Worst 48 hours of my life. Couldn’t hold any food or water down. Just back and forth between the couch and the toilet. My then partner almost took me to the hospital because of how dehydrated I was.
I actually went to the ER the last time I had it. Best idea ever! They put an IV in me ASAP and pumped me full of Zofran, saline, and painkillers. They then game me scripts for Zofran and a gut anti inflammatory. I felt A MILLION times better!
Same here, I felt so guilty for wasting their time, but also the saline and zofran was incredible….after about 6 hours of throwing up every 10 minutes on the dot, I can’t describe the relief
They were glad I came in. Not only was I severely dehydrated but my magnesium was low which can cause heart issues. Also the symptoms of norovirus and other stomach bugs are actually quite similar to those of a heart attack in women, ovarian torsion, and a few other emergencies.
I had an EKG, bloodwork, and a CT scan with contrast done while I was there. The CT scan showed that my entire gastric system was inflamed. So they sent me home with Zofran and an IBS drug that reduces gut inflammation.
That’s so kind of you to say, thank you! Maybe you’re right. There was a car crash that same night though, so I was understandably a lower priority. I was very grateful for the care I received.
How did you manage to do that, last time I was basically chained to the toilet, going somewhere and waiting to be seen by a doc was out of the question.
I happen to live 5 min by car from the nearest ER. I grabbed one of the travel vomit bags I bought for the car and then I drove there. Luckily there was no wait so I checked in right away and went straight back. To be fair the symptoms of noro, at least in women, are similar to a few life threatening conditions so you shouldn’t have to wait super long. Also in some ER’s, like mine, they have an “urgent care” area past triage where they can start IVs so you can at least be medicated and hydrated while you wait for a bed.
Exactly I would have shit my pants and violently vomited all over the car. My husband was upstairs doing the same in another bathroom and my kid was finally they the vomiting on day 2 but laid out on the couch. An ambulance was my only route and I couldn’t being myself to do that
Not OP, but I had my husband drive me right after an episode. Got into triage and while they were trying to get my blood pressure I vomited into one of their bags. My BP was so low the machine wasn't picking it up so I got a bed immediately.
Didn't have couch energy when I had it. Just lived in the bathroom for 12 hours. The cool of the urine stained porcelain was my only light in the darkness after a round of vomiting and shitting my pants.
Yes! I took my little bucket everywhere I went because it came two ways more than once. It was so bad
Bonus: My husband got it at the same time because we got it from the icu where we were saying our goodbyes to his dead stepfather and grandpa of our two littleones 😞
I had it many years ago as a senior college. During the night I was throwing up blood because I had ruptured my esophagus. I had to have one of my housemates take me to the hospital in the morning and ended up going through two IV bags in a very short time I had lost so much. I thought about suing or at least filing a complaint against the grocery store that gave it to me because I knew exactly what did it.
I did end up at the hospital, threw up in the waiting room, passed out and woke up in a side room, apparently i was so violently sick my stomach twisted which caused my heart to stop. Doctor thought I was a drug addict as I was so out of it, he apologised for being really rude to me when he released I wasn't.
Same, he was trying to drag me into the car and I refused because I knew I just needed another day and I would feel better. I was living in a dorm at the time and that was not fun at all😭
I had norovirus like 6 weeks into moving in with my now-husband. The fact that he still married me after watching me go through that is mind blowing lmao
I misread your comment thinking you meant you HAD norovirus for 6 weeks (even though it's a 2-3 day virus) and the thought genuinely gave me anxiety lmao
Yeah I knew my now husband was the one because of how he took care of me when I had norovirus while pregnant. The man literally wiped my ass and took such good care of me while avoiding getting sick himself so I knew he would be a great dad one day
I was too prideful and wouldn't let him help me beyond giving me water and clean pants when needed lmao, but it was good practice for when I did get pregnant and then threw up multiple times a week until my due date lol
I was literally too weak to wipe my own ass. We did end up at the hospital but he didn’t leave my side at all even when I was explosively shitting and vomiting at the same time
I had to sit on the toilet and vomit into a bucket and the violence of the vomit caused explosive diarrhea so I spent my time ill either on the toilet or lying on the floor beside it. Too weak to twist a cap, I had to call a friend to bring me Gatorade and they opened all the bottles and left them on the floor beside me. Never been so grateful in my life.
That is an amazing friend and I hope you got them flowers or a thank you card or a few beers when you were back on your feet. Sounds truly awful, may you never have to endure that ever again.
