Down with the sickness
Explicit descriptions of vomit and diarrhea coming up. You have been warned!
Monday night my nephew said he wasn’t feeling well. I could tell he was genuine because he went to bed early without trying to sneakily play on his ipad. An hour later he threw up a small bucket load all over the sofa that he sleeps on, that big chunky vomit where you can tell what someone had for dinner. He was sitting in it looking miserable, before I finally convinced him to take a shower while I scooped the worst of it into a pan and removed the duvet and sofa cover. He slept on the other sofa. I decided to put the duvet and cover in the washing machine right then and there before the sick stains could seep into them, and therefore stayed up later into the night while two wash loads completed themselves so I could hang them out to dry.
My parents phoned the following morning (it was my birthday) and my dad, who knows about these things because he ran his own business training food factory staff in food hygiene, said it could be norovirus and suggested we disinfect all the door handles, taps and light switches.
I did so, but alas it was not enough, because come Thursday morning I was suddenly pissing out of my ass. After several visits to the toilet I was hoping I might have got the worst of it out. I went to the doctors who just gave me the standard medicine (Korean doctors will prescribe you a course of three different pills daily for a mere cold) and was told I should be OK.
I messaged the head teacher at my school to say I had been ill but I was coming in as I’d probably be OK. She must have told her manager, as she phoned my wife (the manager is fine with English but perhaps wished to talk to someone in Korean) and advised I take the day off, messaging me soon after that ‘Health is the most important’.
It was a refreshing change from the usual ‘can you still come in even though you’re sick’ Korean work culture, and 100% was the correct decision. Soon after I had the chills and was puking and shitting my guts out, though by that point it wasn’t much more than water coming out. I feel naïve that I’d been planning on going to work earlier that day. That would have been a disaster!
I rested well, and didn’t eat anything all day until one piece of bread in the evening. I definitely lost weight, though I suspect that’s mostly from evacuating my digestive system, and it got me googling “how much of human body weight is feces”.
Unfortunately, my niece came down with the same thing yesterday evening, and was puking up. She said she felt well enough for school this morning, despite my suggestions that it was fine to stay home if she needed to. I was back at work today and feeling much better.
I promise my next post will be less gross!
Monday night my nephew said he wasn’t feeling well. I could tell he was genuine because he went to bed early without trying to sneakily play on his ipad. An hour later he threw up a small bucket load all over the sofa that he sleeps on, that big chunky vomit where you can tell what someone had for dinner. He was sitting in it looking miserable, before I finally convinced him to take a shower while I scooped the worst of it into a pan and removed the duvet and sofa cover. He slept on the other sofa. I decided to put the duvet and cover in the washing machine right then and there before the sick stains could seep into them, and therefore stayed up later into the night while two wash loads completed themselves so I could hang them out to dry.
My parents phoned the following morning (it was my birthday) and my dad, who knows about these things because he ran his own business training food factory staff in food hygiene, said it could be norovirus and suggested we disinfect all the door handles, taps and light switches.
I did so, but alas it was not enough, because come Thursday morning I was suddenly pissing out of my ass. After several visits to the toilet I was hoping I might have got the worst of it out. I went to the doctors who just gave me the standard medicine (Korean doctors will prescribe you a course of three different pills daily for a mere cold) and was told I should be OK.
I messaged the head teacher at my school to say I had been ill but I was coming in as I’d probably be OK. She must have told her manager, as she phoned my wife (the manager is fine with English but perhaps wished to talk to someone in Korean) and advised I take the day off, messaging me soon after that ‘Health is the most important’.
It was a refreshing change from the usual ‘can you still come in even though you’re sick’ Korean work culture, and 100% was the correct decision. Soon after I had the chills and was puking and shitting my guts out, though by that point it wasn’t much more than water coming out. I feel naïve that I’d been planning on going to work earlier that day. That would have been a disaster!
I rested well, and didn’t eat anything all day until one piece of bread in the evening. I definitely lost weight, though I suspect that’s mostly from evacuating my digestive system, and it got me googling “how much of human body weight is feces”.
Unfortunately, my niece came down with the same thing yesterday evening, and was puking up. She said she felt well enough for school this morning, despite my suggestions that it was fine to stay home if she needed to. I was back at work today and feeling much better.
I promise my next post will be less gross!