3/4 Family members have tummy bug! Help!

[chelsealindsey89]

Hey there,

I'm pretty new to the site, and this is my first time posting in a thread here. Unfortunately, it's because I need some emotional support!

2 days ago, I came home and was told that my sister had thrown up twice earlier. I FREAKED, because my sister is autistic and doesn't have the best hand-washing system. I bleached the whole kitchen and our shared bathroom, but she was absolutely fine the next day so we assumed she had just eaten something funky.

I came home yesterday to find my mom shivering in her bed, telling me her stomach hurt. Cue freakout #2. I help her out the best I can, but then I decide that taking a sleeping pill and just sleeping through the gross would be best. At this point, I am so anxious that I can feel my stomach start to hurt. I literally gave myself indigestion through anxiety. Ugh.

So about 2 hours later I'm woken up because I hear my brother breathing heavily in the hallway. Turns out HE's sick too!!! This is my worst nightmare! I went and bleached the whole kitchen, and slept in the basement.

Now I'm up for work but I'm nervous to go. I work 45 mins away, and I'm worried since this is the flu, if I get sick, the symptoms are going to hit me like bricks and I won't be able to get home. On the other hand, I'm thinking that if my brother, who is rarely ever home, got it and I didn't, my immune system has already beat it off.

I know that was really long but I'm just trying to be calm and think positive thoughts. My family doesn't fully understand my fear, and they get angry (understandably) when I start bleaching everything when I could be helping.

Any advice, help, kind words would be much appreciated!

Chelsea.

[claire43]

Im so sorry you're under so much stress at the moment. Did your mother and brother actually v*?

You're doing all the right things with the cleaning etc, just keep that up and hopefully between that and your immune system you'll be fine.

[chelsealindsey89]

Im so sorry you're under so much stress at the moment. Did your mother and brother actually v*?

You're doing all the right things with the cleaning etc, just keep that up and hopefully between that and your immune system you'll be fine.

Yea, I'm pretty sure they did, with chills, etc.

[PhoenyxAngel]

Did you end up going to work? And I'm not really sure if this is a sv* or the flu. If it's the sv* and you wash your hands I think you should be fine, especially since the house got a good cleaning with bleach.

[asianeko]

I'm so sorry you're in this situation!

A few years ago 3/4 of my family had a bad bout of it. (I didn't know about emetophobia at the time, although I did suffer from it. I didn't know about handw ashing and the ways to prevent catching it.) My mother never caught it, even though she cleaned up after two children and her husband all day and night. She never wore gloves or anything. It definite IS possible for you to not catch anything!

[chelsealindsey89]

Thanks guys! I survived work yesterday, and I'm just telling myself that if I get through today, I'll be fine. What I've been doing is just coming home (not eating anything in our kitchen! I bought my own groceries for the next couple days!) and just taking a sleep aid and going to sleep. That is helping my anxiety a lot, just sleeping through the night.

[PhoenyxAngel]

How are you feeling? By now you should be in the clear

[chelsealindsey89]

How are you feeling? By now you should be in the clear

I'm fine! Thanks for all your help, guys!

[PhoenyxAngel]

I'm fine! Thanks for all your help, guys!

That's great! And that's what we're here for

[angelam199]

I'm so glad to hear that everything worked out for you here. That's such a great feeling, being in the clear. I'm currently in the situation you were recently, so I definitely know how you felt!
But glad to hear that you've stayed healthy!

[runner1998]

This bug sounds like the one that went thru my house right before Christmas. I was the one who started it. I think I caught it on public transportation. I woke up with a headache and felt "off" the whole day and sort of feverish. I ate very little; I had a few bouts of watery d* in the evening but no v* (I did take a Zofran because my stomach hurt; I was up all night feeling just plain yucky). About 36 hours later, my brother got it. He v* once but was shivering like crazy for a few hours. Then the day after that my other brother got it; he v* two or three times with the shivering. The next night, my mom came down with it. She had the shivering with d* and v* for about 24 hours.

The thing with this bug was you definitely felt yucky and off for awhile before the actual v* hit. If you felt yucky and didn't eat much (like I did), you didn't seem to get the v* or if you did it was very mild (like my brother who only got sick that one time after trying to eat something).

But my dad NEVER got it. And my dad is NOT AT ALL CAREFUL about hand washing. And he was around my mom A LOT when she was sick.

So no way is it inevitable you'll get it. I would also say if you haven't come down with it yet, you are safe and won't get it. Sounds like your bleaching worked. By the way, after my mom got sick, that's what I did: I bleached the bathroom and sprayed everything I could think of that she could have touched with Lysol. (Perhaps that's what saved my dad...)