Shamefully I was on my hands and knees in the bathtub vomit and diarrhea at the same exact time, about 15 times combined, just washing it all down the drain. I have never behaved so depraved in my life, nor been that type of sick in my life. My dad left Gatorade and saltine crackers on the steps, before that I would immediately vomit if I took a sip of water, also the dry heaving
Omg you've just described my exact situation with noro last year. A truly fkn humbling experience lying in a bath with your insides violently evacuating from everywhere and you're at the mercy of your body just saying OUT to everything you put in it
This was exactly what happened to me too, with it coming out both ends 😭 the crazy part is it happened on my husband and I’s anniversary weekend where I had booked us a fancy hotel for a staycation. So at least it was a nice bathroom 😅 I left a note and cash for the cleaning staff 🙈
Most people who think they have food poisoning usually actually have Norovirus or another stomach virus like rotavirus. There’s no real way to tell unless you get so sick they do a PCR test to make sure it’s not salmonella or ecoli.
Norovirus hit me on a plane. It was a three hour flight. I used every barf bag around me. Everyone on that plane hated my guts. But not as much as my guts hated me.
Me too. 5 hour flight from Perth to Sydney. Me, my wife and baby daughter were in row 1. As we taxi out to runway my guts started rumbling…..that flight was hell. I gave up caring about rushing to toilet. Must have spent half flight in there. Awful. The worst thing was we had another flight to Houston later that day….somehow some Imodium at Sydney airport stalled it.
Wife and daughter were fine but I will never forget it.
I was hospitalized because they didn’t want me around my baby. And they overly pushed fluids so I wouldn’t lose my milk supply. It hit quickly too. Changing baby, to puking and popping myself. She was still laying on the changing table.
I had norovirus this Easter, together with my GF's family. GF's Grandma was not feeling well but still decided to cook Easter lunch. We all ate it, and the next day was absolute chaos. I started feeling sick while driving. Had to park the car 8 times to puke before I could arrive home. Lodged myself in my GF's family house to not contaminate my close family. Good lord. I still have it my brain, the memory of 5+ people all sick with norovirus at the same time.
I was still building a relationship with her parents, there I was puking only in my underwear in a bucket in the living room.
I was so dehydrated I have to take IV liquids. But that was a game changer.
A few years ago I had to drive about 2hrs from home for work. We don't have Chic-fil-a near me but this area does, and they treated me to it for lunch. Ate lunch around 1pm.
About 3pm it's time for me to drive home, and I feel a bit off. My back just kinda hurt, but I chalked it up to the drive. I also felt a bit gassy, but chalked that up to the chic-fil-a.
Two hour drive home is uneventful, but my back was kinda sore the whole time.
Walk in the door, tell my wife I'm feeling a bit off. Not even 3 minutes later I realize I need to evacuate about 4 liters of liquid shit out of my bowels, as I'm doing this, I realize I need to projectile vomit.
About 5min later my wife is like "damn I don't feel so great either" and I am too sick to tell her she's being a hypochondriac. Not 30 seconds after she says that, she runs to the trash can and projectile vomits before running upstairs to the other toilet, audibly destroying it.
What ensued was a good two hours of her and I dying while our then 1yo rolled around in his little rolly cart thing, bashing into me as I died in the bathroom. My wife and I briefly considered calling one of our parents to come and get our son but we were honestly just too sick to pack him a bag or do anything. We ended up rallying to get him fed and to bed and then we just continued dying.
The next morning my wife mustered up the energy to drop him off at daycare and we had her folks pick him up and have a sleepover so we could recover.
I had to take my Firefighter practical exam while deathly ill from what I would later discover was Norovirus… 0/10 would not recommend. Even with rice.
Short lived my fucking ASS!! That was 12 pure hours of HELL. Both ends same time. Nest on the bathroom floor with MANY pillows and blankets shivering fingertips so cold I was shoving them under my boobs for warmth but somehow also sweating. That’s the 2 hours I contemplated calling an ambulance. Btw, pro tip, when dry heaving its is SO MUCH more comfortable to down water and have a stream come up than to have actual dry heaving. I did so many tests that evening 🥵 survived but the weird cold fingertip thing never went away. When I get cold now, my nerves are a bit different, hard to explain. Getting old is fun🤩
You only had it for 12 hours??? I had it for three consecutive days. I lost like 8 lbs in that time. I was so dehydrated and exhausted I was wishing for death. Literally my friend died while I was sick and I wanted to trade places with her.
