incidents throughout my life, but if you are anything like I was I played these incidents through my head whenever my eyes were closed. I'll give you a link to the guys website. I'm the Emma if you look in the testimonials bit. Anymore questions just ask x

Sorry, I'm the Emma in the phobias bit, not thetestimonials bit.

Hi everyone! Hope all is well with you all.

Notalone - not hungover, think my body is used to the abuse! Don't know about everyone else but i daren't drink too much..i know when to stop.

calvemjoe - thanx for the link

xx

Thanks for the link. I'm going to look into this - can you tell me where they are based?

Hope everyone's OK. Nothing to report from me. Bit that the weather had turned cold. Means the bug can do its worst once again!

He's based in Coventry but he isn't the only practitioner.