So, if you’ve ever had to deal with university’s health services, you know why i’m avoiding the doctors. It’s worse than the emergency clinic. But, since i’m always surprised about what my blog readers know, i thought maybe i’d ping out to you.
I’m sick as a dog. I’ve been vomiting and and off since the middle of the night and i’m trying to keep Saltine’s down as we speak. I’ve been drinking Ginger Ale. While i’ve managed to avoid vomiting for a few hours, i still feel nauseous as hell, particularly whenever i move. When i sleep, i get hot flashes and can’t really sleep comfortably. When i’m awake, it’s just perpetual dreadfulness.
I don’t seem to have a fever. I feel weak, but i can’t keep food down so i’m not surprised. All of my sniffles, sore throat and the like of last week are gone. I don’t have any obvious flu symptoms. Even the body ache is low other than the feeling of weakness.
My guess is food poison, but yesterday, i hate veggie sushi and an omlette. Is it possible that i’m feeling late ramifications of Mexican food?
Is there anything that i should be doing other than Saltine’s/toast/Ginger Ale/Coke syrup (and late nite dramamine) and waiting it out?
Get some pedialyte for the dehydration. You can get it at the pharmacy.
danah, I just was on the phone with my physician/parent while reading this… she said that you should definitely try to get some basic food (soup) down and keep it down (try an anti-emetic… ganja comes to mind) and rest. If you don’t get somewhat better by mid-day tomorrow, have someone take you to the urgent care facility… you could have a nasty bug that needs treatment fast. (if you need help with any of this, let me know)
How long has this been going on for?
If it’s less than 36 hours I say it’s food poisoning… it will probably just get better in a few days.
see where you’re at at the 36 hour point. it’ll take your body a while to get rid of whatever it’s got. but given that you were just traveling, you really should consider see a doctor if you stay sick: you will get dehydrated and that could be more dangerous.
so sorry to hear you’re feeling so rotten.
Hi Danah,
You don’t say whether you have diarrhea too. Coke and dry salty bezels helps to stabilize your stomach and gives you some of the minerals back that your body lost. Thai Noodle soup does wonders for me and gets me back on my feet in no time.
Gute Besserung, Mark.
Bezels? I meant pretzels which are Brezel in Germany, would like to know how the branching off to the different spellings happened.
Here a link to some Brezel:
http://www.huoberbrezel.de/
Actually in Bavaria they call them:
Brezen:
http://www.lecker-backen.de/semmeln/brezen.html
Confused already?
Hello, I’m a real doctor and I hope you wouldn’t avoid me like what your blog’s title said. I will just try to help.
Based on your story, I can say you have symptoms of hyperacidity. The nausea and vomiting might be indicative of a beginning gastritis. Do you miss meals often? Are you on some kind of diet?
I suggest in the meantime that you don’t feel good, to go on a soft diet: noodles (like what Mark said here), custards, soups, jellys, puddings, and the like, until you feel better.
The “hot flashes” and “perpetual dreadfulness” might be indicative of low electrolytes. My primary suggestion is a brief hospital confinement so an IV fluid with the necessary sodium, potassium, magnesium, etc. can be incorporated, but…but (and I say this cautiously), if you really dread hospitals and doctors, you should start increasing your fluid intake (juices and soups are cool! ginger ale is NOT!).
Eat bananas and apples if you have them around. They’re rich in electrolytes. If you can get Gatorade or any sports drink, do so. They’re the next best thing to an IV fluid.
It’s quite sad you don’t like doctors.
Hope that helps. I sure wish you were my neighbor. I would really encourage you go to a hospital pronto, but since you hesitate all I can do here is tell you these.
I’ll pray you get better soon.
Dr. Emer
Hello, I’m a real doctor and I hope you wouldn’t avoid me like what your blog’s title said. I will just try to help.
Based on your story, I can say you have symptoms of hyperacidity. The nausea and vomiting might be indicative of a beginning gastritis. Do you miss meals often? Are you on some kind of diet?
I suggest in the meantime that you don’t feel good, to go on a soft diet: noodles (like what Mark said here), custards, soups, jellys, puddings, and the like, until you feel better.
The “hot flashes” and “perpetual dreadfulness” might be indicative of low electrolytes. My primary suggestion is a brief hospital confinement so an IV fluid with the necessary sodium, potassium, magnesium, etc. can be incorporated, but…but (and I say this cautiously), if you really dread hospitals and doctors, you should start increasing your fluid intake (juices and soups are cool! ginger ale is NOT!).
Eat bananas and apples if you have them around. They’re rich in electrolytes. If you can get Gatorade or any sports drink, do so. They’re the next best thing to an IV fluid.
It’s quite sad you don’t like doctors.
Hope that helps. I sure wish you were my neighbor. I would really encourage you go to a hospital pronto, but since you hesitate all I can do here is tell you these.
I’ll pray you get better soon.
Dr. Emer
I had a pretty bad bout of food poisioning a few years back (from a vegitarian meal) durring which I learned that Tylenol taken every three hours can prevent vomiting. Try taking cool showers when you’re having a hot flash to help that feel better.
