8 Days and 8 Rolls of Toilet Paper later…

Eight days, and 8 rolls of toilet paper later, I recovered from food poisoning. The food poisoning started on my birthday!  I had a nice celebratory dinner at a local restaurant.  The food tasted just fine.   It was a fabulous Fettucine Alfredo with gluten free noodles, and a green salad. Yum!  I had been looking forward to this dinner for weeks.

I went to bed that evening, only to awaken at 3 AM with that awful feeling that something wasn’t right.  Have you had that feeling?  The runs to the bathroom started immediately and didn’t let up for 8 days.  It turned out that I had salmonella poisoning, confirmed by a stool sample ordered by my doctor a few days after it started.

Food poisoning is the worst thing in the world! 

Salmonella poisoning is the most frequently reported cause of foodborne illness in the United States.  An estimated 1.2 million cases occur annually.  And I was one of them.

What is amazing to me is that in a matter of hours I went from a walking-talking functioning human being, to a curled up lifeless body in front of the bathroom door.  And Mother Nature totally controlled me at that point.  When your GI system says purge it says it in capital letters- PURGE.  My husband should have known something was wrong when I didn’t come out of the bathroom for several days. 

Consuming contaminated food is something your body handles by flushing out your entire GI system. And it expects you to assist by drinking an equal volume of water and electrolytes, so you don’t get dehydrated.  Drinking plain water is OK but it does not have the required electrolytes that your stressed-out body needs. 

How to treat food poisoning

I knew I needed sodium, potassium, magnesium, and chloride. So I sent my husband out for Gatorade, but the taste made me gag.  (Who drinks that stuff?)  Then I sent him out for Pedialyte.  That was even worse.  (And they give this stuff to kids?)

At one point, I got very dehydrated and begged my husband to take me to the ER for fluids.  That was highly unusual for me, as I never get sick, I never complain, and I never ask to go to the hospital! (Here is my take on hospitals.)

When should you go to the ER for food poisoning? 

According to VisitCompleteCare–You should immediately seek food poisoning treatment in the ER if you begin to notice blood in your urine, feces, or vomit, diarrhea lasting more than three days, or signs of severe dehydration including extreme thirst, loss of consciousness, or confusion.  

I went to the ER on day-4 of my ordeal. The diarrhea was just too intense.  It was very difficult to keep up with the fluid loss.

Food poisoning treatment in the ER. 

In the ER they gave me fluids which were just water with some sodium chloride added.  I wanted to know- “where were the potassium and the other electrolytes”?  I asked the doctor if they had fluids with potassium and electrolytes.  Nope.  Just sodium chloride.  I felt cheated.  I came in for fluids with all the electrolytes.  And all I got was salt water?  (Did I mention that I don’t like hospitals?)

What is Ringer’s Solution and why would you need it?

Have you heard of Ringer’s solution?  It is an IV fluid that doctors use to treat dehydration.  According to Medical News Today, Ringer’s lactate solution (RL), also known as sodium lactate solution, or Lactated Ringer’s, is a mixture of sodium chloride, sodium lactate, potassium chloride, and calcium chloride in water.  All the electrolytes are there (or most of them anyway).   It is used for replacing fluids and electrolytes in those who have low blood volume or low blood pressure.  It is given by intravenous infusion.

My ER doctor did not have Ringer’s solution (or if he did, he wasn’t letting on).  I was disappointed. So, there I was, back at home, still with diarrhea, and still trying to find something to drink.

Bone Broth

And then it came to me!  I had bone broth soups in the freezer!  Bone broth has all sorts of good things in it.  There is sodium, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, and amino acids.  Did you know that bone broth is very healing?  And I don’t mean the store-bought bone broth.  I mean the kind you make yourself by cooking organic chicken bones or beef bones on the stove top.  Bone broth has amino acids in it that heal the lining of the gut.  So, I dug some frozen bone broths out of the freezer and added more salt to taste.  I drank up to 3 cups a day for the next week.  Yum!

What drink helps food poisoning go away?

I don’t think that any one drink will make food poisoning go away.  The emergency room doctor told me that a viral “bug” will only last a couple of days and will resolve on its own after that time period (5 days max).  Just treat the symptoms and drink fluids with electrolytes.  But if you have a bacterial infection, that is another story.

