Hi all...I'm so glad I stumbled across this thread last night. I'm so glad there are at least a few others who get it...who get what this is like.
All my life I was never a fan of puking (who is, really?) but I managed. I even got to the point where I could work in a hospital and be around it all the time (laboring women puke a bunch).
Anyway, fairly recently this turned into a real phobia for me...more like what Tara is describing. On 12/1 my oldest son (now 6) suddenly threw up all over me and the booth at a restaurant.
He was so sick and throwing up every 20 minutes complaining of bad stomach pain. So I took him in to urgent care hoping they could rule out appendicitis and send us home. Unfortunately, ruling it out was not as easy as I had hoped and we were there overnight. My husband was home with our other two including the baby who still liked to nurse at night...and there I was stuck at the hospital with the oldest in the car with the car seats. Traumatic. It ended up that my son had strep causing "mesenteric adenitis" which mimics appendicitis. He wasn't contagious (well, except for the strep) and he didn't need surgery. Whew...but starting that next day, I myself was getting nauseated every afternoon. I was finding myself terrified that at any moment, one of my three would get sick, or worse...all at the same time. And that I'd be sick too...as a stay at home mom who doesn't get to have sick days.
I have lost 18 pounds since that day: December 1st. Just from my anxiety over it all. I'm constantly watching them for signs of illness. Constantly checking their foreheads for fevers. I use a baby monitor even though the oldest two are now 6 and almost 4...I need to be able to hear them call me if they feel sick or hear them throwing up. I was always "cautious" about germs but now I try not to go anywhere like playing at the McD's playland and I even find myself avoiding the grocery store if I can. When we get in the car after school or shopping I make everyone use hand sanitizer and then we wash when we get home.
Hearing about everyone getting the stomach bug lately has made this horrible. I had to stop going to Facebook for awhile because I could not handle the status updates of FB friends reporting their own or their kids' stomach bugs. If I see that one of my son's preschool classmates isn't there I start to fret about them being absent for a stomach bug and when the last time we were around them was. I don't live in fear of them getting colds, or cancer, but I do that they'll suddenly have a contagious stomach bug. The surprise element of it all is what gets me. And like many of you, I'm also a "control freak".
My husband would never "allow" me to make the kids sleep with bowls by their beds...just because of what it would do to them making them fearful freaks like me LOL. But as they are so young to NEVER make it to a toilet, I do have their beds double-made in the hopes I can just peel off the top puked-on layers.
I recently began seeing a therapist who helped me realize the control part of all of this is huge for me...funny, if I had found this thread when it started I would've realized that for a lot less money.
Anyway, we're at the point now where I'm doing EMDR and seeing how that goes.
So, I'm sorry this is long but wanted to introduce myself and my own version of emetophobia. Thanks for listening!