You do NOT want this

The norovirus has run rampant in the UK and Canada and has now made its nasty arrival in Northern California.  Trust me, you do not want to get this virus.  Depending on the severity, which varies with each person, this can knock you down for two or three days or it can linger for another two or three, giving you almost a week of feeling like crap.  

This is a virus you want to take out into a field and beat with a baseball bat or hit with a laser and blast it into nothingness.  With this virus, you start out thinking you have food poisoning, which is bad enough: the stomach bloat, the rock hard feeling in your stomach, the vomiting, the diarrhea, the ache in your stomach and your gut.  And that's just the beginning.  If you are unlucky, that all morphs into aches all over your entire body, from the bottom of your toes to the top of your head.  It goes on for at least 36 hours and often much longer.  

The real danger is getting dehydrated because of all the GI action that forces everything, even water, out of your body in about 15 minutes.  The mere thought of food makes you almost gag.  All you want is water and you aren't sure you should even risk that.  Basically, you lay in bed and moan.

Over a six day span, I ate the following: three pieces of toast, two bananas, some broth and rice.  I drank a lot of tea and hot apple juice.  I am still, one week later, hesitant about putting anything into my body for fear it will swoosh out the other end in humiliating fashion.  

People seem to think the norovirus is the flu.  While the semantics might not seem important, flu always involves an upper respiratory infection, lots of sneezing and coughing, diseased particles being spewed out into the air.  The norovirus has no vaccine, is not a flu virus and is incredibly contagious. It's all about the gastro intestinal part of your body.  It isn't the flu, you can't get a shot to prevent it and once you get it, the odds are you will get it again.  Joy.

Stay away from anyone who has it.  My daughter, who hardly came near me for two days, was knocked off her feet by it three days after I contracted it.  You do not want this virus, ever.  

Just saying..... wash your hands a lot.  Watch what you eat and who you hang out with.  Live in a bubble if you must.  But of course, you can walk into Safeway and get some sick person's virus molecule and BAM!  it's done.  You've got it.

Good luck.