The worst morning of my life (positively vile and TMI)

The BBQ Pit
1

I am having the worst morning of my fucking life, and I am miserable.

At around 4:00am, I wake up feeling odd. I am all sweaty and I feel nauseous. Now, normally I am of the cast-iron stomach variety. I have drunk myself into incredible stupors but yet never lost my liquor. I haven’t thrown up in my adult life, and even as a child I have ever been physically ill 2 times that I remember (you know, above the infant stage). Because I hardly ever feel this way, I thought I might be seriously ill, like having a heart attack or something, but I wasn’t having any pain. I figured maybe it was just nerves, since I just went from working nights to working days, and my alarm goes off at 5:30am.

I lay there, tossing and turning and feeling bad. Finally, my clock radio (my ‘warning’) goes off about 5:15 and I sit up, since I haven’t slept. Bad move. My stomach starts heaving. By the time I really know what’s going on I’m vomiting uncontrollably. I didn’t even have the strength to get up, so I just try to vomit in one spot. Of course, this is horrible to begin with.

After I can control myself, I run to the bathroom, knocking several things over. My roommate sleeps in the main room and I’m sure I woke him up, but I couldn’t do anything about it in the dark. I wash my mouth out and feel better. Okay, maybe it was just a fluke. I don’t want to throw up anymore, so I got a glass of water and started sipping it.

I get back to my room and clean up. Fortunately, I’ve just vomited on one comforter, so I deal with the lovely task of scraping off the worst of it into a garbage can and then starting the washer. Fortunately, the laundry room is attached to my room so it won’t bother anyone.

I sit down and feel generally pretty awful so I send a long e-mail to my boss about the stuff I was supposed to do today (I’m training new employees). By now it’s about 5:40. I start to feel dizzy and I go to the bathroom and sit by the toilet for a long while, but then decide I should lie down. I go to my bedroom, turn off the lights and then, whammo, I have the instantaneous need to heave my guts out. Lucky for me, I turned out the lights so I can’t even aim or anything. As I was heading towards the bed, I double over on the bed and up comes all the water and a bit more of last night’s dinner. I think to myself, stomach, give me about ten seconds notice, would you?

After regaining the ability to stop dry-heaving, I run to the bathroom and sit there for, oh, half an hour or so. Still no urge to vomit. I’m beginning to think extracting my own stomach with a kitchen knife would be a viable alternative.

Ok, so then I go back to my bed and survey the damage. I nailed the sheets this time. Toss them in the wash, don’t even bother turning it on since I figure there will be more collateral damage.

I lie down and doze for a bit. Then I notice it’s getting light out and I get up. I need to call work.

Bad move, I guess. I start to feel it coming from the moment I sit up. I tried to head to the bathroom but another roommate was in there, so I mostly-dry-heaved into a garbage can. I do this uncontrollably for what seemed like a couple of minutes, and it hurts, and I have no control, then I even lose control of another orifice… I’ll let you guess which one. (Probably the least pleasant one to lose control of, at least at that moment.) Jesus Christ. I am the sickest I have ever been in my life.

I hastily clean up. My class starts in five minutes and I’m going crazy, but I’m still retching. More clothes in the laundry, which I start and plan to run several times. I call my employer (it was too dark to find the phone earlier) and frantically leave messages around until someone tells me my boss got the e-mail. Ok. I do some more cleaning up.

I am wondering if this is food poisoning or something, considering the multiple problems with my digestive system right at the moment. I am getting to the point where I am so miserable that I am thinking about going to the hospital or something, but now I just feel slightly queasy, and besides which I really don’t need vomit in my car. I think I’m probably overreacting. I really, really want to take a shower but I can’t really stand up that long and we don’t have a bathtub.

This freaking sucks and I am just as miserable lying down as sitting up, it seems to be changes in position that bother me. So, here’s my horrible, vile thread. Enjoy.

2

Hope you feel better soon.

I had a similiar experience a few months ago and literally thought I was dying. Lucky for me I had a few pills of phenegren lying around so I could rest.

Try just sipping on some water or even ice chips. Don’t drink anything too fast. Once you feel a little better don’t put any food on your tummy. Get some jello or crackers or something light.

Drink some weak tea.

And again, feel better soon. :slight_smile:

3

This story sounds eerily familiar to a friend of mine who recently had food poisoning. So if you have leftovers, THROW THEM OUT when you have the strength. My friend was awful for a day and then exhausted the entire next day, so please take it easy. Nothing is so important that two days of your life sick will cause it to fall apart. Have some flat ginger ale and some crackers or toast when you can manage it. And get off the internet and go to sleep!

4

Ah yes, the ole’ double-ender whammy sickness. A very powerful and unpleasant illness. You should probably go ahead and tell your boss you’ll be off for three days. Trust me on this one.

5

Being nauseated really stinks. Sounds like you’ve either got food poisoning or a nasty virus. It may be too late, but do everyone a favor and quarrantine yourself until you feel better. Don’t go feeling all noble and go into work sick like some people feel compelled to do.

I’d bring you some of my old fashioned chicken soup, but you’d probably just toss it back up. Oh, and don’t bother with the t.v. Daytime t.v. will make you feel worse.

Slainte!

6

I hope you get better. IANAMD but it does sound like a version of food poison. I had it once unfortunately for me it was coming out at both ends. It really sucks when you are leaning over the toilet vomitting and make a mess on the floor behind you (don’t ask why I was throwing up buck naked, it is a long gross story…) I sympatize and hope you get better soon. Hopefully one of our esteemed members in the medical field will post some helpful information.

