Liveaboards and Cruisers get the flu/sick too

[Hudson Force]

Originally Posted by Meanderthal

Hhahaha! Now I must know the Quarantine Chicken recipe 😋

Nothing unusual,- It's just Chicken Florentine, but we call it Chicken Quarantine in remembrance of our big event!

[NorthernSeaWolf]

Do you have apples?

I have a juicer, which allows me to 'eat' those antivirals 4 apples at a time, but raw apples have more antivirals than Tamiflu - especially green ones.

[a64pilot]

Many years ago my Grandmother was passing so the wife and I grabbed the Baby and took off to be with my Mother. We had nothing to eat so we stopped at a gas station and bought the last two barbecue sandwiches they had, well within a few hours we were both violently ill, Hospital diagnosed it as Salmonella, thank God the Baby was not on solid food or she may have eaten some.

On the Acetaminophen ( Tylenol) thing, be very careful, its easy to overdose on the stuff by taking OTC remedies, an overdose can wreak havoc on your kidneys and Liver I think.
It's my understand that a lot of people on Dialysis are there from an overdose, or more likely many overdoses, but its easy to do as almost all OTC meds contain it.
https://www.kidney.org/atoz/content/painmeds_analgesics

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Many years ago my Grandmother was passing so the wife and I grabbed the Baby and took off to be with my Mother. We had nothing to eat so we stopped at a gas station and bought the last two barbecue sandwiches they had, well within a few hours we were both violently ill, Hospital diagnosed it as Salmonella, thank God the Baby was not on solid food or she may have eaten some.

On the Acetaminophen ( Tylenol) thing, be very careful, its easy to overdose on the stuff by taking OTC remedies, an overdose can wreak havoc on your kidneys and Liver I think.
It's my understand that a lot of people on Dialysis are there from an overdose, or more likely many overdoses, but its easy to do as almost all OTC meds contain it.
https://www.kidney.org/atoz/content/painmeds_analgesics

You are correct about tylenol (acetaminophen). I never take the stuff, plus I don't think it works well as a pain reliever and has no effect on a headache.

But it does have powerful marketing working for it.

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by NorthernSeaWolf

Do you have apples?

I have a juicer, which allows me to 'eat' those antivirals 4 apples at a time, but raw apples have more antivirals than Tamiflu - especially green ones.

I hate to break it to the folks on these hokus-pokus diets and suppliments.... it's all a waste of your money. You're literally flushing your money down the toilet.

Just eat a balanced diet.

[a64pilot]

However if nothing else the Placebo effect is very powerful, if you believe, very often you will be correct. I believe in Vitamin C, maybe I am a fool but I doubt its doing any harm.
Like attitude, someone with a strong positive attitude will often do better with a major illness than someone that just sits down to die.

Apples are likely part of a balanced diet? It just may be that most of us do not eat a balanced diet, especially on a boat as fresh fruits and vegetables are harder to come by at times.
I subscribe to the theory that pre historic Human ate a lot more fruits than modern human, and that we had such a high source of Vitamin C in our diet, we never began to synthesize it like almost all other warm blooded animals.
Apple is a fruit I think?

But your right, just a balanced diet is tough, likely Beer, ice cream and T-bone steaks are not part of a balanced diet are they

[Kenomac]

Hate to break it to you, but prehistoric man didn't eat apples and oranges over there in Africa. They ate mostly protein and fat which is why we (most of us) were so successful in developing a larger brain. The great apes (chimps and gorillas consumed mostly fruits... which is why they were left behind evolution wise.

Think more in line with an Atkins diet mixed with plenty of cardio exercise when you think prehistoric man. The biggest problem with peoples eating habits today, is too many carbs. It's only since the 1960's that people got the mistaken idea that protein and fat are bad, carbs good. But things are slowly changing back to the way it's always been.

[HankOnthewater]

Coping with illness
I must say I have never been sick on the boat but the only disease apart from seasickness crew suffered on my boat was ‘constipation’, and there are solutions for that: proper diet, and oral and rectal medications. And for things like Norovirus, on a boat out of reach of health care, just ride it out, it will pass … in more ways than one

John61CT (as did Kenomac later on) made a good comments also that good sleep and nutrition are important; and I agree with John that stress can affect physical well-being.

Seasickness:
There are quite a few good threads on this Forum on this topic, albeit some are repetitive:
http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...se-180467.html
http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...to-171039.html
http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ng-169720.html
http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ns-120347.html
http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ds-156832.html

Incubation period
Conachair made a good (and funny I thought) comment that illness seems to strike after you visit others……
Jim said incubation period is a few days for most common diseases. True to some extent (ie flu, noro (diarrhoea) virus but here is some other info:
What are the incubation periods for infections? - Health questions - NHS Choices
Summit Medical Group
For some diseases incubation period is not counted in days but in months! (ie for tuberculosis), and no mention of sexual transmitted diseases….. (but then again this last link was related to children)

Medications to have on board
Toddster8 gave some good advice. It may not be a good thing to stock up on medication that is not understood. There is a reason doctors need to prescribe many medications. Yes, by all means discuss with your doctor if you have recurrent inflammation or infection of your diverticulitis or pneumonia. By all means try to get a script for the right antibiotic as a preventive measure.

