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!

ah, i see... not yet initiated into the school bathroom etiquette, with ds being just 22 months... but i have seen filthy hand towels recently in the loos of two local parks, at my old place of work and in dh's office... yuck.
and don't get me started on public bars of soap. they should be made illegal

I made DS and DD both use antibacterial stuff after an encounter with a bar of soap in a public loo today. It was a National Trust loo so looked very nice, but I fear sick-bugs don't recognise superior loos when they see them.

Poor DS and DD said: "But we've only just washed our hands!!" as I slopped the stuff on them. I said: "Oh so you have - silly me". By then, they were well and truly antibacterialised.

Today was less bad as DH was at home so was on hand just in case of emergencies. But it's back to normal Mummy-on-her-own panic mode tomorrow...

I think I'm going to have to stop reading anything. I looked at a harmless blog on the Times website earlier, and the first thing it mentions is how everyone's got d&v. I hope you can't catch it through the internet!!

Hey-ho: Back to school today. Have given DS strict instructions to wash his hands before eating anything, and not to share soap or towels. Now I just have to cross my fingers. There's no way DD will remember about proper hand-washing once she goes back to her nursery school on Thursday... and both my local hospitals have closed their wards because of this wretched virus, so it's on our doorstep. I am full of doom and gloom!

oh nelly, am right here with you... and sending noro-free vibes your way.
laughed at your 'superior loo' comment and the addition of antibac stuff... we went to a toddler group this morning (having given yesterday's v busy music group a miss). the minute we left and while standing in the street in the pouring rain, out came the wet wipes followed by lashings of anti-bacterial gel to which my ds (nearly 23 months) responded 'oh, suncream mummy'

I didn't dare go to the toddler group this morning - pathetic, I know. Both toddlers have already had norovirus 3 times. Can't face another bout. Will stock up on some anti bac gels this week, and try to pluck up courage to venture out!

Don't blame you, annoyingdevil. I don't think I'd have gone to toddlers either if we hadn't already outgrown it!

Zonedout: I love the suncream story. I even forgot about norovirus for a moment while I laughed!

Have been neurotically checking DS for signs of illness since picking him up from school.

DH reckons it will hit us when I'm not expecting it. I don't find that very consoling!!

On the subject of toddler playgroups etc, I don't know if this will help you or not (it's supposed to!), but my DCs are now 12 and 8. They both went to nurseries as toddlers as I was working and had their fair share of bugs while there, whatever was doing the rounds, which was a pain at the time.

My point is that I believe their immunity is stronger because of being exposed to these bugs when they were small. They both pretty much escaped nasty S&D bugs that have done the rounds over recent years at primary school, or if they did get them, the symptoms were much milder.

I think you do have to go through the yukky stage at some point, but have to be sensible with routine hygeine that's all.

The fear of them being sick in the night doesn't go away completely as they get older, but at least they gain better aim and are more able to get to the bathroom themselves in the night if they need to.

HTH

Thanks, Bellalasagne. We've not had a really bad sick-bug yet - which makes me all the more convinced that this one is heading our way. It's only a matter of time until we are struck down. I don't know of a single family who have remained unaffected from ages 0-18!

My Mum reckons my phobia is all because I wasn't sick often enough as a child. My younger sister was always getting sick-bugs - I clearly remember eating my tea on the doorstep outside so I didn't have to be in the same house as her when I was about 11(horrible, I know...) Now, of course, I fear the Maleficent God of Sick is going to punish me/us to make up for it ...

...or maybe you have brilliant natural immunity??

Oh, wouldn't that be wonderful? And why can't you get a vaccine against Norovirus, given that so many people get it?

i think i heard something about a norovirus vaccine being developed... or that may well be my imagination and no more than wishful thinking on my part. i suppose it would be difficult owing to the fact that it mutates so rapidly... even more so than flu as immunity is only said to last for 14 weeks to the dreaded noro... ooh, just crossed my mind that us emetophobes could go on mastermind with 'sick bug' as our chosen specialised subject

am still skulking around the streets of london, milton hand gel at the ready, trying not to touch anything and generally being very weird and feeling like a woman possessed. it is so nice to be able to come here and laugh about it but the reality of it is decidedly unfunny.

