A month surrounded by noro
Hi, I don't know what's been going on with my family, but I feel like it's unusual and I wanted to get a few opinions. You might want to avoid reading all of this if you're particularly sensitive to your phobia. I apologize if this is a bit long, too, but it's been a ridiculous month!
At the beginning of February, a coworker who sits directly behind me all day long called out because his son was home with what was presumably norovirus. From what I'd heard by phone, things were pretty bad there. However, up until this point, I was aware that stomach bugs like the rotavirus tended to infect children the most and are highly contagious in places like schools, so I didn't think too much of it, since I don't have young children myself and am never around them. My coworker came back to work the next day and I was ready to move on, but the following day -- February 8th, I think -- he called out again, this time because he had come down with the virus himself, as had his wife and other child. On Monday morning, I got to hear all the pleasant details and how it was the worst thing that any of them had ever experienced. Needless to say, I was freaked out, because we're in pretty close contact, and he touches the same surfaces and doorknobs that I do.
He assured me that he was fully recovered and that if I'd been exposed by him on Thursday, I would have shown symptoms by then. I tried to avoid touching the same doorknobs and washed my hands a lot just in case. A few days went by and things seemed to have gotten back to normal, so I had all but forgotten about what had happened and chalked it up to his sons being very young, highly contagious kids who tended to get those kinds of things and spread them to their parents. Suddenly, it's February 15th -- the following Friday -- and my sister is crying and screaming at 6 in the morning, waking up the entire house because she's been v* for three hours. She works with small children herself, so even though I was way more freaked out by this point than the prior week, I still naively assumed that it had to have come from them. Needless to say, I got out of the house as quickly as I could that morning and went into work, now completely obsessed with making sure that I washed my hands thoroughly and avoided touching whatever I could. I also made sure not to touch my face.
Eight hours later and my sister was feeling much better. The weekend came and went, and after frantically Googling for information on norovirus for days, I started to think by around Monday night that, because it had been more than 48 hours since she'd recovered, the rest of the family was in the clear. Besides, my sister lives all the way in the basement and my parents made sure to quarantine her until at least Sunday. No one shared cups or utensils, everyone washed their hands until they were red, and we bleached pretty much everything that we could.
As all of this was happening, I went overboard and started using napkins and paper towels to open doors or turn on sink faucets. By Tuesday, February 19th, I was ready to drop this habit and get on with life, but right before bed, I found out that my dad was suddenly incredibly sick with the same bug. He went through more or less the same hell as my sister, but stopped in time for me to be able to get some sleep. My initial suspicion was that he'd gotten it from my sister by handling her cups. He had been the one to get closest to her during this time, but he later told me that at a funeral that he'd gone to, he shook a lot of hands and probably touched his face a few times afterward. The virus hit him almost exactly 24 hours after the funeral, so the events seemed to match up. Having two separate sources bring norovirus into my house within four days seemed highly unlikely, but with my coworker's whole family getting sick the week before, I was now starting to get the impression that this was a really bad year.
Somehow, for the next week, my mom and I managed to avoid getting it from my dad. We continued to bleach all surfaces throughout the house, as well as light switches, faucet handles, and the toilet flusher. We bleached the shower and bathroom floors as well. My mom even washed my dad's clothes in bleach at the highest possible temperature. Surely, after seven days and so much bleaching and handwashing, we had to have been in the clear.
But that next Tuesday, February 26th, I was unpleasantly awoken by the sound of my mom going from both ends at 5 in the morning. I know that norovirus can live for up to two weeks on surfaces, so I was wondering by this point if bleaching just wasn't enough. Either we'd missed a contaminated surface somewhere, or the bleach solution was killing most of the virus particles, but not enough for our efforts to actually do anything. I was incredibly scared now. Unlike before, where half the house had been quarantined and we were being proactive to avoid the other half getting the virus, I was now the only person who hadn't gotten it yet, and everyone seemed to be getting it much longer after the standard 48 hour waiting period that I'd been reading so much about. It almost seemed like the virus was waiting for its "turn" with me with these week-later developments beginning to form a pattern.
When my sister first got this thing on February 15th, I was prepared to wait it out for two weeks and then breathe a sigh of relief once the time had passed. When my dad got it on February 19th, I had to push that two week period back a bit. When my mom got it on February 26th, the two week period had to be pushed back yet again to March 12th. On the other hand, I'd managed to successfully avoid getting it from my dad, so why would it be any different for me avoiding getting it from my mom? Maybe if I just waited another seven days until the following Tuesday, the virus would finally be out of my house -- or at least not on any surfaces anymore -- and life would return to normal. Plus, my mom had let my dad's dirty blankets that he'd been touching while vomiting sit for days and when she finally got around to disposing of them, she probably did so without washing her hands and then let the blankets touch her clothes. This happened on Sunday night and she was sick just over 30 hours later, so maybe I really was in the clear after all, since I was still pretty isolated, whereas my mom was more actively trying to tidy things up.
So my mom was going from both ends for about eight hours or so on Tuesday, but has been feeling progressively better since then. Fast forward to tonight and suddenly, she has d* again. I've only heard her go twice and she hasn't v* again yet, but it's only been about an hour and is too early to tell what's going to happen next. I guess March 12th would be too early of a date to declare the virus being eradicated from the house if it doesn't go away until two weeks after symptoms disappear. If they really do disappear by tomorrow morning for her, the two week period is now going to end on March 16th or 17th instead of the 12th.
I should also mention that two or three other coworkers have come down with norovirus over the last three weeks or so, and my mom's boss also had it, so it's absolutely everywhere, which is a first in my life.
So my question is: When is this going to end? This has been the most insane, slow, drawn out series of events in my life, and I'm going nuts. I've been holing myself up in my room with the door shut, still washing my hands constantly, trying never to touch my face, and making sure that we're not getting lazy with the bleaching. I really don't want to have to sit and wait in agony wondering when I'm going to get sick until March 17th or later. Any advice? Do I just forget all of this and get on with life, or is there more that I can do? Has anyone had any similar experiences? It sounds like everyone here whose family runs into the virus comes down with it within 72 hours of the first person, then after a 48 hour waiting period, whoever took the necessary precautions always comes out fine. Well, it's been almost a month for me, and every four or five days after a horrible event related to norovirus hits the house, some new development takes places that makes me think that I'm going to have to keep avoiding my face and using paper towels to open doors for weeks to come.
Help!
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Originally Posted by jkl81
