A Bilious Attack

Having felt decidedly off colour with a painful headache and a rumbling stomach throughout the day I dozed on the sofa watching the continuing news from Ukraine, relieved by Six Nations rugby matches between Scotland and France, and between England and Wales. I may have rested my eyes on occasion, which might explain the missing bits.

After my first day at school it was a place I enjoyed being. I therefore had to be feeling rather rough to say I was feeling unwell on a school day. When I claimed that I wasn’t well enough this meant I needed to go to bed and would be unable to eat pudding.

This would have been my mother’s diagnosis whenever I said I had a tummy ache – the small child’s catch all ailment description.

Now as an adult I realised this may have had something to do with bile, but it was not until this evening that I had ever looked it up. It seems a combination of headaches, abdominal pain and constipation, now regarded as obsolete. Just for the record I didn’t suffer from the latter; vomiting was very rare; and I don’t remember headaches. As a young mother from the middle of WW2 Mum had inherited a number of old wives’ tales from my grandmother, and she tended to persevere with them past their sell by dates. A recommended cure for bandy legs, for example, was a mustard bath.

I was rather off my food until this evening when Jackie produced small portions of oven fish, chips, and peas, with which I drank water.

115 comments

  2. How awful to be struck down by this. I hope it is a 24 hour bug. Hooray for Jackie for producing easily digestible fish and chips!!

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  8. Jackie’s cure seems most reasonable and effective. We both turn to water for drinking whenever an upset stomach shows its ugly head. Water doesn’t aggravate, and helps with hydration.

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  9. The mustard bath sounds interesting!
    I almost expected you to mention mum giving you castor oil –
    As that seems like a powerful home remedy – in fact –
    I am getting ready to order some castor oil and I look forward to learning more about true old wives takes and home remedies from the WW2 and post war era….
    Some of those remedies have been abandoned in our culture that is quick to “slice, poison, or burn” the body when an ailment appears! Yikes!
    Hope you feel 100% soon….

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  10. I hope you feel much better very soon, Derrick. I can remember some of those old wives’ tales and the guilt trips my mother had after seeing a doctor (to tell me there was nothing wrong) to find I had a stomach ulcer. Over the more recent decades the symptoms have been diagnosed as complications from a hiatus hernia. Might get serious but now I know, I make sure it doesn’t get that bad. Anyway, take it easy for a bit. Jackie will take care of you.

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  15. I am sorry that you are feeling bilious. I have no doubt that I would have felt the same if i had been foolish enough to watch Scotland’s rugby match today.

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    1. They really didn’t play too badly. The French were as we have never seen them before. We should give them the cup now and get it over with. Thanks a lot, Tootlepedal

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  16. I hope you feel better soon, Derrick. My mother’s home remedy of drinking a tablespoon or two of apple cider vinegar always cures our upset stomach. Of course, fish and chips sounds much more appetizing!

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  26. I hope you are on the mend, and I think this is the first post I came across without a photograph. I think one of your moms would have been fitting. 

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  29. Dear Derrick, I hope you are back on your feet soon, roaming and shooting the beautiful countryside you live in. Please take rest for the while, and allow Jackie to drive you out of this brief rough patch.

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  42. I was happy to read, ” I’m not so bad today,” and then “Fine now.” Hooray! You’re a tough one, Mr. Knight. Can’t keep a good man down for long! Water was no doubt a good choice as you recovered. Back to a fine Pinot Noir tonight? That’s what we had with our spaghetti & meatballs.

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  45. Glad you feel better now Derrick. I often find that when I have a headache and a rumbling stomach it is usually an infection due to foodstuff.

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  48. Sounds a little like gastric motility issues tho I wouldn’t wish upon anyone. Kept me in the ER best part of two years. Hopefully Eno can resolve. Do they still sell that? Best stuff I had.

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      1. I am glad. I have been worried about getting Covid because I heard some people have got Gastroparesis from Covid much like I did with whatever virus I contracted that led to the EBV tieters going through the roof and setting off the whole palava. I hope you are safe where you are – people here are becoming so complacent, as if they feel ‘we’ve done our allotted time of quarantining and we don’t give a damn about those who are vulnerable’ – it’s not that I cannot relate to a wish to be able to do more. But that someone would not care if another person were vulnerable, seems especially callous. How hard is it? Hope you feel much better my friend.

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  49. When my kid was a tiny hypochondriac, I managed to convince them that water was a cure-all. I was very serious and would declare, “You know, drinking a large glass of water is one of the best ways to fix that problem.” It worked for years! I’m wondering if something similar is behind some old wives tales. 🙂

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