gastro·nom·ical [ˌɡastrəˈnɒmɪ-kal]: adjective: relating to the practice of cooking or eating good food
One of the YouTube channels that Sue and I follow are Don Terris's DON'S FAMILY VACATIONS and JUST DON. Don is a Canadian travel agent who specialises in cruises and his videos keep us up-to-date with what is happening in the world of cruising.
One of the endearing things about Don is his use of the word 'gastronomical' ... which he uses in place of 'gastrointestinal' when describing outbreaks of bugs like Norovirus aboard cruise ships.
So, why am I mentioning this today? The answer is simple ... for the past few days Sue and I have been suffering from what Don would describe as a 'gastronomical illness'. It is NOT Norovirus: I contracted that several times during my career in education and know the symptoms only too well. However, whatever it is, it has laid us both low and left us feeling very tired and with muscle and joint pain as well as a headache.
Now, when we were younger, we could sort of shrug this sort of illness off with a good night's sleep and a dose of something like Imodium, but as one ages, one's ability to do things like that diminishes. It also becomes even more important to keep hydrated and to replace any lost electrolytes in order to avoid things like thickening of the blood and therefore an increased risk of a stroke.
In my case, I have to take a number of prescription drugs every day to help me cope with my medical problems, and if I am suffering from a 'gastronomical illness' there is a chance that I might not manage to gain the full benefit of them.
We are beginning to feel somewhat better than we did twenty-four hours ago, and with luck it will turn out to have been no more than a forty-eight hour bug ... and that by the time you read this, we will be back on our feet and working on decluttering our house.
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