From warp speed to a screeching halt.
Just after I posted on Sunday night about our frenzy of recent apartment-related activity, and as we were getting ready for bed, I came down with the worst gastrointestinal bug I've ever had in my entire life. I think it had been brewing all day, as I hadn't felt "right" and had very low energy. Not to be indelicate (feel free to leave the room now if you've got a weak stomach!), but there's no other way to say it: I spent the entire night from 10:30pm hopping between the toilet and the sofa 5 feet away, about every 5 minutes or 10. And that is no exaggeration. The longest pause I had was probably only 30 minutes between trips. And I had it coming out both ends, as they say, which meant I was doubly miserable.
Finally about 5:45am, I woke Georges up and asked him to call the SOS Médecins, the house-call doctor service, because by that time I had tried Pepto Bismol, Immodium and the French remedy Smecta (my least favorite because it's a powder you dissolve in water, and I hate the taste, but it's usually very effective). And nothing was working. It just wouldn't stop. Plus I knew I'd never make it the short 5-minute walk down the hill to my regular doctor's office later in the morning, and Georges would need to go to the pharmacy for me before he went to work.
And we were fast running out of toilet paper.
So the doctor came about an hour later, a Dr. Grumpy-Pants (I suspect this is his natural personality, but maybe he was just tired from being up all night seeing people like me), who after determining I had no fever and no pain in my abdomen, thus ruling out appendicitis (I could have told him that), told me I had a "bad gastro" that is very contagious and has been going around. He wrote me 4 prescriptions (one for Tylenol in case of fever, but I've been using it for a low-grade headache that I think is a result of spending too much time lying down, which isn't good for my back) and instructed us to do the basics like wash our hands a lot and clean the WC with bleach. Which I was doing already anyway.
Now it's a day later. And this damn bug just does NOT want to quit. There is some improvement -- I'm no longer vomiting thanks to an anti-nausea pill -- and I did get some sleep last night, but from 4:30 to about 6:30 it was another bunch of round trips to the toilet. I have now dropped a total of about 7 lbs since Sunday. OK that's nice but this is NOT the way to lose weight! I ate a total of 2 bananas during the day yesterday plus a few bites of steak and some white rice for dinner (the doctors here always recommend bananas, rice and carrots when trying to get over a gastro, but so far they don't seem to be having much effect, either).
So all my plans to be out shopping for goodies for the new apartment on are hold at least another day. The doctor said it might take 3 days for this to run its course and I should just stay in bed or on the couch. Ugh. Now we're just trying to keep Georges healthy; he was already sick once last month, even missing a day of work, and that was bad enough. Luckily the Little Guy is off on school holidays with his mom, so we don't have to worry about him catching it. And I'll have time to get better before I take him to Saint Raphael next week to visit my sister-in-law.
I'm just so grateful to have Georges around. He's very comforting, not in the least put off by someone being sick (I guess after you raise 3 kids you can handle just about anything) and it's better to be sick and miserable with someone you love by your side, than sick all on your own. He takes very good care of me.
Now if only this gurgling in my tummy would STOP. So that I can SHOP.