As A64pilot mentioned there are basically two types of (pathological/illness causing) bacteria: gram positive and gram negative. Doctors generally would like to know which bacteria caused the infection so they can select the type of antibiotic with the greatest efficiency, but if they do not know that, a broad spectrum antibiotic ie from the cephalosporin family, will be effective to the most common ones (including gram positive and gram negative bacteria). I am sure that Toddster is more qualified to lecture on this subject than most.
If you really would like to see a list of antibiotics, check this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_antibiotics
Warning: Wikipedia is not always correct. I heard recently that about the third of all medical information there is incorrect, hmmm, tried just now to find a link to that research, cannot find that now.

Medications like Oxycontin, like A64pilot mentioned? Hmmm, not very effective as pain relief for doing stitches as this product is slow-acting over 12 hours. And the ingredient (oxycodone) can have some serious side effects, particular if you have not used it before. And yes, constipation is one of them, but effect on breathing is a more serious side effect. For painrelief prior to stitching/suturing the skin, generally a local anaesthetic is used, but I would think most of us do not have access to that.
Yes, please review your medicine chest and first aid kit as Toddster and Janice 142 explained.

Flu
Toddster got it right, lots of ‘colds’ are called the ‘flu’ and may be so or may be not, but the flu can effect some people seriously.
We (in the hospital I work), do not test for flu often, unless a patient is compromised, as treatment will generally not change. We just increase supporting measures when patient deteriorates.

Lastly there was a comment that paracetamol/acetaminophen affect the kidneys…. This medication is mainly processed by the liver and overdose can damage the liver easily or a large overdose can be fatal, if left untreated for 24 hours. See also here: https://www.drugs.com/acetaminophen.html
On the other hand the NSAID type of drugs (like ibuprofen) affect the kidneys, and people with impaired kidney function should avoid this kind of pain-relief.

Disclaimer: Do not use the above for managing your health. For medical advice see a doctor. I am not a medical doctor, but a nurse that sees dozens of very sick patients each working day, and, hehehe, quite a few very healthy ones as well: babies born

[NorthernSeaWolf]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

I hate to break it to the folks on these hokus-pokus diets and suppliments.... it's all a waste of your money. You're literally flushing your money down the toilet. Just eat a balanced diet.

Just exactly what qualifies natural diets and supplements as hokus-pokus?

Here's some light reading on the apple for you, found in the US National Library of Medicine archives:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC442131/

"The apple extracts and curcumin, but not other phytochemicals, significantly reduced the TNFα-induced activation of NF-κB by reducing proteasome activity, a known target in regulation of NF-κB."

Yep - definitely hokus-pokus

[Steadman Uhlich]

For the OP:

Sometimes what seems like a relatively normal "minor" injury can lead to the abandonment of a boat. The link below is to a thread that illustrates how something as common as dropping a dinghy on a foot (and it did not break a bone or even break the skin) led to life threatening medical emergency condition, the abandoned boat, rescue of the singlehanding sailor, and the hospitalization of the sailor.

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ic-174101.html

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by NorthernSeaWolf

Just exactly what qualifies natural diets and supplements as hokus-pokus?

Here's some light reading on the apple for you, found in the US National Library of Medicine archives:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC442131/

"The apple extracts and curcumin, but not other phytochemicals, significantly reduced the TNFα-induced activation of NF-κB by reducing proteasome activity, a known target in regulation of NF-κB."

Yep - definitely hokus-pokus

It's your money.... flush away.

[mrktstrtmyhm]

First time to read random threads and this one is by far the weirdest. Great job meanderthal. \

p.s. Work out, eat well, and you'll stay healthy 98% of the time..take it from me. I'm an RT and also work in a hospital and I even live in MERS territory and voila, never been sick here in two years and all I do is f*cking work 12 hr shifts back to back to back to..

..oh hey. I'm still a land crawler and have yet to purchase a vessel for myself but to answer your question when I get sick..lots of water and rest works well for me. The body never ceases to amaze me with the various ways it heals itself and a lot of that happens when you sleep/rest.

[Meanderthal]

Epic post--a lot of content to review☺.

[Meanderthal]

Originally Posted by mrktstrtmyhm

First time to read random threads and this one is by far the weirdest. Great job meanderthal. \

p.s. Work out, eat well, and you'll stay healthy 98% of the time..take it from me. I'm an RT and also work in a hospital and I even live in MERS territory and voila, never been sick here in two years and all I do is f*cking work 12 hr shifts back to back to back to..

..oh hey. I'm still a land crawler and have yet to purchase a vessel for myself but to answer your question when I get sick..lots of water and rest works well for me. The body never ceases to amaze me with the various ways it heals itself and a lot of that happens when you sleep/rest.

Lol...
I've been lurking in this and other cruising forums for a decade--and this seemed at least an original-ish question/request. Possibly filled with gore and excellent future dinner table conversation😉. I want more stories!

[Meanderthal]

Originally Posted by Steady Hand

For the OP:

Sometimes what seems like a relatively normal "minor" injury can lead to the abandonment of a boat. The link below is to a thread that illustrates how something as common as dropping a dinghy on a foot (and it did not break a bone or even break the skin) led to life threatening medical emergency condition, the abandoned boat, rescue of the singlehanding sailor, and the hospitalization of the sailor.

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ic-174101.html

I remember reading that post--and thinking, "well, we covered this in my emt and wilderness first responder training a decade ago, but I sure as hell don't remember what to do!"

Kinda makes me wonder the frequency of rescue for medical vs weather vs boat issues.