What's this virus?

[PeterPan]

So we went to see my dad in assisted living this weekend, which is stressful in and of itself because it was a mess and we had to do a lot of cleaning. I had a HORRIBLE headache the next day, just figured that happens, and I was very cold and had to put on fleece, etc. I just figured it was still cold, which it is here. We only hit 70 yesterday, lol. Hit the gym that night, but didn't do my run because I was getting tired. Oh and Monday I slept like 4-6 hours extra. 

Tuesday my dh comes home with a stomach complaint, headache, body pain, and sleeps many hours. Wednesday we're both still dragging, and I couldn't go to the gym, just couldn't find the energy. I could walk and buy some plants at the store, but beyond that just not enough gump to work out. 

Last night chills again, and now I'm warm. Taking my temp now and it's 98.9, which is really just a little high. I mean I have thyroid problems and it probably runs a little low, just my guess. We're talking maybe 1 degree up at most, maybe only 1/2. But I sort of hurt all over (not really badly, just like a 3/4 out of 10). 

What in the fool world is this? Did I contract some kills you slowly in assisted living virus? It's not a 24 hour bug, not enough to do anything drastic, just enough that you're not yourself. No particular sinus symptoms, no nausea. You almost wouldn't think you're sick except that you hurt and are slow.

Any ideas? 

Uh oh, now it says 99.2. But what is it? It's not the flu, right? And I didn't have a noticeable fever the other days. Is it actually getting worse? I don't think I have spots, I can go check. 

What does Dr. Hive say? I probably better go take some more turmeric for my lungs. They're just a teeny tiny bit unhappy, which happens with my asthma when I get sick. I can go to pneumonia or bronchitis over a weekend. But really I've had that under control for a calendar year now, since last June. They gave me Tamiflu this winter and I beat the flu. This is just so different, sort of walking slow death, lol. What is it?

[Katy]

Our pediatrician's office said there is a GI bug going around.  If you have partial immunity you have symptoms like you, or just diarrhea for a week.  No immunity = full norovirus symptoms. DH has it slightly worse than me, I have symptoms like you, my biological children must have inherited immunity from me, but my adopted children are all SICK.  I'm guessing it's similar to one of the strains of norovirus I caught when I worked in nursing.

[PeterPan]

Oh, oh thank you!!! I forgot to mention Tuesday I had diarrhea. I couldn't figure out why. And you're right, I think ds and I got Norovirus a year or two ago when we went to Florida. We ended up in a clinic and got breathed on by every sick person for like 2 hours. It was awful. 

So yeah, that actually makes sense that I could be partially immune and ds completely and dh not at all. He wasn't with us for that trip. 

Well cool. Then I will just lay low. My workout person was like hello, where are you, and I'm like I know something is wrong and I can't figure it out! How long is this likely to last? Or just when my energy returns it's over? And did I really contract Norovirus at the assisted living? What would be the incubation. Awful. They have new ownership and nothing is quite as good as it used to be. They brought in a new managerial team to fix it, but if I got exposed to Norovirus there I'm not happy, wow.

[ashfern]

My 16 yo picked up something similar from school. She started feeling bad Tues night, was really bad yesterday with a headache & super tired, today she has headache & runny nose. She thinks she picked up something from school because she drank from the water fountain. The couple of times she's gotten sick it has been after she's used the water fountains at school.

[Katy]

1 hour ago, PeterPan said:

Oh, oh thank you!!! I forgot to mention Tuesday I had diarrhea. I couldn't figure out why. And you're right, I think ds and I got Norovirus a year or two ago when we went to Florida. We ended up in a clinic and got breathed on by every sick person for like 2 hours. It was awful. 

So yeah, that actually makes sense that I could be partially immune and ds completely and dh not at all. He wasn't with us for that trip. 

Well cool. Then I will just lay low. My workout person was like hello, where are you, and I'm like I know something is wrong and I can't figure it out! How long is this likely to last? Or just when my energy returns it's over? And did I really contract Norovirus at the assisted living? What would be the incubation. Awful. They have new ownership and nothing is quite as good as it used to be. They brought in a new managerial team to fix it, but if I got exposed to Norovirus there I'm not happy, wow.

 

Come to think of it it could also be a blood type thing.  I think some blood types are less likely to get stomach bugs than others.  I think A & AB are most susceptible, O is medium, B is likely to only get sick for 24 hours.

Someone at DH's work was out sick for a full week.  So I'd guess everyone will be completely recovered in 7-10 days.

