my night with the porcelain goddess

The virus struck me last night. As many Clorox Wipes and as much Lysol as I sprayed when Mac was sick, I really thought nothing, including small pets and houseplants, could survive. But my sister, the doctor, tells me these viruses are very, very tenacious and can replicate with just 10 live particles. That's like a speck of dust that I obviously missed with my Wipes.

Last night I was watching tv and felt queasier and queasier until I was hit by the first eruption of the most violent vomiting I've ever experienced. It made me feel so sorry for Mac that his body was racked by the same vomiting a couple days ago.

I quickly got in the bed, only to be awakened at 9:30 for round #2, at which time the virus graced me with its presence from both ends.

This went on every hour only until about 12:30pm when it stopped. I can tell you that every time I got back in the bed, I prayed to the Lord to make this quick. And He surely did.

I, of course, am not a doctor, but I think that by the virus making an egress from both ends, I cut my "active sickness" time in half. I'm basing this on the length of time Mac was actively sick. So that is a positive. I'm now left with weakness - expected - and these awful achey pains in my thighs and lower back - not unexpected. My neighbor's family all had the virus a couple weeks ago and she said the aches are a symptom of the norovirus and would be gone in a day or two.

After consulting again with my sister, I am now eating bananas to restore potassium lost through diarrhea and I'm going to medicate with Advil PM when I go to bed. I would love to be able to sleep and these aches make it impossible to get comfortable enough to sleep.

I don't often get stomach bugs, so I really marveled last night about a couple things.

1. I woke up before every "active sickness" with more than sufficient time to get to the bathroom. The queasiness was really very mild when I woke up and gradually strengthened until it was time to make a move. How does a body know to wake up? I could have had a mess in my bed otherwise.

2. The body's ability to expel things is really quite horrific and dramatic and violent.

I do see the light at the end of the tunnel, especially if tomorrow is the last day of the leg aches. The only really good thing that has come out of this sickness is that my stomach is flatter than it's been in years. I know it'll go back to normal as soon as I start eating, but too bad it's not bathing suit season yet!