In my recent article on Man Flu I said how lucky we were to have been spared the norovirus. I spoke too soon. Within hours of clicking ‘Send’ to file my story, my four-year-old son arrived back from school and promptly fell asleep on the sofa. From the moment he woke up, he was hit with the most horrible bug. The virus was unrelentless in its attack and I was confined to disinfecting buckets, changing sheets, and cuddling his sick little limp body for the next few days.
So far, the rest of us had been spared. Admittedly, as far as my husband was concerned, I took extreme measures. He was confined to London until the end of the week. Afterall, I could not cope with a hospital case on my hands!
Suddenly, the phone rang. It was the school, asking me to come and pick up my daughter. One look at her green coloured face and I knew what lay in store for us both. What made matters worse is she does not deal with illness in quite the same way as my son. Whereas he had just deteroriated into a quiet little puppy, my daughter wailed and screamed, demanding I did not leave her side. This was impossible, as The Toddler was suddenly struck by the norovirus too. I made an SOS call to my mother for more towels and sheets and spent the night dashing between rooms, all the while wondering when it was going to hit me too. I kept saying to myself, “You are not going to get it,” whilst scrubbing my hands. Worse still, was the fact that it was both children’s birthdays looming and we had 11 six-year-olds coming to our house for a party in three days’ time. Thankfully, the virus disappeared as quickly as it appeared and like many, the children were soon back to their usual whittering selves, albeit a bit shell shocked. I, on the other hand, was utterly exhausted and now had three children at home jumping from the walls with new found energy. And I had two birthday parties to organise. Parents began to phone to check the party was going ahead and I nervously said that it was. I consulted my friend who is a doctor to get her medical approval on the likely level of infection in my house. Taking her advice to the extreme, I set about with my dettol wipes on door handles, loo flushers, chair arms and scrubbed the top layer off the kitchen table. The party passed and the children had a wonderful time.
However, today I discover to my horror that there is one child absent from school with a sick bug – typically it had to be the doctor’s daughter!