I, personally, get all crappy feeling just remembering the taste of electrolyte drinks, but they do have Pediolyte which I guess must taste better than grown up drinks and certainly be better for you than sports drinks. V-8 can be your friend, too.
And… sleep!
Hope you feel better soon!
Matzoth ball soup! That is all you need to know! It was the official penicillin before there was penicillin! That and original lemon / lime Gatorade.
Get well soon!
Matzoth ball soup! That is all you need to know! It was the official penicillin before there was penicillin! That and original lemon / lime Gatorade.
Get well soon!
somebody local please make sure she’s okay and post here. I’m the paranoid fantasist type and I’m worried that Danah might be unconscious and alone in her apartment. Doctors, could her symptoms have a neurological cause?
veggie sushi has done me in i’m sure, especially the avocado rolls if the avocado was left over from the night before – and they just stretched some saran wrap over it i’m guessing. i really hope you’re feeling better soon.
To the doctor,
I’m sure it’s not doctor’s per se, but the University health clinic. When I was an undergrad at Cal, I got appendicitis and they thought I had food poisoning. It took them 6 hours to decide to send me to the hospital while I was in the worst pain of my life. The surgeon at the hospital decided to operate and said afterwards that I was probably less than an hour from having ruptured appendix.
I can’t imagine it’s gotten *better* in the last 15 years given all the budget cuts.
I’m with Molly on this.
Give it some time. Your body can combat most anything, if you support it with rest and nutrition.
If you stay sick for a long time without improvement, or your gut feeling (no pun intended) is that you’re dropping fast, then go talk with someone. Trust your instincts.
Many people have mentioned Gatorade. This is solid advice for oral rehydration. It’s a tad too concentrated though and should probably be diluted 1:1 with water. (And yes, Gatorade, not Powerade or any of those other sports drinks.)
As a third choice for oral rehydration, since two people mentioned Pedialyte also, you might try Emer-gen-C. They’re small packets of powder, fizzy in a glass of water, with lots of electrolytes. Available at Rainbow or Trader Joe’s for 25 cents per packet or $12 for a box of a zillion.
It’s very, very important to replace all the electrolytes you’re losing. Even if you can’t keep the fluid down, it’s important to keep sipping it. (You can also swish juice/these drinks around in your mouth for a while without swallowing them if you’re really a wreck. You’ll absorb a lot of the nutrients through the walls of your mouth. You can also do this with crackers, incidentally, as the amylase in your saliva will break them down into glucose within a few minutes.)
Also, it would probably be good to avoid Coke. And Ginger Ale, too, if it has caffeine in it. Caffeine is a diuretic. It’ll make you pee more and you’ll lose even more fluids/electrolytes.
You didn’t mention diarrhea, but if you do have it, I’d avoid the temptation to pop anti-diarrheal medications like Imodium. They “plug up the flow,” which is great if you’re travelling and can’t run to the bathroom, etc, but they don’t fix the underlying problem.
Rehydration, rest. Amuse yourself with other things. Keep a positive attitude. You’ll be fine.
Thanks everyone for the advice. (And don’t worry, Robin – i’m AOK and have my roommates here to check in.) It’s so nice to have an excuse to drink Gatorade again – i forgot how much i love that stuff from my soccer days.
Things are definitely better. I slept through the nite without problems and am now a bit woozy but definitely less nauseous. So it does indeed look short lived. Phew.
As for the anti-doctor sentiments… I genuinely believe that doctors mean well, but they’re stuck in a system of hell that’s worse than airports these days. The system is broken, not the people. I’ve spent a large chunk of my life dealing with doctors (having broken my neck at 16) and, at this point, find that going to clinics only makes me feel more miserable as i waste away my time and money to get advice similar to take advil and sleep. Thus, i procrastinate going to the doctor until i think that it can’t be solved any other way. It’s a terrible situation, but very indicative of how medicine is not benefited by being trapped up in a beaurocratic system 🙁
Oh, and UCal is definitely 10x worse that Brown or MIT’s clinic from what i’ve seen. Long lines, mass confusion, not really operable at nite, definitely feeling the budget cuts.
Point well taken.
I do agree with all the “bureaucratic system” me and my colleages are trapped into. How I wish we can change the whole system and practice medicine the way it should be practiced.
Glad to see your doing fine, Ms. Boyd.
Rest more and get well soon!
I’m glad to hear you are feeling better. It’s funny that I have the opposite view of university health care. Granted I went to Cal Poly, SLO where they tended to give give you something that laid you low for two days, but had you ready for classes right after that. My personal experience with health care outside the university has been as you feared – slow and steady, down for a week or more while you miss out on life until you are somewhat back to sorts.
Having experienced both western and eastern views of medicine, I prefered Western when I was young and could recover quickly, but now prefer a more eastern/holistic view that benefits mu longterm health.
Just my opinion, I am really glad this was a temporary problem. Best wishes for a complete recovery.