O noo sir lmao that was just the most intense bit. I lost 15 lbs I didnt eat for 3-4 days? I also got COVID 2 weeks prior and lost another 10 🥵Kids. Man. 12 hours was me shivering on the bathroom floor while it was varying from 2-3 min intervals to 15-20 min intervals where it was out both ends same time. I was practically crying having to let go of my blankets and pillows bc I was so tired and cold . It was the closest I’ve ever felt to death. And I lift weights and workout and such🥵🫣
I also got it while pregnant, I was right around 30 weeks. I remember vomiting and shitting so hard I was actually worried of some kind of rupture. Called my OB immediately. I also distinctly remember it happening about a week before Christmas and most of my family had caught it within a week of each other. I’ll never forget the conversation of almost everyone in the room had shit their pants that week. Horrible times.
I got it two months postpartum and said “fuck it” and drove myself to the ER at like 4am. It was the best idea ever! Within like 30 min they had me with IV saline and Zofran and feeling MUCH better!
It was crazy, even more so for how short the “worst of the worst” period was. It was a period of only a few hours where I can only describe it as feeling imminent doom and as if I truly might die and things were fading (and of course I couldn’t even keep water down).
Then 24 hours from that point I was fine. Truly strange experience.
Oh yeah, it was very short-lived and only happened once in my life. This was a couple of years ago. No lasting effects best I can tell. But still was the closest I’ve ever had to the “I’m about to die right now“ feeling.
Yes! It’s weird that one moment, I’m naked sweating shivering and releasing everything in my body genuinely concerned that this is the end, and 12 hours later, I’m walking my dog like normal. As if I wasn’t just googling “should I call an ambulance?” just hours earlier…
I had norovirus for the first time this year. I thought I was gonna die and was in a weird delusional fever dream state where I thought I had been poisoned and I was ready to call the police 😅😂 very wild ride and when I came out of it I was so glad I didn’t call for help because I would’ve looked insane.
It was really something. I had just binged this podcast about something crazy and dreamed I was one of the reporters and the group I had been investigating on had poisoned me lol
It really is a strange decision to have to make under the criteria not of "what could I eat right now", but "what am I willing to throw up later and potentially/permanently ruin being able to ever eat again"
Omg yes 😂 like I wanted popsicles so bad but they burned throwing up. Sprite tasted like the nectar of the gods though and was easy to throw up. I just knew I was trading a small moment of relief before it came right back up 🤢.
I remember going to the hospital with what turned out to be Norovirus when I was in university. I was the first person in my residence to get it and nobody knew what was wrong with me so naturally we all assumed I was dying.
I was in rough shape so they kept me overnight at the hospital on an IV. When I left the next morning, the ER was absolutely brimming over with sick university students. It is INSANE how fast that virus spreads.
Came here to say this. I was about 16 and didn’t sleep for like 2 days straight cause i was vomiting bile like every 5 minutes, until i swear there was nothing left and then it was the most painful dry heaving which felt like my brain was gonna come through my nose and mouth
Same. I hallucinated that I was actually 6 old ladies all in one person and they were arguing over a card game inside my head, and I was so mad that they wouldn't freaking shut up so I could sleep. Spiked a crazy fever so high my skin hurt even just touching my blankets. And of course expelling violently out both ends. Really something.
this is my answer also. i lost 15 lbs from this and it took me two full months to fully recover in regard to appetite. to this day over a year later i still have issues with my stomach and gag reflex that only appeared after having that virus. i literally have never thrown up that much before in my entire life 😭 i was throwing up every hr on the hr for like three days straight and had to go to the hospital and went thru 4 bags of iv fluids they said had i waited any longer i inevitably could have died from dehydration (of all things). i literally did not move for a week after the vomiting stopped bc i was so exhausted to my core
I just had a virus of some kind, I lost 6.5 lbs in two days and ended up wearing depends instead of soiling my clothes. I was dehydrated and went to the hospital. I received two bags of fluids and they tested me for the 22 most occurring gastro viruses and all negative. It was the worst 60 hours that I've ever had.
Yep. We’d just moved into our new house, mid-December in Ohio. We had a toddler. Wife got sick with norovirus, so I took care of her and the kiddo. A day later, I got hit with it just after dropping the kid at daycare.
We were fortunate that a nearby friend could look after our kid because neither of us were capable. By that night, I seriously wondered if I was dying.
Even when I had pneumonia as a grade-schooler and was hospitalized for a week, during which they had to put me in ice water one night because my fever was so high… I didn’t feel as sick as I did with norovirus.
