Hot Baths As An Escape to CVS Suffering

For sufferers of Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome, taking obsessive hot baths is paramount to dealing with our symptoms in the home setting.  There are other ways CVSers self-medicate, such as cannabis use, ginger use, and prescription medications, but the most legal and best relief from an episode is taking a really hot shower.  However, this is not to say that all sufferers use hot baths to alleviate symptoms nor will it relieve every CVSer’s symptoms.  In fact, my good friend who also has this disorder does not take showers at all to alleviate her symptoms.

I believe that there is a scientific explanation as to why we find comfort immersed in hot water. It has something to do with the vagus nerve and for the fact that the hot showers are so hot that our mind focuses on the heat of the shower than on the CVS symptoms. I can’t tell you how many times I came out the shower with superficial burns on my body because I would spend hours upon hours in the hot water just so that I can escape the CVS.

Temperature is really specific.  The shower has to be hot, if it is not the right temperature, it will not relieve your symptoms. So for all those CVSers looking to move or relocate, make sure you check how hot the water gets when buying or renting a home.  I actually got out of leases because if I was told that the water got hot, and it did not, I used that as grounds for ending a lease since hydrotherapy is what is needed for us to cope with CVS.

I also want to note that in Amsterdam, there was a study that blamed chronic cannabis use to CVS and the obsessive use of hot showers.  I was thirteen when I was diagnosed with CVS and learned somehow that hot showers alleviated my symptoms and I did not chronically used cannabis.  With that said, when talking to a medical provider about these hot showers and CVS, make sure you tell them if you do or do not use cannabis.  My advice for those who do use cannabis is to stop using cannabis to see if it is the cannabis that is causing the CVS and the obsessive hot showers.  For some, stopping cannabis worked for eliminating their CVS symptoms and obsessive hot showers and baths.  For others, cannabis is helpful to use to alleviate the incessant nausea and vomiting and is not a cause for their CVS or their need to take tons of hot showers.  It is important that I note that this is why CVS is so individualized because what works for some may work for none.  It is so important to keep a journal to see patterns in your food choices, medications, or certain behaviors that cause or stops an episode.  That is how I found out that my menstruation and lack of sleep was a major trigger for me.

I don’t know how I started taking these hot baths, nor did I know that other sufferers were doing it too.  I didn’t feel so crazy burning myself when I learned that this is a normal response for most sufferers.  When I am in the throws of an episode, I long to get into the scalding hot water so that I can have a break from the vomiting and relentless pain and nausea. The only draw back to this method of self-medicating is that once you get out the shower, the symptoms come back full throttle.  With that said, I spend hundreds of dollars, and gallons of waters to alleviate my symptoms.  When I am in an episode, I don’t care about how much water I am going to waste or how much money I am going to spend taking such long hot baths.  My only concern is relief and escaping a CVS episode even if it is temporary. 

My love for the hot showers during an episode actually inspired me to write a poem about my experience. So please enjoy my poem.  You may not understand it if you are not a sufferer, but I am pretty sure if you do have CVS, this will make sense.  Enjoy!

Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome

Knife-piercing pains in my stomach,

Nausea,

Retching,

Lethargy.

This is a life worth escaping.

In the tub,

As the hot water showers and engulfs my body,

I close my eyes and imagine myself

Somewhere else--far away,

Far away from my reality.

I'm floating like a stray leaf down a river

Where the sunlight glistens on the surface

Near trees on the shore,

And where the trees dance to the rhythms of the wind.

Salmon sweep up shore

To lay her eggs in the spawning ground

While a father gives his son his first fishing lesson.

The running water

Sounds like a flowing river to me now.

I can even hear when the water

Hits against those stubborn rocks.

Swish, swish, the water sings to me.

Swish, swish, what a relaxing melody,

Swish, swish, someone please save me.