Stomach Flu Hits RSM

I had seen a flurry of posts on our local social media of people saying that they had gotten food poisoning at one food establishment or another in town, but no one else was getting it, which seemed odd. Then last week my 20 year old daughter thought she had food poisoning, and all the symptoms sounded like it, I've had actual food poisoning several times, but she seemed to recover in about a day. Then tragedy struck, and I was hit a few days later in the middle of the night, clearly this wasn't food poisoning, it was in fact the stomach flu. It is important to note however that the stomach flu is not in fact a flu, so the flu shot will not do anything for it. What it is, is Viral Gastroenteritis and once you have it, there is nothing you can do but ride it out.

The stomach flu is high contagious and the virus can live for quite some time on things like doorknobs, the only way you can be sure to kill it is to wipe down with bleach. Expect to be flat out for a good 24 hours, and then the next 24 hours starting to recover, then after that you are mostly fine, just sore. There are many websites with tips on how to cope and recover, but I thought I'd like to this one as a reasonable resource. About the only thing you can do to try and avoid catching it, is make sure to wash your hands often, especially when using public doors, or use a paper towel to open them. If someone in your house gets it, make sure to wash all the clothes, towels and bedding and wipe down all your doors, toilet handles, refrigerator, microwave, TV remote, cell phone, etc., with a bleach based solution.

Stay healthy and enjoy the holidays.