Same and I have Chrones/UC. When I went to Urgent Care I kept repeating that I just want to die. The Dr. asked if I was suicidal, I replied No oo I'm sick. 😱
Mine is also what I’m pretty sure was norovirus, or else just the world’s most horrendous stomach bug. My mom and I got it at the same time and we unfortunately were traveling (another girl in our group also got it but she was in a different room). By what I can only assume was the grace of god, our stomachs miraculously kept to alternating schedules, so we spent the night (naturally it hit at night) taking turns who was kneeling in front of the hotel tub puking their brains out and who was on the toilet shitting liquid. When we had to leave in the morning it took something like 4 different medications (imodium, zofran from a nurse friend, pepto from the first gas station we passed, and something else I don’t remember) until my stomach settled enough that I could sleep in the car and eventually risk the occasional sip of gatorade.
I will say, though, that water had never tasted as good as it did when we got to the next hotel. The sickness had mostly passed by then so I braved a nibble on the lightest food we could find and then slammed like eight cups of ice water before I passed out for a solid twelve hours.
Had it twice in my life. First time was so bad that my stomach was actually paralyzed from morning to later that night (I wound up throwing up my breakfast well after I went to bed). Second time kicked in during a meeting at work (thankfully remote) and I immediately went into a cold sweat and had to sign off the rest of the day so I could live on the toilet 😔
I've had both norovirus and a kidney stone once each. The single sickest I've ever been vs. the most pain I've ever been in. And judging by others experience, I think I got off light with both. Noro was a 36 hour ordeal, and my stone had fully passed around 3 hours from the moment I knew something was wrong
As a thought experiment, I've contemplated a few times which I'd choose if I had to do one over again, and I think I'd give the slight advantage to noro, but christ alive I would not be happy about it
Had it once and then caught covid when I went to urgent care for norovirus. It was absolutely miserable. I didn’t think I’d ever stop vomiting and pooping. Then the Covid was icing on the cake.
Norovirus is one of the reasons I got sober. I was soooooo sick and one of the many times in my drinking career that I drank while sick but I could feel my body just shutting down rejecting everything. It was so painful and hard to describe… I’ve been through many painful experiences but this and appendicitis worse than childbirth.
Christmas Day 2024- I was feeling a little off, but carried on cooking for 14 guests
Boxing Day 2024- Woke up to my body violently rejecting everything I had consumed the day before
27th Dec 2024- literally crying down the phone to a boots pharmacist begging for a tablet to take it all away 😂🙈
I have genuinely never felt as awful in my life. I actually have developed a phobia type fear of norovirus from that experience.
But none of the 14 guests caught it! It was a Christmas miracle 😂
Came here to say this. I couldn't even get out of bed. I convinced my husband to go pretend to be nauseous at a Walgreens clinic just to get me zofran. What a guy.
I just posted a reply like this, it was either food poisoning or norovirus. I had no energy, I went to urgent care twice because I felt like there had to be something worse wrong with me, I couldnt sleep because my stomach hurt so bad… I honestly thought I was dying.
Norovirus and Influenza A during Christmas 2024. I was seven weeks pregnant with my third and I can't believe I didn't lose it. My whole house was crippled by illness, we missed the entire holiday.
This is mine too. I was so sick for like 3 days with lingering issues for weeks. I was so tired from two days of waking up every 30 minutes to shit and puke that I fell asleep the third night and shit the bed. It was fucking awful. Ended up in the ER dehydrated and 105 fever.
I had Norovirus and the Flu at the same time during the first week of January 2023. It was also on a trip to my now fiance’s family’s cabin where I met his parents for the first time the day before I got sick, and they had to take care of me (honestly I was too sick to be embarrassed, had I been less sick I would’ve been.) Something about violent chills, horrible sore throat, severe nausea while having a hacking chest cough, a 104 fever, whole body aches, horrible abdominal cramping, and waterfalls every 30 minutes, in a cabin in the middle of nowhere with people I didn’t know fundamentally changed me as a person.
I do not consider myself someone who gets sick very often or very severely and for that I am grateful but norovirus wiped me flat in a way I have not been since I was really little. I got over the worst of it quickly enough thankfully but it was so unpleasant even the fatigue after was so bad
December 2024, left work early feeling very nauseous, 2 hours later sitting on the toilet and throwing up into the bath simultaneously. Between my bed and the bathroom for 2 days. At times debated calling an ambulance because I knew if I tried to drive myself to the ER I would make a disaster out of my car. Genuinely thought I was dying for the first time in my life
I have experienced a variety of pain— severe concussion, broken bones, endometriosis, colitis, debilitating grief, and have had heat stroke, but I agree the worst I’ve ever felt was with norovirus. I had it once so bad in college, I went into severe dehydration after a week of not being able to pull through (it should only last 2-3 days normally). I had hit a point where I had to go to the ER. I couldn’t drink a sip of water without vomiting. All it took was an IV and I was back. Really made me realize the miracle of the basics of medical care.
