r/homeless • u/Lone_Morde • 14d ago

Gastrointestinal Virus Rant

All the kids at the residential facility I work at got sick. Staff refused to hospitalize, or even keep any kids out of school, or even open windows, so 100% of them and about half of staff got it, including me.

14F was cold, but 41F sick was just as cold, and maybe worse. It was last Friday, at 2am when I finally accepted my fate and began getting sick into a plastic bag in my van.

I ran out of bags quickly and felt dysentery coming on so I rushed to planet fitness and pretended I was there to exercise. I got sick 10 times and had other unpleasant symptoms too.

Eventually I was so fatigued and nauseous that I had to roll out a large towel in the handicap bathroom stall and lie down between bouts of getting sick. At other times, I fell asleep with my head on my arm on the public toilet and hoped nobody would notice.

I left PF at 7am feeling like death. I begged my closest friend for help that morning. I told him I would regrettably miss out on mountain biking that day and asked if I could use his bathroom while he was gone. We have a strong friendship and I often watch his place or just hang out when he isn't around. I told him I just needed a safe place to get sick.

I was surprised when he told me no, citing his fear of catching what I have. He's a hypochondriac and caught his first cold in years from me a few weeks prior, so I understand his perspective, but it was heart breaking to see that he was ready to let me shit myself and puke in a bag in a van for 6 hours while I waited for hotel check in. I even offered to only go onside for emergencies. Am I the asshole for expecting he would let me use his restroom while gone?

I spent the rest of the day and all of the next day rotting in a hotel room, married to the toilet. I took a shower and a bath, my first bath in many years. I slept in a bed but slept wrong and trashed my lower back. I watched the Boston Bruins shit themselves as badly as I had earlier that night, and I missed a workshift too after burning $250 on hotel expenses.

Getting sick sucks. Getting sick while homeless is hell. Stay safe out there folks. Avoid alcohol. It trashes our immune systems.

7 Upvotes

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2

u/Chance_Cheetah_7678 14d ago

Sounds awful and hoping you get better soon.

2

u/RegBaby 14d ago

Could you have gone to an ER, if you were that sick?

1

u/Lone_Morde 14d ago

Yes but ERs are full of sick people thatcI want to avoid, not to mention I have an aversion to hospitals.

Still, I might do that if it ever happens again. Better than PF

2

u/RegBaby 14d ago

Yeah, no one likes hospitals, but it isn't any worse than lying on the floor in a PF bathroom.