Lol at going on Mastermind zonedout. Bet I could give you a run for your money though!! I actually sprayed diluted bleach on DS's hands before he went to a party on Sat - that is how much it scares me. Think the whole thing must have turned me a bit psychotic. Feel like its me and my domestos against the big bad germ

how is everyone. I am worried now schools are back I quiz my two at the end of everyday who was there etc (bad mummy but can't help it)

I am exactly the same. Asking dd1 who was not at school and what is wrong with them!

God I do that anyway (creeps shamefully away)

Oh, so do I. A boy in DS's class was off school last term - the day after we'd been to his house for tea. I was absolutely certain he had d&v (what else comes on so quickly overnight?), and spent the day in a wobbly heap. When I saw his mum picking up his sister later on, she said he had an ear infection!!

I have already quizzed DS about absences. Every time I bump into someone I know, I can't help but ask if they've had the noro bug (so I know not to get too close!! - oh, how horrible I feel for saying and thinking that!!)

I love the Mastermind idea. We would all get perfect scores.

Thank you all for offering me the chance to laugh at this so-not-funny phobia!

I'm so glad I've found this site. I though I was the only one worrying about this sickness bug. B4 Christmas I kept DS off school for a week for fear of catching it. It is getting that I won't go out. My other 2 DD are suffering because if I do go out I make them spray their hands with anitbac spray and constantly washing. I'm not sleeping for worrying. Am I going mad or do I have a real phobia?

Culvercity - you are not going mad and you do have a real phobia. Ds has been off school this week with a mild ear infection. I know he is putting it on a bit but I have been pathetically grateful to have an excuse to keep him off. I also do the spraying with First Defence thing too.

Nellyraggbagg - you sound like me lol. I quiz everyone in a what I think is a subtle way but probably isn't and if any of DS's friends are off I worry until I know what it is they have had. Thought it was only me who did that!!

Culvercity - you do have a phobia, just like all of us. And it's horrible to feel this way. All I can say is that we all know how you feel, and you're not alone. I certainly find that going out can be a real challenge, especially at this time of year.

I did make DD miss a familiarisation day at her school-to-be before Christmas, as someone in that class had had norovirus, and had been sick in that very classroom. No way could I have sent her there. I lied and said she was the Virgin Mary in her Nativity play, and couldn't miss it!!

God, the questioning and dettol spraying thing is so where i will be once ds is at school. i genuinely do not know how i will manage then. for now i have made the decision to miss all but one of our toddler groups and am barely making any play dates (have just made one for tomorrow but can see it happening that the mum will call me on friday to say they have come down with noro and she is terribly sorry if they have infected us...) am beginning to feel rather lonely, here in hiding. except that i am going out to shops etc to do the ususal chores so am not so much in hiding that i feel safe from the germs.

ok then, notalone (and anyone else who cares to join in). your starter for 10 (and i can't find the answer to this)

i understand that this grim virus is spread through contact with the 'byproducts' of an infected person. and i know that it is not spread in the air from saliva etc (only from the spores of the vomit if you are close by/touch anything that the spores have hit etc) so then why oh why is this so easy to catch? does it basically mean that we live in a country full of people who do not wash their hands after wiping their botties (and who also miss the toilet paper and so end up with no. 2 on their hands? which then spreads to everything they then touch)

i've started so i'll finish;
because presumably all of this stuff about picking it up from door knobs and shop counter type surfaces must mean that there is poo everywhere. or am i being a complete prat and missing something here?

ah, so this is what i didn't realise... for some reason i didn't think it was in saliva. thanks for clearing that up bb.

now i really am not going to leave home...

Have just found out that my sister's partner has it!!!!!!!!! Fortunately (for me), they live 30 miles away and we haven't been to their house since Christmas Day. I keep telling myself it's because he's a doctor, so comes into contact with lots of ill people.

That spore thing really gets me (yes, we are all indeed experts on this topic). Ever since I discovered that, I've held my breath whenever I have an unfortunate encounter with vomit on the pavement (which does happen, as we live near lots of students) - I can just imagine the spores spore-ing out at me. Ugh.

I suspect it's so easy to catch because children aren't that hot on hygiene (if anyone offered DS a chocolate at school, there's no way he'd say: "Thanks, but I'll just go and antibacterialise my hands first" - despite all my obsessive training!) - and then we catch the spores because we have to look after them when they're sick (argh).

While we're at it, someone once told me that you're most likely to catch a noro type virus from public phones. I've never used one since. Is this why mobiles were invented?