Stomach Flu vs. Food Poisoning

[Mr. Bloom]

I'm sick as a dog. Without being too graphic, suffice it to say that I'm fully engaged 'stem to stern'.

How does one discern the difference between stomach flu (contagious) and food poisoning (unlucky)?

I've not knowingly been exposed to the stomach flu...but if that's what it is, I don't want to spread it around the family.

[Aggie_Ama]

I think food poisoning will usually occur with fever. I am not sure. My husband and I both got a stomach flu last summer. Talk about miserable when you live in an apartment with one bathroom!

Here is WebMd's run down of stomach flu:
http://www.webmd.com/content/article/5/1680_51287.htm

Can you call you doctor? The only thing that helped me was to take phenegran. It calms the stomach and has a nice sedative effect. He also said to avoid too cold water, sip room temp water. Hold off the gatorade unless it is diluted until your stomach settles.

I think food poisoning runs its course quicker. Hope you feel better soon!

[mimitabby]

welcome to the wonderful world of having to go to the toilet, but not sure how to point!

we just went through that. If you know ANYONE else that you've been in contact with that has it; it is likely the norovirus that has them quarantining prisons in California, closing schools in Seattle, and which knocked out 3 generations of our family in 4 days.

The norovirus (which antibiotics do not even annoy) usually comes with a fever, but not always, and is infectious for 3 days after the first "outbreak"
I had it; the good news for you is that you will probably lose weight. It took me 3 days to be able to eat a normal meal and feel hungry. Part of that was the fever. But I am still weak, and i was hit on wednesday morning. DH is not going on his 50 mile ride today because he's still weak too and he got it on monday.
PLENTY of liquids and take something for the fever.

And if it's foodpoisoning, drink plenty of liquids.

for either one, take imodium for diarrhea if it continues too long.

and of course, call your doctor. I did.

[mimitabby]

ps i just read an interesting thing about this bug, it says that people with type O blood (like my mother and I) get hit harder than the others. My husband and son resumed their normal life more or less after 24 hours. It took me almost 3 days.

[Running Mommy]

I was at the Dr. last week for an unrelated matter, and she mentioned that it's spreading like wildfire around the country.
Her advice to me was "if you don't want to lose training days then you need to stay away from public places". And of course the grocery store is one of the biggies! The shopping carts...uhhh yeah... Not so pretty.
So I told my husband that he needs to do the grocery shopping for the next 8 weeks! :p
Yeah, that went over well!! :rolleyes:
But yeah, prolly just the stomach thing that everyone has been getting. And if it is noro then it's NASTY! My son and I had it last thanksgiving. Knocked us both out for a week!
Good luck all!
And feel better soon mr. silver.
Denise

[Bikingmomof3]

I am sorry to welcome you to the sick club Mr. Silver.

[silver]

update on Mr. he's doing a little better. he's eating some crackers and dozing (and burping :p ) off and on. I'm laying on the floor on his laptop and trying not to get too close when I bring him his crackers.

I hope he feels better soon :( I feel so bad for him.

He's supposed to go to Arizona tomorrow. :confused:

[mimitabby]

well, Silver is he type O? because if he is, he probably won't want to go.
if he's type A, like my DH, he'll get up and go and do fine (although still feeling miserable)

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

update on Mr. he's doing a little better. he's eating some crackers and dozing (and burping :p ) off and on. I'm laying on the floor on his laptop and trying not to get too close when I bring him his crackers.

Just throw the crackers at him from accross the room. :D

A couple weeks ago I had BOTH the stomach bug AND food poisoning! :eek:

Warning:graphic description to follow...
I had the stomach bug for a whole week- chills, nausea, diarr., weakness, and relentless grinding stomach cramps for days on end. Lost 6 pounds.
Then I got better and felt great again for two days and ate like a horse.

