Holiday’s unanticipated ends

Today is the public holiday for Boxing Day, since the actual day fell on a weekend this year, but we won’t be seeing much of it. Our Christmas holidays ended with sudden sickness that basically wiped out yesterday, and left me feeling wiped out today.

I went to bed by 10pm on Boxing Day night so I could get up early to clean the house and do washing to get ready for visitors this week. That was the plan. At 2am I woke up with pains in my stomach and flulike symptoms—feverishness, achiness, and generally feeling yucky. I misdiagnosed myself.

I’d taken my tart cherry pill not long before I went to bed Saturday night, and it sometimes gives me reflux and/or makes me burp, so I though that was the cause. Flulike symptoms sometimes happen before a gout attack, so I thought that’s what was happening. Except, I kept feeling worse and worse.

Around 6am, I was pretty violently sick—it was more like I was being turned inside out, a feeling I’ve never had before. It was also the first time I’ve vomited since around 2001, which was also that last time I felt that bad (and back then was FAR worse).

I had another inside-out experience, and then the trots, and I’ll say no more about either. Fortunately, they were the last of it for me. But, I still felt truly terrible and could do little more than sleep.

I tried getting up for a while in the evening and sat in a chair in the hope that I’d be able to sleep through the night (at that point, I’d been in bed most of 20 hours). I had a bit of electrolyte stuff and a tiny bit of plain saltine cracker. I felt worse and went back to bed.

I was running a fever during all this, but couldn’t manage more than sips of water, so I didn't take anything for it: The good old tried-and-true cool flannel (wash cloth) on my forehead worked wonders.

My fever broke during the night, and I slept most of the way through. By the morning, my back was really sore, after some 32 hours in bed, so I got up, feeling very washed out, but otherwise not bad. My stomach was a little sore, partly from whatever this was, and also from the muscle spasms the day before. But, I was otherwise fine, and the other end was better, too.

I had a piece of toast, and when that went well, I had a cup of coffee (I know, I know, it’s supposed to be clear tea with no additions…). The toast made me feel better, since I was so hungry (no surprise, that, after the better part of two days with no food and little water). The coffee helped clear my head, which felt like it was stuffed with cotton after so much time spent sleeping.

Other members of the family also got sick, so the logical assumption for the cause would be food poisoning, however, only some of us got sick, even if we ate the exact same things. Also, most of the others got sick well after me, and food poisoning is usually faster (and worse—not just 24 hours).

So, the other possibility is some sort of gastro virus, like a norovirus type thing, that we may have picked up. I joked that there were two-footed germ factories, aka kids, there that day who may have infected us (in my diseased state, that sounded much funnier to me…).

We’ll never know the cause since none of us went to the doctor. Also, since it basically lasted about 24 hours, it’s not necessary now, nor would any tests necessarily be conclusive. The important thing is that it passed, so to speak, pretty quickly—but man, did I feel truly awful when it was in full flight!

This will be a quiet day today. Maybe some blogging to fill the time and keep me sitting up…