That wasn’t fun at all. I went to bed last night, and then at 11, like a magical evil switch being flipped, I was suddenly vomiting. I was puking all night long. Even worse was the diarrhea. I was so incapacitated that I was just lying in my slimy filthy effluvia all night as my gastrointestinal tract tried to turn itself inside out with peristalsis.
The heaving subsided by morning, but I was exhausted, barely able to think or move, and my wife told me I needed to go into urgent care right away. I said no, I’m too tired. She said yes and chivvied me out to the car and got me checked in. Good thing she did, too: my blood pressure was 60/40. That was an odd experience, to be so low on energy that I could barely move and not even interested in moving.
The doctors pumped me full of IV fluids and finally let me go home when my bp was 106/70.
I missed today’s class, I’m hoping to make it to lab tomorrow.
The lesson learned: have a partner who can kick you into gear when your engine isn’t ticking over, and who is willing to do the most disgusting load of laundry I’ve ever seen.
Dear PZ, that is distressing. Please take good care of yourself. What caused it? Were you severely dehydrated? Will it recur?
If that happened to me, I’d want to get good answers to all those question. Did the doctors answer those questions? If not, they just put a little bandaid on what could be a serious problem.
I know you had a lot of clean up work to do in the lab. Can you recruit some students to help with that? It sounded like you had a short deadline to get it all done.
Sounds like norovirus.
@ #3 Reginald Selkirk
I agree—speaking from experience.
You feel like death could not come quickly enough.
Sounds like a perfectly rational response to US politics at the moment.
Sounds like we oughta not be on your mind at all, and yet…
Get Well Soon!
You’ve sure had a bit of a shitty run recently, PZ.
I know it’s kinda hard cooking for just 2 people; many leftovers are consumed.
(Hopefully, it was just a spot of food poisoning, not something chronic)
Oof…
I can sympathize, been there.
I wish you a rapid recovery, and props for getting someone smarter than yourself to marry you.
“You go, Mary Myers!!!”
(h/t Tina F.)
Aaaaarghh. The kind of horror when you would genuinely welcome death. Yeah. Been there. I would sacrifice a limb or two if it would keep me safe from future horrors like this.
Stay safe. Stay at home.
As bad as it sounds hopefully this is a pathogenic thing that quickly resolves and not a sign of something chronic. PZ hasn’t revealed if cause has been established.
The sickest I recall being was after stupidly eating fried chicken from a gas station. I was at a point where death would have been a very welcome relief.
I recently got over the flu. My lower back is tweaking kinda badly today. Both are a walk in the park compared to PZ’s ordeal. Good to have an SO looking out for you.
Oh PZ, take it easy, that BP is still bad, you shouldn’t be teaching yet,
What a drag it is getting old.
Get well-er soon.
I have had such a night once in my life. For me the worst part was realizing that I was NOT ABLE TO CONTROL how the fluids and solids were leaving my body. No control, by which i mean, even if I was 3 feet from the toilet, I realized I wouldn’t be able to get there in time.
So I wrapped a towel around my crotch, got a couple more in reserve, and spent the rest of the night spewing and then doing laundry. Worse yet, I was staying with my younger brother in his brand-new BNB suite!
Glad that you are stabilized and no longer are in an acute stage. Perhaps a blood pressure machine for the home is in order?
My caregiver husband buries my clothes when my cancer treatment gives me similar symptoms.
Diet that may help, nothing fried, low fat, homemade applesauce (just juicy peeled, cored, chunked apples like granny Smith, a bit of water, cooked until soft), bananas, toast, overcooked white rice, short grain is nice, poached chicken breast no diary, veggies and fruits must be cooked, except for bananas, sip water through a straw, no gulping, you need to rehydrate.
In worst case, drink water with salt and sugar so the body can aquire the essentialls even if you vomit. I think packages with suitable mixtures are available in pharmacies.
60/40 is not good. I hope they’re watching your kidney function. Might want to reduce or withhold antihypertensives for a few days.
You read their mind. That low blood pressure was what worried my doctors most, so they pumped me full of IV fluids, and they went through my usual medication list and crossed off 3 of them and told me not to take them for a while.
I do have a sphygmomanometer at home, and checked my bp this morning: 120/60. I can live with that. 60/40 put me into zombie mode.
What we want here is MAP greater 65 mmHg. Like, always. https://www.mdcalc.com/calc/74/mean-arterial-pressure-map
@18 120/60 is young man’s territory – Go PZ!
Might be a good time to take adult pedialyte or equivalent.