There has been a 48-hour vomiting bug going around the peninsula since the winter. Well, there seems to be one every winter.
I’ve always missed such bugs as they circulate … until this spring.
I suppose I should count myself lucky that I’ve avoided the thing for this long, but there was no “lucky” in the experience at all (save, perhaps, that my wife, Caryn, and our Ukrainian housemate did not also succumb).
The bug is a seasonal variant of norovirus, and multiple tests in our area have shown that it is transmitted from person to person, not through food, as is sometimes the case for the virus.
The Add-On Effects of MS on Acute Illness
Though this is normally a miserable 48 hours for anyone, I must say that the effects of the bug lasted for more than just two days for me.
It wasn’t that the symptoms of the virus hung around longer, but, as I am finding to be the case with just about everything of late, it took me much longer to recover afterward.
Like many with multiple sclerosis (MS) who experience Uhthoff’s phenomenon — a temporary worsening of neurological function in response to increases in core body temperature — I found that the slight fever brought on by the virus caused extreme fatigue, and I ended up sleeping the better part of the day for about five on end.
It wasn’t just fatigue, however, and it lasted well beyond when the symptoms of norovirus passed.
What I call my “popcorn legs” came back with a vengeance, to the point where my whole body seemed to be popping with nerve impulses I couldn’t control. Caryn had been sleeping in our study to avoid catching my bug, so I couldn’t ask her if she felt the bed vibrating from all that activity. The dogs, however, did notice, but it didn’t seem to keep them from a good night’s sleep.
My brain fog was thick. My speech was labored.
In general, although I was done being sick, it took me a few days before I felt well.
Next Time, I’ll Know to Expect It
Like an aging runner who finds it takes more time to recover from a race, I’m finding my recovery time from illnesses — or from spending too much time in the garden during warm days or having the occasional extra pint down the pub — to be extending, and I’m not at all fond of it.
This isn’t the first time I’ve noted my slower recovery from this or that in my life with MS. I suppose, however, that forewarned is forearmed, and this experience will lead me to better set expectations for the next time … which I hope is a long time coming!
One thing I learned (after the fact) about norovirus: Those alcohol-based sanitizing gels we all swam in during the COVID-19 pandemic don’t work for this virus. The Health Service Executive (HSE) in Ireland recommends that when norovirus is circulating you wash your hands often with soap and water and avoid touching your hands to your mouth.
Wishing you and your family the best of health.
Cheers,
Trevis