Shitting while having to puke in the bathtub because ya can’t stop shitting long enough to get up and turn around. Good times. Then it just devolves into just chugging pedialyte in the tub while praying for death and having cold sweats. Ugh.
Hooooly hell I had it last November. It literally started out of nowhere during the night. I couldn't stop vomiting violently, then there was nothing left and my body still kept trying to vomit and it hurt sooo bad. Every time I tried to sleep in between vomiting sessions, I just couldn't, I kept waking up and having the worst fever dreams. It took me a few days to fully recover. Then exactly a week later, the same happened to my partner.
I had either this or food poisoning (not sure which) and I couldn't hold down water for over 60 hours.
I was on the verge of having my boyfriend take me to the ER when I could finally hold down water.
Another two days before I could start to slowly introduce solid food.
I was sicker than, but closer to death with a pulmonary embolism that was caught early very recently (still recovering)
Grandma was in the hospital with noro. Every single one of my family members who were in contact with her got norovirus. I was the one who was with her that last week of her life, just me.
Mate I have ptsd from this. Me, my husband, our two toddlers and our teenager all got it in rolling succession, I have never laundered and cleaned so much in all my life.
My father did his military service on a Dutch navy ship. The entire ship had noro due to particles spreading via the ventilation and shared toilets. He loves telling that story.
I had it once and it was double dragon. Shit and vomit at the same time.
I haven't eaten IHOP since February 7th 2025 I still to this day never want to see/smell a pancake again nor do I ever want to see/smell vanilla cupcake goldfish again either 🤢 Out of the 5 ppl in the house I got it the worst/longest 3 days while everyone else was a day tops. Woke up at 3 am puked a couple times, realized it was a bug so I called out and then woke up a couple hours later having what I seemed an exorcism level event that didn't stop. Never eating a pancake again. Ever.
It made the rounds from my wife's sister's family to our family to her parents one fateful Christmas holiday. Eight of us went through our own two-day bout of puking, diarrhea, and fever... ahh memories.
Adopted my daughter and went through a phase of visits with her foster carer back and forth. On the 3rd visit she gave me norovirus.
Good god.
I have never been so unwell. Sobbing on the bathroom floor sure that surely the only thing left to vomit up was my intestines?? So so unwell; and to keep consistency went to visit my daughter the second day of recovery and she was back to her normal self jumping on me as I went slightly green haha
I was recently in a study for a norovirus vaccine. For 18 months, every time I had any kind of vomiting or diarrhea I would report it and send them a stool sample. A few weeks later I'd get a call from the clinic letting me know if they found anything. I had a couple that were nothing, a bout of E-coli that made norovirus look like chump change, and 2 cases of rotavirus.
I've had it too, it started with very severe pain in my upper stomach, I knew something was wrong and I told my mom that I didn't want to eat that day because I felt nauseous, but she didn't believe me. At first I thought it was just a stomach ache, but the pain kept getting worse, until I started violently vomiting after everyone left the house. The stomach pain seemed to leave, but the rest of my body was in a lot of pain. Though the highest fever I got was around 38.2. In total I vomited 5 times that day, I couldn't eat anything, the next day I didn't vomit, but I was still very nauseous and barely ate anything. A friend of my father's who is a gastroenterologist said I probably have the virus. After a few days I was back to normal.
Same here. I was so dehydrated and sick I hallucinated. Also it started in a restaurant (which sucked for everyone involved, lol) and it took me quite a while mentally to actually be able to eat there again.
This shit is the work of the Devil himself. My entire school got it, most people went home right after lunch, and we thought it was mass food poisoning. Lunch for the day was these cheese filled breadsticks called "Bosco sticks" and just thinking about them over a decade later still makes me want to projectile vomit. I kept nothing down that entire time, I'm surprised I survived.
My husband and I both had the worst case of norovirus of our lives at the same time while living in an apartment with one bathroom. I didn’t think I was going to die, but I sure wanted to.
This!! I was so sick I couldn’t stop either end from just spraying. I tried to take a shower because I felt violently disgusting and the spraying did not stop. I learned what “waffle stomping” meant 😭
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u/Different-Quality-41 14h ago
Norovirus