Then I ate a quesadilla in a restaurant and 4 hours later became violently ill- vomiting my guts up and lying on the bathroom floor between violently wrenching hurls. :( But after an hour of this vomiting of quesadilla remnants, I felt like it was all emptied from my stomach and immediately began to feel better. After the vomiting I was weak for a day but not actually sick anymore. I did talk to the restaurant owner the next day and he said he suspected the tomatoes which had looked a bit "iffy" when the supplier brought them. He apologized profusely, threw everything out that had gone into making my quesadilla, gave DH and I a free breakfast the next day, and told his supplier about the incident.
I have had food poisoning two other times in my life- once from canned sardines, once from cooked mussels. All 3 times involved violent vomiting several hours after eating the food, and all 3 times I started feeling better right after the all vomiting finished.
The stomach bug, in contrast, lasted for days and involved a lot of churning stomach and diarr. and some chills/fever, plus I felt nauseous for days but never actually vomited- just cramps, diarr., weakness, and no appetite.

[tattiefritter]

I had gastric flu last November and it knocked me for six. I originally thought it might be food poisoning but it actually came on like flu and I had total exhaustion and didn't move off the sofa for about three days and ate and drank practically nothing for that period. Luckily I started to be able to tolerate liquids after that (recovery drinks were useful). I think I was pretty over the flu itself within a week but it took me longer to recover from the not eating, I felt really weak for a fortnight. A friend of mine was hospitalised because of it as he became dangerously dehydrated so look after yourself.

[mimitabby]

Just throw the crackers at him from accross the room. :D

A couple weeks ago I had BOTH the stomach bug AND food poisoning! :eek:
appetite.

well, Lisa, you definitely get the prize!:( :eek:

my doctor said no food for 24 hours that you can't SEE through. throw the crackers to the dog.
Mr Silver gets tea, broth and water! (or gaterade)

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

my doctor said no food for 24 hours that you can't SEE through.


How about Swiss cheese then? ;)

I second the electrolyte water recommendation. I like Glaceau Fruit Water with electrolytes myself.

[LBTC]

Better than gatorade with all that sugar and colour and stuff that's so hard to tolerate, get elite electrolyte drops and put in his water! And when I feel like that, room temperature water is too cold. My tummy prefers water that's almost as hot as tea.

Sounds like a terrible case of gastroenteritis! Keep those liquids coming and try to ride it out.

Lisa, your combination definitely wins! OUCH!! :eek: My one case of food poisoning was pretty similar, except that my stomach didn't stop when it was empty. I have an unnatural fear of vomiting now as the dry heaves are sooooo horrible! I've been told, though, that food poisoning can occur anywhere from a few hours to 3 days after the offending food is eaten. I wonder if that's true.

Hopefully you all get well super soon,

Hugs and butterflies,
~T~

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I've been told, though, that food poisoning can occur anywhere from a few hours to 3 days after the offending food is eaten. I wonder if that's true.

Yes I read all about various food poisoning symptoms and many food poisoning symptoms occur several days after eating the food. There are various specific types of food poisoning and they are all different.

[mimitabby]

Better than gatorade with all that sugar and colour and stuff that's so hard to tolerate, get elite electrolyte drops and put in his water! And when I feel like that, room temperature water is too cold. My tummy prefers water that's almost as hot as tea.


Hopefully you all get well super soon,

Hugs and butterflies,
~T~

Gee, WHen it occurred to me that electrolyte supplements would be good, i thought, now I'll finally get to try all the expensive powders that DH has been buying. I went to the cupboard, and the only kind in there was gatorade :(
I was disappointed. I wanted to try the fancy stuff.. but Gatorade was better than the chicken boullion DH insisted I drink. barf.. it wasn't even real chicken!!!!

[Mr. Bloom]

Well, one thing I can say for gatorade and saltines...they make their round trip with ease!!!:o :o I had gone 4 stable hours...but that just changed.:mad: :mad:

So, now I'm on Propel...I'm allegic to tea...and my body seems to be favoring cold rather than hot.

Ironically, I feel decent right now...just achey with the chills.

You can see from my blog that I had quite a dinner last night at Bonefish Grill...shrimp, steak, salad, veggies...I was so good, I even told the waitress to take the bread away (along with temptation). But with all that heavy food, it just made the 'morning incidents' miserable to say the least.:eek: :eek: :eek:

PS: I'm type B blood.

