It seems like every year, not long after school starts and during the winter, it makes its rounds in my parts. I think that’s because kids aren’t always so good about handwashing especially at school and can transmit it easily among them and then bring it home with them to the rest of the family. But it can be deadly to some, especially nursing home patients.
Three years ago I went to Christmas at my niece’s house. I felt OK until I got home later that night and was lying on my couch, feeling a bit nauseous but thinking it was because I ate too much and was watching a Christmas movie on TV. Then all of a sudden, I threw up - all over me, my couch my coffee table, the carpet and down the hall as I ran to the bathroom. And there is nothing like being sick and living alone and having to clean up that mess while still sick. Then the diarrhea came, followed by more vomiting.
I called my niece to give her a heads up but so far none of them were sick and I was confident it wasn’t food poisoning. But the next day she called me to say that 3 of her 5 kids were sick as was her husband and her step son and several of their neighbor’s kids and family had it too, and they’d all gone to the same church Nativity play the day before Christmas Eve.
Ugh. It hits hard and fast. I had it after Christmas 2014. It’s awful.