Norovirus in 2020-2024

You know that nausea I mentioned feeling when I wrote my last entry? Well, it turned out to be the start of a 16-hour-long hell ride through norovirus. It was absolutely horrible! I haven’t puked like that since I was a kid. I went decades without puking and now I’ve made up for the last 30 years in a day. It wasn’t just puking but I had the runs from hell as well.

I first thought it was because of the magnesium. Then I thought it was food poisoning, but by the time I puked the third time I knew it was something more. When I wasn’t actually puking or having the runs, I still felt absolutely horrible because I was so insanely nauseous. I was also going from hot to cold and my heart rate was elevated. I had the chills in between puking spells but when I got close to puking I was all hot and sweaty and my heart was pounding, sometimes into the 130s.

After eight or nine hours of suffering, I had a virtual Urgent Care appointment which went a lot faster than my January appointment for my yeast infection. The nurse I talked to listened to my symptoms and asked a series of questions. Then she recommended Gatorade and Pepto-Bismol and also called in a prescription for anti-nausea pills. The same stuff they give to chemo patients. I threw up the first dose of Pepto which Tom says he does when he’s had to take it when sick. The Gatorade helped rehydrate me so I didn’t have to go to Urgent Care in person and be given IV fluids. That would have been my first trip to Urgent Care since the ’90s.

The first time I took the anti-nausea pills they didn’t get rid of the nausea but I no longer threw up. The second time I took one of the pills, I was finally nausea-free. Between the first and second doses of the pills, I dozed on and off for a couple of hours but was still miserable because when I was on my side, acid would start to pop up in my throat and when I was on my back I would snore or get foot cramps from being dehydrated.

Later in the evening, I was finally able to sleep solidly for 7 hours even though I still got a low sleep score. However, I’m still very tired and very sore from all the puking and my voice is shot from all the acid. I swear something wants me to spend my life in bed! I can’t even go out walking regularly like I used to at the old place because there’s always either something wrong with me or I’m tired. I’m so sick of it. But that’s why I haven’t broken down and settled for any old bed. Because I have to spend so much of my life in bed, I don’t want to settle.

Tom was wonderful throughout it and such a big help. I don’t know what I would have done without him. Who knows how close to dehydration and a serious electrolyte imbalance I might have gotten without his help since I certainly wouldn’t have been able to get to the store. He even gave me a back rub, which was nice.

I dropped from 162 to 158. It seems the only way I can lose weight is the unhealthy way. The only thing I had yesterday was a cracker, but it came up shortly after I ate it. Oddly enough, I’m still not hungry, even though I’m baking a sweet potato.

Last updated February 29, 2024