And yes, norovirus is highly likely to be in assisted living and nursing facilities.  I worked in a hospital once that couldn't get rid of it until they switched away from new "green" environmentally friendly cleansers and switched back to bleach based products.  Now I use bleach too.  And it's easy to get. It's droplet, so walking in a public restroom as a toilet is being flushed might be enough. And I think the virus stays intact on surfaces for up to 3 weeks.  How fast it takes to develop depends on exposure.  It can be less than 24 hours, or if you only get a tiny amount I think it can take up to a week.  And you shed the virus before you have symptoms, so it spreads through families very quickly.

[PeterPan]

Oh my, well thanks for all that info. And yeah, my blood type is B+. Even with such a cheery bloodtype, I still seem to get sick the full length, lol.

Adding: just realized I was at the facility Friday and Saturday while dh was there only Saturday. So that could explain me a day ahead. 

Edited May 2, 2019 by PeterPan

[Guest]

4 hours ago, Katy said:

Our pediatrician's office said there is a GI bug going around.  If you have partial immunity you have symptoms like you, or just diarrhea for a week.  No immunity = full norovirus symptoms. DH has it slightly worse than me, I have symptoms like you, my biological children must have inherited immunity from me, but my adopted children are all SICK.  I'm guessing it's similar to one of the strains of norovirus I caught when I worked in nursing.

That’s me right now. Friday night (midnight) I got the acute part with vomitting and diarrhea. Saturday I felt like he walking dead and had a fever of 101. Ate nothing. Sunday, better but ate nothing. Monday better still but ate only a little food. I was seemingly back to good by Tuesday; had normal energy and ate normally. But midnight last night, I again had a committment with my toilet, and my stomach is very iffy today. I cleaned everything with disinfectant because I strongly suspect it is Norovirus. But I don’t know why I got the rebound effect. And I’m pretty amazed no-one else in my household has come down with the same. 

Last Wed I cleaned a rental of ours and the bathroom was legit DISGUSTING. I was wearing gloves, but I am not convinced I didn’t pick up the bug from that rental. 

[Ausmumof3]

Is it bad that I just wanna run and hide from you all?

it could also be a very mild dose of food poisoning.  I felt mildly off like this yesterday and we’d had supermarket hot roast chook the day before and it wasn’t as hot as it should be. 

[PeterPan]

1 hour ago, Quill said:

Last Wed I cleaned a rental of ours and the bathroom was legit DISGUSTING. I was wearing gloves, but I am not convinced I didn’t pick up the bug from that rental. 

Yup, it took me a while but that's what I pieced together. I used my dad's bathroom, and he had been sick. I called where he lives and they're gonna go in pronto. That might explain why he seems to keep having problems over and over, if they never really got it CLEAN.

5 minutes ago, Ausmumof3 said:

it could also be a very mild dose of food poisoning.  I felt mildly off like this yesterday and we’d had supermarket hot roast chook the day before and it wasn’t as hot as it should be. 

Well I had food poisoning once, and that was worse than childbirth, both ends constantly, really, really awful. And for as bad as it was it didn't last a lot of days. I don't recall how long. My dd called the national chain for the restaurant and I got this call from a manager right as I was starting to get well, lol. They sent me gift cards. 

But thanks for running, lol. My poor SIL did a double take and scooted out really quickly when I told her what I thought it was. And it wasn't like I went up to her, but she just starts backing out...

[Ausmumof3]

3 minutes ago, PeterPan said:

Yup, it took me a while but that's what I pieced together. I used my dad's bathroom, and he had been sick. I called where he lives and they're gonna go in pronto. That might explain why he seems to keep having problems over and over, if they never really got it CLEAN.

Well I had food poisoning once, and that was worse than childbirth, both ends constantly, really, really awful. And for as bad as it was it didn't last a lot of days. I don't recall how long. My dd called the national chain for the restaurant and I got this call from a manager right as I was starting to get well, lol. They sent me gift cards. 

But thanks for running, lol. My poor SIL did a double take and scooted out really quickly when I told her what I thought it was. And it wasn't like I went up to her, but she just starts backing out...

Lol I have this great visual!  I would be your sister in law I am paranoid of vomiting.

i know that’s what we typically think of as food poisoning but I have read stuff like listeria which is so bad for pregnant or immunocompromised people often presents as very mild nausea and a headache for healthy people so most often doesn’t get diagnosed because it’s just not “run to the doctor worthy”.  But of course the same can be true to for a viral infection - you can just have a super mild dose.

 

[PeterPan]

1 minute ago, Ausmumof3 said:

stuff like listeria

That's interesting. Not sure I ate anything healthy enough this weekend to get listeria, lol. Isn't that like on lettuce or something? And this has been almost a week now, as the symptoms began overtly Sunday night. 

When I called the nurse at the assisted living, her eyebrows went up. They definitely wanted to clean. 

