Flu Hits Home: I'm Down

Thoroughly cleaning the house after 86 year old Milly had the stomach flu was to no avail. Tuesday night at midnight it struck me with vengeance and throwing up every 90 minutes became the norm for this totally sick blogger. If you get the flu you must be aware of the following things:

Day 1: Tuesday morning pre-dawn -- You will eventually stop vomiting. After the sixth episode into large Zip-Lock bags, (throw up, lock and toss) ginger ale was sipped through a straw so as to stop dry heaves and bile heaves. Be sure to have plenty of zip-lock bags and ginger ale on hand. I went through approximately 24. After the first onset of another ailment further south, two Imodium AD capsules were chewed and swallowed immediately after the most recent vomiting episode, allowing the Imodium to do it's thing before the next zip-lock bag incident. This worked and held the secondary problem at bay until 8:00 a.m.

Laying on one's side makes throwing up into a bag much easier; place a large bath towel on the bed and be careful. Gallon sized zip-locks can handle a lot of horrible things. Don't settle for a non-name brand here. You will continue to vomit for as long as 17 hours, as I did, but it will stop with slow sips of ginger ale. Severe body pain kicks in but afraid to take aspirin -- won't stay down.

Day 2: Wednesday -- sleep day; apparently vomiting burns quite a few calories as I lost 8.5 pounds and was exhausted. Spent all day sleeping and sipping ginger ale and lemon-lime Gatorade. Ate four saltines.

Day 3: Thursday -- much improved but extremely weak and fatigued. Shower felt good; ate two eggs and dark toast with a water chaser. Stomach pains come and go, reminding me of labor. Drank peppermint tea to calm things down -- it usually works. Must get four stitches out of my eye today -- the last thing I want to do. No, the last I want to do is eat anything other then soda crackers. Had four today.

So there you have it. The flu is alive and well in Chicagoland. You will probably get it and it will last, make you miserable and then abandon you. You will survive. The rule of thumb for vomiting is go to the ER if you vomit longer then 12 hours but here's the rub: I was too sick to go to the ER. What a pickle that presented.