Today was the first time since Tuesday that I didn’t have a diarrhea episode. I had four straight days of liquid hell coming out of my rear. I wound up having to take Friday off from work as well. The worst part of this was the first 12 hours or so but then it settled into this awful steady-state condition. Sometime around Thursday, the acute pain and chills went away, which was great but the constant watery diarrhea, dehydration, and fatigue remained.
On Thursday and Friday, I kept running to the bathroom. Sometimes I’d go and then ten minutes later I’d have to run back to unleash hell again. Ugh. Things seemed to calm down on Saturday. I only went once. Today I didn’t go at all. Technically, I’m still waiting for my first semi-solid poop to happen since this incident began. I’m hoping it’s the next one.
As for the dehydration, it seems like I’ve been trying to hydrate back to my previous levels since Wednesday. It’s now Sunday and I still feel like I’m not there yet. I’ve alternated between plain water and those sports drinks with electrolytes. I’ve become quite fond of Powerade fruit punch flavour. Man that stuff is tasty. I know I must be still dehydrated because I just looked at my hands and the skin there looks terrible. I have the hands of a senior citizen. It’s gross.
I’m also really tired now. I couldn’t sleep on Wednesday night and because my body has probably expended lots of energy to fight this, I feel pretty lethargic. I’ve been sleeping a lot though. I slept most of Friday and I also got lots of rest on Saturday. It’s still not enough.
I’ll be ok to return to work tomorrow but it will be a few days more for sure before I feel 100% again. I was thinking the other day that this happened under the most ideal circumstances. I was able to rest and recuperate at home. It must doubly suck for people to get gastrointestinal illnesses while traveling in strange foreign countries. What a way to spend a vacation, chained to your hotel bathroom, feeling sorry for the housekeeping staff that has to clean the mess you leave behind.