7

Similar thing happened to me after eating a whopper one night.

I know where you’re at because I’ve been where you’ve been.

8

This was pretty much me last Thursday morning. In my case, I was only feeling a little dizzy when I first woke up, which I attributed to having had a late evening beer with my pizza the night before (not my usual routine), so I managed to have some breakfast before the vomiting started. :rolleyes: It was late afternoon by the time I could sit up for more than 15 seconds without starting to heave.

Relax, sleep a little or watch the tube, and later on make yourself some chicken broth to get over the dehydration you’ll have. Hope you’re feeling better in short order.

9

Advice from my daughter’s doctor when she was vomiting a few weeks ago: put some ice and water in a cup and get a tablespoon. Drink one tablespoon of the water every fifteen minutes. If you can’t hold that down, you need to go to the hospital.

10

Put a trash can with a plastic liner beside the toilet, so you can go, and still puke too. This will make clean up faster, and easier. If the puking and “runs” persist, do think about having a roomate or neighbor drive you in to the doctor’s office. IANAD, but I would think an adult version of Pedialyte (Gatorade might, or might not fit the bill) would be in order to help stave off getting sicker and weaker due to dehydration. At least have a covered container of water near your bed for you to sip from. Good Luck, get well soon. I’m sending healing vibes your way.

11

The reason I suggested “covered” container of water is from a bad experience I had while sick. Puke isn’t appetizing to watch floating in a glass of water. :eek: If you have a cup with a lid, or bottled water, that will do admirably.

12

I’m really not trying to scare you or anything but if you can’t stand up, are extremely dizzy and if your head hurts, please go to the hospital right away.

My mother had the same symptoms (thought it was food poisoning) for four days and finally went to the doctor. Turns out it was a brain anuerysm. She’s fine and you will be too, but if you really can’t keep anything down (including water) get help. Least of all you need to be rehydrated.

13

Since there have been all sort of constructive statements, let me do the Doper thing and chime in with:

Cheer up! Things could be worse! In the “Do you know anyone who has committed a horrible crime?” threat on IMHO there are a couple of people who cite friends/relatives/acquaintances who woke up after a blackout caused by booze to find the bloodied corpse of their drinking mates/loved ones – whom they had killed while blacked out.

That’s gotta be a bad way to start the day.

14

Given the current situation, does anyone else find the OP’s user name amusing in a sick, evil, twisted kind of way? :smiley:

Having said that, please get to the ER, if you can’t even keep down water. Dehydration is a serious issue, and should be treated as such. Don’t try to drive! Get someone to drive you. At the very least, if it’s nothing serious, the ER can shoot you up with vistiril (sp?), a handy little anti-nausea drug that will keep you nausea-free for 8 hours. Yeah, it’s probably food poisoning, but it could be something more serious, and you really should find out.

I certainly can sympathize; I get that uncontrollable vomiting/dry heaving when I have a kidney stone attack. I keep anti-nausea pills around, but sometimes am so nauseous that they won’t stay down long enough to go to work.

Hope you’re better really soon.

15

Hmmm.

Mighta been food poisoning. Did your head hurt really bad while you were barfing? I mean so bad you thought it was gonna explode? Food poisoning seems to do that a lot. Whenever I have it I get the blinding headache that lasts for about 15 minutes afterwards, then I feel fine.

16

fluiddruid, what an awful morning. I hope you’re over the worst of it, and I hope you have no more surprise attacks (especially from behind!).

17

I vomit easily, and normally I’d rather go ahead and throw up rather than be nauseated. I HATE being nauseated. I usually have time to get to the bathroom before I throw up. I dated a guy once that was like you – almost never vomited, and the one time he got sick while I knew him, he threw up all over the wall cuz he couldn’t get to the bathroom in time.

The trashcan with liner idea is a good one. Doesn’t help with the other end, I know (sorry, no ideas on that).

Take care of yourself. Puking is no fun, and I say that as someone who pukes easily and (relatively) often.

18

I have had several more bouts of vomiting and dry heaving. I can’t keep water down – I try to take a sip or two, and lay back, and it comes up a little bit later. I will call a family member to see if she can help me out.

Fortunately, this last time I woke up needing to vomit uncontrollably left me feeling less weak, so I might actually be able to get to the car. I don’t feel dizzy anymore, and I can walk around a little.

How long without water should I worry about? Because, I’m starting to feel a little bit better. I could have earlier, but honestly I don’t remember all that happened.

I am really sick. So sick I forgot to put in the part about projectile vomiting and getting a wayward chunk between my toes when I went to put clothes in the washer. And I was thinking you’d all enjoy that part so much!

Thanks for all of your support, though. I think it is probably food poisoning.

19

I called my mom, she’s probably at lunch and will be back in 10 minutes or so.

Oh, and since I didn’t notice you before, sod off, EvilCaptor. I’d probably be a lot nicer about seeing your point of view if I hadn’t shit my pants this morning, but since I did, go to hell. There, now I feel better. You’re probably right, but I don’t care. If you kick a guy in the nuts and tell him he should be happy his family wasn’t mass executed, he still won’t be real happy. :wink:

No headaches except from the bodily spasming, for those who asked.

20

I feel for you, fluiddruid, I really do. Mr. Cameron was in your place a few weeks ago. It was almost certainly food poisoning. He was basically vomiting (and other things) for about 12 hours, and then weak for the rest of the day, and the next.

I’m not an MD, but my rule of thumb would be that if it keeps up more than 24 hours, hit the ER. Of course, it’s better safe than sorry, so going sooner than that might be wise. In any event, I’d say keep trying ice chips. Any little bit helps.