Getting sick at work
 

I was riding to work today and was feeling a little sick so I slowed it down a bit to see if I was just overworking myself. It seemed to go away but as I was sitting here at work I thought to myself, "How would I get home if I did get sick at work?" 11 miles is a pretty long way to ride when feeling like puking. I suppose I could call the wife to get me after she is out of work but waiting all day to go home would suck too.

What do y'all do if you happen to feel under the weather while at work?

A cab is what I use. It is also my fallback if I have a breakdown when too far to walk

I call it in with the wife. IF she cannot pick me up. I get a ride home. You are only 11 miles away (like I am)so it is not far for someone. Also knowing your public transportation route helps.

I usually feel better when riding and really enjoy it so I just think positively and remain thankful that I'm not worse off.

My company has an "emergency assist" type of program. If you commute by bike, and need to go home in an emergency (sickness, or something at home), you can take a cab and expense it later. I live close enough that one of my colleagues will drop me home, but it's a good policy. I think its a California incentive that my employer subscribes to, can't find the link to be exact though. Check if you have something like that.

The idea of sitting a vehicle I have little to no control over scares me as I would be afraid I would be sick on the taxi. I am sure the bus would get to me if I was already feeling sick like that. With the wife picking me up at least I can tell her take the streets home and stay in the right lane incase I have to do an "emergency evacuation".

That was my thought as well. Would the fact that I was riding overwhelm the fact that I feel sick? At least I can work on sweating out whatever is causing the bug and I can pull over whenever I would need to to "handle business".

I spose the real issue would be if I had "issues on the other end". Riding would be a bummer then I think for sure.

Only happened to me once. Late afternoon I felt more and more ill until I finally realized there was no way I was going to pedal home. Called the wife and she came and picked me up.

Also had to skip out on our "date night" that evening because I was so sick. Bummer because we only manage to have a date night about every six months or so.

Let me know how that works for you when your stomach is killing you and you need time in the bathroom.

If you're going to puke, it's easier to manage if you're on a bike than if you are driving yourself in a car. If it's diarrhea, you can try to plan your route to be near bathrooms, or you can stay at work until you think the worst is over. If you are driving, and stuck in traffic, diarrhea can bad too.

It's happened to me before (illness with nausea) when at work. I decided to go ahead and ride home. The train leg of my commute had me more anxious than the biking legs. It caught up to me at the train station and I got sick in the bushes there before my train arrived. Nothing I could do about that. I'm just glad it was before I got on the train. I felt better, relatively speaking, but pretty weak the rest of the way home.

That's usually resolved by 'exorcising the demons' beforehand. Been there, done that. ;) Either way, I'd rather have the problem on a bike than on the bus, in the back of a cab or in my own car while my SO was driving.

Although I've never tried it supposedly getting an erection will prevent accidental colorectal expulsions. I guess sporting wood is better than a hazmat incident.

I can cut my 10 mile ride down to 1.5 miles and a light-rail ride to get within two miles of home if I have to, and my wife usually only rubs it in a little if I need her to get me from there. I could take buses all the way from the office to the bottom of the hill where I live, but really there may not be anything I'd less like to do when sick than ride a bus.

A few months ago I got food poisoning while at work. My commute is around 15miles through LA, lots of starting and stopping, and no private places to hide to release yourself. I ended up getting much to sick to ride, everything coming out of me and the chills and shakes. Luckily my girlfriend came and got me, even the car ride home I could barely focus on anything but keeping it in me and not all over the car. If she wasn't around and no other friends/co-works that could give me a ride, i'd probably wait the worst of it out at work and take the bus or cab home.

Other times I've just not felt great, where I wasn't actually expelling my insides and usually I feel much better once I start riding.

A lot of major metropolitan areas have emergency ride home programs for those who take transit, car pool, or bike commute. The DC area has it, and I'm signed up, but have never taken advantage of it.

My illnesses are always colds... I've managed to avoid puking from illness for a couple decades. Now, alcohol, that's a different story. ;-) But that doesn't arise as an issue at work. So, I generally find I have at least one commute in me, even when the going gets tough healthwise.

If I didn't, I'd call my wife (which I've done in case of death in the family), take metro , or take advantage of the guaranteed ride home program.

I've been nervous about this a lot (especially the diarrhea issue). I've got a very active colon and when I was in high school cross country this many times became an issue on long runs. Fortunately, I ran solo and lived in the country so there was almost always some woods or a corn field within half a mile or so. The trick was deciding how far it was and whether I was better off with the speed (but also jarring) that came with running or was better off with a fast walk that allowed me to clench better and had less jarring of things loose.

As my family is car free, this is something that has worried me from time to time. Fortunately, living in a metropolitan area there's almost always a starbucks or dunkin donuts or something around and I always carry $20 folded up somewhere that will buy some food to make me a customer if I had to use a restroom in an emergency.

where did you hear this from?

Whats the program called that you have?

Somewhere on the interwebz so I'm sure it's true. Like I said, I haven't tried it but if you're willing to give it a shot then let us know how it turns out so I can create a Wiki for it.

I always heard that your body wouldn't allow two different types of urethral expulsions at the same time (so morning wood is a safety precaution to keep a full bladder stopped up), but never anything about colorectal expulusions.

Just barf and HTFU :p






OK, just kidding. Take a day off bike-commuting and recover.

If I feel crook, I get on my bike and I feel better straight away.

I had an issue where an ingredient in a smoothie I was drinking in the morning was making me sick... since there were several ingredients it took me a couple of times to realize what was causing it, but I wound up getting sick at work twice after I'd biked in. It wasn't too bad... once I hurled I felt a lot better. The first time I didn't tell anyone and just gutted out the day, and by the time I had to leave I felt fine enough to bike home. The second time I wasn't able to keep it under wraps and I was sent home. I couldn't find anyone available to give me a ride, so I finally rode to the light rail station to cut some mileage off the commute. I still had to ride 5.5 miles to get home, and I was still feeling pretty week... but I just rode real slow. Not sure what I'd do if I was too sick to ride back. I'd assume my employer would be okay with me storing my bike somewhere inside overnight, and I'd probably try a lot harder to get a ride, but those without the option of storing inside overnight and limited transportation options would really be in a bind.

I've only had the rear-ward explosion problem at work once - I took some Immodium, emptied out the best I could beforehand, and then pedaled the three miles home as fast as I could. I was most worried about my new white saddle.

Haven't gotten that sick at work. Others have and we can usually find somebody to drive them home in their vehicle and somebody to pick up the driver. You can always figure out something if you work together.

I only have had that situtation happen one time. I called the pretty one to come pick me up... left the bike at work, it is/was as safe there (under video surveillance) as it would have been at home.