So much for not getting sea-sick. Today I woke up and felt like I had vertigo; slightly nauseous and dizzy. I was actually surprised that I didn’t get it while on the ship as I easily get motion sickness when I’m a passenger in a car and I don’t look out the window. But I guess it’s fairly common to “land sickness” when you return to land after you’ve been aboard a ship for an extended period of time. But that’s not the only thing that’s going on, I also have a fever.

During the last few days of the cruise, our niece, then Jen, then Heather’s mother all got sick sequentially. Symptoms were nausea, diarrhea and slight fever. While some people call this the “stomach flu” allow me to dispel that slang misnomer: there is no such thing! The true “Flu”, or influenza, is a completely different type of virus that actually doesn’t survive in the stomach. Influenza is the seasonal disease (typically winter) which causes high fever and body aches along with other symptoms like a cough and can last for days. Viral gastroenteritis, usually caused by a genus of viruses called Norovirus, is completely different and typically only causes intestinal symptoms and lasts only 24 hours. It was made popular a few years ago due to outbreaks on a select number of cruise ships. The reason why it’s common on cruise ships is that this family of viruses are highly contagious. So being in close contact with other people, as on a ship, will allow it to spread rapidly.

So once Heather’s family came down with it, I thought I was being extra careful about being close to them and didn’t enter their cabin. But by midday today, my intestines were feeling worse and I had a slight fever. So today was a forced day off the bike and hopefully I’ll be better in 24 hours.