- I was at a party where there was a lot of drinking. Everyone seemed to be having a good time, but I was on edge. My friends told me to “loosen up” and have some more to drink. But I was terrified of drinking too much in case it made me sick. Suddenly without warning a drunk man leaned over the balcony and vomited onto the pavement below. Everyone moaned, but two of his friends took him by the arm and carried him off to the bathroom.
2. I was in the washroom at work over the lunch hour. When I got out of the cubicle, I stopped at the sinks to wash my hands and re-do my makeup. Suddenly one of my co-workers who I had learned was two months pregnant ran into the bathroom. It always freaks me out to see or hear someone running anywhere near a bathroom. I wanted to run away myself, but my makeup was all over the counter and I couldn’t collect it fast enough. She didn’t even have time to close the door of the cubicle, and so I heard her vomit loudly into the toilet. It was disgusting. I couldn’t get all my makeup together fast enough to get out of there when I heard her do it again. I could hear her coughing and gagging.
3. The news reports say that it’s been the worst year for norovirus so far. It’s everywhere. The school has even been closed. I sit alone in the evening shaking in my boots. I just know that at any moment one of the kids is going to wake up sick and I will catch it. I feel doomed. I feel helpless. My stomach hurts a lot, but I don’t know if that’s anxiety or not. I didn’t each much dinner. Suddenly I hear my partner in the bathroom. It’s not the kids, it’s him and he is vomiting violently into the toilet. I plug my ears with my fingers and run downstairs to the basement and curl up in a ball. But he’s way too loud and I can still hear him. He vomits over and over. I am so scared I’m afraid my heart will stop. But I know it won’t, and I will have to go upstairs sooner or later and deal with him, and the bathroom. Then tomorrow it will be the kids or me or both.
4. All day my stomach has felt sick. I never should have eaten those Eggs Benedict at that dodgy restaurant. They weren’t even hot, but I was so hungry. I pace back and forth in my living room as the pain in my stomach gets worse and worse. I know it’s going to happen this time for sure. I feel hot and sweaty and I begin shaking. I’ve taken every stomach remedy under the sun and nothing is working. The nausea is unbearable now to the point I can hardly breathe. I give in to it, and go to the bathroom and kneel down by the toilet. My stomach lurches, but I still don’t want to throw up. I’m crying now and praying for it to stop. But it doesn’t. Suddenly my breakfast comes up. It wasn’t so bad, really. I gag and cough a bit and vomit again into the toilet. I’m ok though. The worst is over now.