PSS: I WILL go to Arizona tomorrow...I have to, it's going to be 75 degrees

[mimitabby]

you'll be all right mr silver, just don't be in such a rush to eat. The clear food diet lets your guts calm down before you dump more solids on them.

[luv'nAustin]

Mr. Silver,

I had the flu last weekend (along with a nasty sinus infection) and I'm still feeling weaker than normal. I hate to tell you that my stomach is still a little iffy after I eat "real" food.

Hope you enjoy Arizona and go for a hike up Camelback if you're in Phoenix. Good luck!

Karri

[Aggie_Ama]

Don't rush to eat is good advice. I was starving and did, paid for it with another day of horrible stomach cramps. The stomach virus I had last summer lasted 4 days. Only the nasty part one day, but cramping stomach and a feelign of nausea for the other three.

I was told by my doctor to steer clear of gatorade because the sugar could just aggrevate the cramping.

[Trekhawk]

Bananas are a good food to eat when starting solids again after a stomach bug. A doctor recommended this when my kids had a terrible bout of tummy flu it worked a charm.

Hope you are feeling better soon.

[mary9761]

I had some kind of 24 hour bug a couple days before the superbowl and thought it was my payback for getting into the chips and dip late night before going to bed when it was getting ready for it's first assault. I woke kind of nauseous and refluxy and grabbed a couple tums on the way to the bathroom. Well, needless to say I spent the rest of the day between bed and bathroom. I felt like I'd been beaten and didn't actually get a fever until late in the day when I started to feel somewhat better. I survived the day on room temp sips of lemon lime soda and then later on crackers and soda.
I thought I can't be sick for the SUPERBOWL!! I'd bought saurkraut and brats to make. Thankfully I fellt better by then.
The sickest I've ever been was 10 years or so ago when I had Salmonella!! NOT FUN! It started with a terrible headache and I thought I was having one of my worst migraines when I went to the ER because my meds weren't helping. While waiting to be seen at the ER, I needed to go to the bathroom and waiting outside the public restroom door, collapsed (passed out for a few minutes) and came to in the observation room, (way to get taken straight back and no more wait) I was in and out of consciousness due to phenegran etc and hooked up to IV. I found out a few weeks later that it was Salmonella and then they start asking where did you eat/what did you eat etc WEEKS later you're supposed to remember??
I don't EVER want to be THAT sick again and don't envy anyone who is.
Good luck

[Grog]

I'm so sorry Mr. Silver (and for Silver too!!), I hope you're okay and travelling as planned. Just keep washing your hands and hydrating, okay?

And, by the way, antibiotics can't do a thing against the norovirus because, well, it's a virus. Antibiotics target bacteria. I'll be very careful not to catch it this year, it ruined part of my trip to Belgium last year!!

[donnambr]

The worst thing about norovirus is that it mutates so fast, you can catch it multiple times a year, so long as it's making the rounds. :(

[Mr. Bloom]

The worst thing about norovirus is that it mutates so fast, you can catch it multiple times a year, so long as it's making the rounds. :(

...and that's encouraging?????:D :D :D

[bikerchick68]

I have the whole list of food borne illnesses at my office... and what symptoms they have as well as time tables... did you know that there are several food borne illnesses that "incubate"? You may not display symptoms for a long time! Weird huh?

But, most foodborne stuff happens anywhere from 2-6 hours after eating the contaminated object... and the only way to ascertain for sure that it's food borne illness is to 1) have your stomach pumped (I think your body took care of that for you already!) or 2) have a stool sample taken (again, taken care of). Foodborne illness almost always passes in a matter of 24 hours... as soon as all the bad stuff is... expelled... you begin to recover.

Based on my knowledge of this topic, yep, you got a nasty case of the flu... sorry and hope the crackers and propel have you feeling well soon!

[Mr. Bloom]

I woke up feeling really good this morning.:D :D I'm packing for Phoenix and leaving for the airport soon. I had a normal breakfast and a power bar a few minutes ago.

