Today, I threw up more times than I have in the previous ten years combined. That is to say, I threw up twice today. Here are three things, which may already be known to you, that I learned about nausea and vomiting.
1: Sea sickness (motion sickness on a boat may not affect you on one kind of boat going at a particular speed and in a certain kind of weather, but in a different boat / speed tweather combination, you may become seasick.
I've been on large boats, like the local harbor ferries that go from Boston to Spectacle Island and Georges Island, et al.These boats carry hundreds of people and go fast. The pitching and rolling is mild.
Today, I went on a work outing on a deep sea fishing boat. I did not read the boat service's web site carefully; I saw a picture of a boat that had tables and chairs inside it—like the harbor ferries have—and assumed it would be similar to the harbor ferries, except with fishing. It turned out to be a boat for ~30-50 people, much smaller than I was expecting.
While motoring out to the fishing spots, things were fine. When it stowed down to do fine navigation or stopped to let people fish, the pitching and rolling was *pronounced* . A bunch of people felt nauseous and became silent and inactive.
I, on the other hand, thought staying active could help my inner ear (and whatever part of the brain is involved) adapt to the turbulent conditions. After a bit, I gave up on that. I, too, sat, then lied, down and closed my eyes. Shutting out visual input seemed to stop the nausea from increasing.
2: Nausea is cumulative
At one point, I did what's commonly called "throwing up a little in one's mouth." May mouth suddenly filled with an unpleasant salty water. I immediately laid down on the bench and closed my eyes. After a bit, I had resorbed the gross water and decided that I had prevented all-out vomiting, though, really, I still felt nauseous. I should have stayed down longer, as my coworkers did. Instead, I got up and tried to look around the roof deck (where the pitching and rolling have greater amplitudes).
We hit a big wave.
That, I think, put me over the top of the puke threshold.
First, I puked over the side, thinking it would go into the sea. Then, I realized the main deck was immediately below the side of the roof deck, not the sea. Hoping I didn't hit anyone on the main deck, I tuned to puke on the roof deck.
It was all (gross) water. and I cleaned it up with napkins.
3. Vomiting does not have a minimum reset period.
I figured I had gotten the puking over with but was still not feeling well enough to concentrate on standing and fishing, so I went back up to the roof deck which, despite swaying harder than the main deck, was the only place to lie down. Within moments of getting up there, I threw up again. Then, I realized I should have known this could happen.
Later at home, I showed pictures from the boat to the guy. He asked, "Do you have any pictures of yourself throwing up?" What's bad for him is good for you here: I do not.
I stayed up late night to work on a project, which is in that "last 10%" stage where everything takes longer and yields less than in the beginning. There's few surprises of a pleasant nature.
Then, today at working I dealt with working out auth for another Google API. Google auth always changes, there's always three ways to do something, and you always have to dig in and try each way because they never make it clear whether or not something will work for you. Once you figure it out, it's behind you, but I have become intolerant about wasting portions of life.
Speaking of which, I thought it might be fun to go on a work fishing trip. Only now, the day before, has it sunk in what it will take to be there at 7 AM. Also, I'd kind of like to spend tomorrow alone now.
I don't know for certain why a few hours or a couple days misspent bothers me so much when I used to be whatevs about that stuff. The simple answer could be oldness.