How do you know if it is a bacterial infection vs a viral infection?

As I mentioned above, a viral “bug” will only last a couple of days (5 max) and it will resolve on its own.  If you have bacterial food poisoning such as salmonella or E.coli it may last up to 7 days or more and then you may need an antibiotic to kill it off.  My doctor gave me Cipro (Ciprofloxacin) antibiotic.  I took it for the full 7 days.

Antibiotics should always be taken for the full course of the prescription, so you don’t invite the remaining bacteria (or another bad strain) to come back.  There is a slight risk that salmonella can cause a secondary blood infection like sepsis if it is not controlled.  I did not want that!

How long does food poisoning last?

Again, that depends on the kind of food poisoning you have.  See the information above on bacterial verses viral.  If it is viral, it will resolve after 3-5 days.  If it is bacterial it will extend past 7 days.

Probiotics

After my round of antibiotics, I wanted to restore the good “gut bugs” or gut bacteria that reside in my intestinal track and colon.  Antibiotics are often not specific and will kill good and bad bacteria indiscriminately.  So, I sent my husband back to the store to buy some yogurt.  Yogurts, kefir, and fermented foods have “good” bacteria that are essential to the microbiome in your belly. 

The yogurt and kefir were a start, but I wanted more.  I found a really potent probiotic called Urgent Care by Solaray.  It has 100 billion CFU’s (colony forming units) in each capsule and has to be kept in the fridge. That’s a lot of bugs. 

I started the Urgent Care probiotic and continue using it to this day. It will take another blog post to describe the additional unexpected benefits of this probiotic.  If you want to try this probiotic, get it from a large store like Whole Foods where they keep it refrigerated.  It is also available at Sprouts, The Vitamin Shoppe, and Natural Grocers.

WHAT TO EAT AFTER FOOD POISONING

Continuing with the “crazy 8’s” theme (as in the title of this blog, “8 Days and 8 Rolls of Toilet Paper later”) I also lost 8 pounds of weight during this time.  (And I don’t have 8 lbs. to lose).  As soon as my appetite returned, I sent my hubby to the store for rice crackers and soups.  The best things to eat after food poisoning is something simple like crackers and soup.  I devoured these.  But it didn’t take long for me to tire of plain crackers and soup.

As soon as I could leave the house and drive around (without the risk of suddenly needing a bathroom) I swung by the Baskin Robbins for ice cream.  The fact that I needed to gain back the weight, gave me license to eat some junk foods after it was all over!

The County Health Department

Did you know that the health department will call you after a confirmed case of salmonella?  Yup, I had a call from the county health department before it was all said and done.  They wanted to know what I ate, where I ate, and when I ate.  They were very nice, and I gave them all the details.  Let it be known that I will not be returning to that restaurant ever again.  (Go here to read another blog post about that same restaurant a few months previous).

Be Proactive

What will YOU do to be ready for a round of food poisoning?  It can happen to anyone at any time. 

• Keep your gut microbiome healthy.  Looking back, I think my gut microbiome was not as healthy as it could have been.  I am now taking a good probiotic every day (the Solaray Urgent Care).
• Have a supply of adult “pull-ups” in the bathroom.  You won’t have time to run out to the store to get supplies if you get sick.
• Have an OTC anti-diarrheal medicine in the medicine closet.  Even though this was not enough to stop my diarrhea, it should work for most cases of stomach upset.
• And it wouldn’t hurt to have some cans of soup, and crackers in the back of the cupboard as well as some bone broths in the freezer.

And as for traveling, you should be prepared to handle food poisoning if you are on a trip somewhere.  What if you are miles from home and it happens?  Fortunately, someone thought of that.  A friend of mine gave me a little bottle of “Food Poisoning Relief”.  Her husband swears by it.  I have not tried it.  But I bought several bottles just for trips!  Go here for more info.   

And last but not least here is a great fact sheet on salmonella.  Salmonella is most often found on chicken and egg products but can be found in other foods (such as tomatoes, peanut butter, dairy etc.).  Salmonella can be killed by high heat cooking.  It can also be killed by soap and water washing. 

Friends, I hope you never have to experience food poisoning, but if you do, I hope my information will be helpful.

 Always talk to your health professional before starting anything new.  This information is not intended to diagnose, treat or cure any condition and is intended only for entertainment. I welcome your comments.