Oddly Sudden Acute Gastroenteritis

[ironsc]

Heylo everyone,

I've been rather absent, but something very weird happened to me back in mid November. Did any of you get hit by this weird virus?

At about midnight, I started to get ill to my stomach, like I hadn't eaten for a couple days. That annoying hunger pain mixed with nausea that makes your legs go weak and shaky. I decided to get some water and saltines, but an hour later?

At one A.M., I vomited fiercely. The water, saltines, and bile-like material. I hadn?t done that in many, many years? so it was rather shocking and startling. I figured I might have eaten something bad, or maybe it was just a fluke. But 5 minutes later, I had to run back and had terrible diarrhea? twice.

After that, I knew in the back of my mind I?d end up in the hospital, but I tried everything I could to calm my insides down. I ended up vomiting 12 times and diarrhea 18 times in the span of 1 A.M. to 8 A.M. (7 hours), and could not keep water down at all.

When I got to the hospital, my HR was bouncing between 130-160 lying down (and on the beta blockers I take), and BP was 157/81.

What was odd, another lady came in with the same thing as I, and it presented at the same time with the same symptoms. Although, she was terribly worse off? huddled under warm blankets and asking for tons of pain meds while we shared a room there. I hope she?s ok.

They put two fluid bags in me, and gave me a lot of anti-nausea meds (I can't remember what it was... started with a N, I think. I was way too confused to remember). They ran some labs on me, and the guy taking care of me said my WBC count was ?impressive? ? it was 18 (18,000). He was probably pulling my leg on the impressive part to get me to laugh. He was having fun poking my purple/blue feet and hands to test my circulation. I think this was the first time he saw the weirdness of POTS.

Even after all that, I drank a ton of water at home, and it was a full day before I could even urinate with all the water I was drinking.

Final call was a sudden viral bug that had severely dehydrated me in 7 hours. It was very scary when I look back on it. I?m thankful for the emergency medical system ? without it, being unable to keep water down and violently expelling all my body?s water, I would have been considerably worse off.

I feel like I?m still trying to recover from it. POTS and dehydration definitely do NOT mix.

Very scary how fast it came on and put me down. Anyone else have something like this? It was shocking how fast it dehydrated me.

Cam

[Ernie]

Hi,

In 2007 I went in the hospital because I was dehydrated due a a medication. They put me in the same room as a patient who had severe gastro. I got her virus and ended up 3 months in the hospital because of all the doctors errors. They wanted to place me in a nursing home for the rest of my life. I had to fight and tell them that I absolutely wanted to go back home even if I was bedridden and on bedpan.

[ironsc]

Hey Ernie!

Ick, that sounds terrible! I couldn't get out of the hospital fast enough - I just wanted something to keep the water down, then I hobbled out.

I'll have to be extra careful of viral attacks and dehydration from now on, after seeing your experiences and others here. Amazing just how fast they can really get at the body.

Cam

[flop]

Sounds like an attack of Norwalk Virus / Noro virus / Winter vomiting disease. There are a number of similar acute gastroenteritis viruses that tend to have outbreaks durring the winter months. They are highly catching and often spread quickly especially in hospitals, nursing homes and schools. My local hospital are dealing with an outbreak at the moment and have 2 wards closed to new admissions.

Usually the symptoms start 24-48 hrs after you are exposed to the virus and cause severe repeated vomiting, abdominal cramps and diarrhoea. The illness can last as little as 12 hours but leaves you feeling very weak afterwards. You should stay away from work / school until you have been clear of symptoms for 48 hours to avoid passing it on to others.

I've managed to catch this more than once, I remember having a severe bout over Easter 2006. In the UK the hospitals are very reluctant to admit anyone with this vomiting bug as it usually spreads to the staff and other patients (here we have rooms with 6 patients in each and the toilets are shared for the 30 patients). I know I ended up severely dehydrated and spent a whole day on the bathroom floor as I was unable to stand up and too ill to crawl far from the toilet. If I had had a mobile phone with me in the bathroom I would have phoned for an ambulance (I was living alone and it was very frightening to realise that I couldn't get help).

At the moment my rule is to stay well away from anyone with any illness. My Mum has a bad cold at the moment and I won't go in the same room as her other than to take her bowls of soup!

Flop