[PeterPan]

9 minutes ago, Ausmumof3 said:

but I have read stuff like listeria

Ok, I was looking at this and listeria is a bacterium. Hmm. It should be 1-3 days. is there a test? I actually have a GP now. If I'm still running fevers and feeling like this tomorrow, maybe I give them a call. If there's a test, I'd rather do it than get worse over the weekend or something. 

Oh look, there's a stool test for norovirus. Gross. But how do you decide to test? I think if I'm any worse than today, I'd definitely need to test. It's kinda disconcerting to me that I'm worse today than I was yesterday. Or maybe I'm the same and just trying to do more? I had a meeting several hours yesterday, during which I probably shared my germs, oops. But I thought I was better, sigh. 

But yeah, if it's bacteria instead of a virus, I can go down. It's too late to call now I think, but I can call the doctor's office tomorrow. There's a practice with lots of docs and nurses, so I can get someone. 

Edited May 2, 2019 by PeterPan

[Ausmumof3]

5 minutes ago, PeterPan said:

That's interesting. Not sure I ate anything healthy enough this weekend to get listeria, lol. Isn't that like on lettuce or something? And this has been almost a week now, as the symptoms began overtly Sunday night. 

When I called the nurse at the assisted living, her eyebrows went up. They definitely wanted to clean. 

Yeah for sure you’re likely to know if you ate anything borderline.  Listeria has been found in all sorts of stuff, ham, cold meat, rockmelon, lettuce.  And it’s not the only bug that way.  I fell down a rabbit hole once when the kids were sick reading up on all the different possible causes.  Heck you can even get viral illness like Noro from food if the food handler has it!  So many ways to get sick it’s easy to get a little OCD about it all.

[PeterPan]

Just now, Ausmumof3 said:

Yeah for sure you’re likely to know if you ate anything borderline.

I'll go look up the incubation. When I got food poisoning, it was FAST. Like I ate the food and on the way home knew something was wrong and was SICK, doggone sick, like never wanna be that sick again sick.

 

[Ausmumof3]

4 minutes ago, PeterPan said:

Ok, I was looking at this and listeria is a bacterium. Hmm. It should be 1-3 days. is there a test? I actually have a GP now. If I'm still running fevers and feeling like this tomorrow, maybe I give them a call. If there's a test, I'd rather do it than get worse over the weekend or something. 

Oh look, there's a stool test for norovirus. Gross. But how do you decide to test? I think if I'm any worse than today, I'd definitely need to test. It's kinda disconcerting to me that I'm worse today than I was yesterday. Or maybe I'm the same and just trying to do more? I had a meeting several hours yesterday, during which I probably shared my germs, oops. But I thought I was better, sigh. 

But yeah, if it's bacteria instead of a virus, I can go down. It's too late to call now I think, but I can call the doctor's office tomorrow. There's a practice with lots of docs and nurses, so I can get someone. 

I think dh had something where they wanted to test - it was over 7 days.  In the end I think they gave him a dose of antibiotics even though the test didn’t show anything or maybe he wussed out and just took the antibiotics and never did the test I can’t remember now.  But I’m pretty sure anything over a week is the guide.

[PeterPan]

1 minute ago, Ausmumof3 said:

But I’m pretty sure anything over a week is the guide.

Thanks, sounds like Monday is when I'd call the doc if I'm not on the mend.

[Jaybee]

There is a weird virus going around here that I hope we are able to avoid. I don't know all the symptoms, but have friends suffering from it. It involves fever, general "off" feeling, headaches, and zero energy. It's been 3-4 days so far. They think they feel better, then they crash again.

[PeterPan]

17 hours ago, Jaybee said:

There is a weird virus going around here that I hope we are able to avoid. I don't know all the symptoms, but have friends suffering from it. It involves fever, general "off" feeling, headaches, and zero energy. It's been 3-4 days so far. They think they feel better, then they crash again.

Oh my. Well the doc's office wanted me to come in when I called, so I have an appointment. If I just get told it's a virus, it will feel like a waste of money. But it's really odd. And yeah that's how it was, a little better after a couple days and then worse, just dragging on. So I guess I'll go in and get told to tough it out, lol.

[Kanin]

Hope you start perking up soon. This mystery illness sounds miserable! 

[Terabith]

What did the dr's office say?

[PeterPan]

2 hours ago, Terabith said:

What did the dr's office say?

I ended up canceling the appointment. I started to perk up, the fever broke, and I didn't want to pay $90 to be told I'm getting better. I rested the rest of the day and was able to go buy some more flowers and plants tonight, so hopefully I'm on the mend. Dh however is a couple days behind me and he's a total mess, very miserable. 

We'll see. Whatever this bug is, it's persistent. I'll definitely go in Monday if I'm still running fevers and not on the mend. That will have been a full week.