many mundane moments

Epidemiology

I promise this is my last post on the puke pandemic that hit our house.

Where the heck did it come from? My sister who lives with us (Fred- yes, really her nickname) got sick in the middle of the night. That pretty well confirms that it isn't food poisoning for any of us, just a 24 hour stomach virus. Especially since there's no one food that all of us eat, but really, where could we have picked it up? It's not like we have a kid in school, or the chuch nursery or are sociable enough for regular playdates with someone who fits either of those categories.

Matt and Howie went out on Saturday afternoon. They were the first to get sick, and I was about 8 hours behind them, which makes sense because I worked a double shift on Saturday and didn't really see them until that night. Fred was even farther behind which lines up with her seeing Howie Sunday morning. I suspect that we have a carrier monkey situation since neither Fred and I, nor she and Matt are in close contact.

It could have been the Monday morning trip to Target, because we had to run something Matt forgot back to his office before he left. He kissed Howie then, but that doesn't make sense for me not getting sick until after them. Howie got a sucker from the receptionist that I let him eat on the way home. I held it in my mouth while I washed him up, so if it was Monday, I would have been sick yesterday morning like them. Saturday is the only outing that works for all of us to have been infected before Matt left. It must have been the Target shopping cart, or maybe the train table at Barnes and Noble when they were out running errands. but a stomach bug that incubates from Saturday to Tuesday morning? I guess it's possible since the other two times Howie has been sick were when we went to a party on a Sunday when the hosting family had been sick earlier that week. He got sick on Wednesday. The next time we had a playdate on Tuesday and he was sick on Friday- same situation where the friends had recently been sick.

sorry for my rambling. I'm such a germaphobe, and we're generally pretty lucky in avoiding illness. This kept me awake last night. I'm trying to figure out 1, if we got it from someone we know and 2, if I should warn the neighbors we played outside with on Monday afternoon.

posted by Valarie @ 9:07 AM