I'm convinced that it was food poisoning. Here's why:

- initial onset 6 hours after my last meal:mad:
- I had no nausea, just a feeling that something in me needed to get out (I know that's weird, but that's the only way I can describe it):confused:
- within twelve hours of initial symptoms, no more 'incidents' just weakness from the experience and shakiness from whatever toxins I had ingested.:(

But, either way, I'm back to normal (as normal as I'm capable of being:p :p ) and as Young Frankenstein would say "I AM ALIVE":D :D

[xeney]

I'm glad you're feeling better. I just went through this myself, after a trip to Mexico (but I got sick on the airplane on the way home, I was fine in Mexico), and I had read up on the issue and talked to my doctor before we left because I'm pregnant and I needed to know what foods to avoid, as well as which kinds of illnesses were going to require a doctor's visit, and which would just require adequate hydration. (I get sick every time I go to Mexico, no matter how careful I am, so I was probably a little paranoid.)

Anyway, what I found is that while there are lots of different food-borne illnesses you can pick up, and some of them are very serious, what you actually get is almost always norovirus. And most "stomach flu" episodes are also norovirus. And so are most cases of "Montezuma's revenge" or traveler's diarrhea or whatever. The vast majority of the time, norovirus is the culprit, whether you get it from your significant other or from a food worker who didn't wash his hands. So whether it's food poisoning or flu isn't really a question, because they are the same thing.

And hoo boy, did I get it. I'm still down eight or nine pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight, and I'm 15 weeks along. (Some of that was morning sickness, but mostly it was the stomach bug.) Fortunately the baby is fine, but two weeks later I'm still not quite myself.

[Meaux]

for either one, take imodium for diarrhea if it continues too long.


DH got bacterial gastroenteritis (basically the WORST food poisoning I have ever seen in my life, he was vomiting and passing blood every hour, yikes!!) last Memorial Day weekend. The ER doctor told him NOT to take Imodium because it would plug him up and keep him from passing the virus out. Not necessarily a pleasant thing to have diarrhea without end, but I could see the guy's point. So beware.

[light_sabe_r]

yikes poor mr Silver (and the rest of you suffering from bouts of the stomach flu)

The last time I had the stomach flu was in 2004. there was a nasty one floating around brisbane. I'd just quit my job as a Medical secretary to begin my job as a researcher.

WELL I got a lovely present of a COLD from the patients I saw on the last day.

I had also booked to go to sydney that weekend. I sinus headaches coming into land in Sydney and felt like I was going to faint the entire way to the hotel.

The next day I had breakfast... thengot on the manly ferry. I don't USUALLY get sea sick.

Mum was worried. i was knocked for six totally and even walked around manly harbour with the fly of my jeans open because my stomach hurt so much.

We were visiting my Aunt when it hit me like a freight train. i was vomitting for an hour in the waiting room of the doctors surgery. I got one of those anti-vomitting injections. I couldn't walk and my parents carried to my aunt's car to take me home from the surgery.

Even though I could barely walk I still forced myself to see the Lion King that night. and fly home two days later... same sinus headache. Worst Holiday ever.

The White and pasty look is not so good when starting a new job either.

[Mr. Bloom]

When I see some of these other stories, I'm counting my blessings. Although it was miserable while it lasted, for me, it was still brief.

I do feel immuno-compromised right now. Feel a sty coming on in my eye (this never happens to me), skin seems very unhealthy (not to mention pale), and weak. Plus, I'm time-zone challenged right now!

I wonder, will a detox at the hotel spa help?

[RoadRaven]

Glad to here you are feeling better and on the mend, Mr S



But just one point here for all of you referring to stomach flu... the flu, or influenza "bug" does not have a strain that affects the tummy.

Almost all cases of tummy-bugs are cases of self-inflicted food poisoning where we have left food unrefridgerated for too long, or have not washed our hands before handling our food.

Its a reality of being human, and sometimes we get away with feeling a little squiffy, and sometimes it is full-blown nastiness.

Of course, how we treat ourselves after the initial symptoms pass affects how well we recover too... Vomiting and/or diarrhea leaves our whole system compromised for 36-72 hours...

Wishing you all strong stomachs