At first I thought it was food poisoning, but the three meals were
Lamb cooked at a friend’s house,
Chicken vindaloo at a restaurant,
Chili with cornbread and rice, from a frozen TV dinner.
The only common ingredient in all three meals (to my knowledge) was sticky white rice.
After each of these meals (around 7pm each) I would feel fine. At about 3am, I would awaken from a fitful sleep with a sharp pain in my lower abdomen, resembling bad gas. By 4am, I would finally have diarrhea, which lasted until about 5:30. The sharp pain would increase gradually, eventually becoming dull, and leading to six or seven bouts of vomiting, about one an hour, culminating in dry heaves and vomiting bile. By noon or 1pm, I would feel fine, but exhausted and chilly. Throughout the illness, my body temperature fluctuated (or felt like it was fluctuating) wildly, going from fever to chills and back.
I never used to get sick, and now I’ve been ill with this three times in three months. I’m starting to get really tired of it, and I want to know what on earth is causing it.
Doesn’t sound like ulcerative colitis to me, and I have it. Gradual onset, noticeable presence of blood in the stool, no vomiting, no actually feeling ill besides the irregular bowel movements.
Actually, the described symptoms do sound a lot like food poisoning to me, but the multiple occurences makes that seem a bit of a stretch.
I concur that professional medical attention is called for.
IANAD but it sounds to me like everyday run-of-the-mill Staph aureus food poisoning. The food perhaps had been sitting around too long. Ingestion of a reasonable titer of bacteria leads to poisoning from the endotoxins. This causes crampy diarrhea and vomiting within 4-8 hours, which passes when you get rid of the endotoxins.
Giardiasis can be contracted from ingesting water from mountain streams or from other contaminated water or food. It is not incredibly common but a common treatment for periodic diarrhea is a course of empiric metronidazole which will cover Giardia.
Most gut inflammatory syndromes or diseases don’t include vomiting and diarrhea. But it has been a while and I am probably forgetting some.
An oddball suggestion is Bacillus cereus, which is a food poisoning contracted from cooked rice.
I should correct myself and say Giardia is not particularly common in the US or Europe (although it is endemic in Russia), but it is extremely common throughout the rest of the world.
I’d also say go to a doctor, but I’ll play the guessing game. It could be chronic appendicitis. I had this a year ago. I had all of the classic symptoms of acute appendicitis: fever, the runs, loss of appetite, nausea, intense ab. pain, After a couple days, however, the symptoms started to go away and by the 4th day I felt pretty much normal. Just had some pressure in my lower right side. It stayed that way for 7 weeks until I had it yanked. I did some research on the chronic appendicitis just because I wanted to see other what other people went through. And for some people they would show symptoms, they would go away, and might be gone for years, but would eventually come back. I think it varies a lot. Anyway, that would be my guess. A CAT scan would show, but I had issues with mine. Had to have a second opinion because all the radiologist said was that there was a loop that didn’t go with anything at about $100 a word.
I was also tested for Crohn’s late October because the symptoms came back. This was sans appendix. I was negative, but it sounds like we had similar symptoms so I guess that might be a possibility, too. They would need to do a Colonoscopy and some bloodwork for that.
Anyway, good luck. I hope everything turns out well for you.
This is not a very common presentation. You didn’t specify your usual diet, living circumstances, medical/family history, possible environmental exposures and lifestyle issues (smoking, drinking, etc.). As I considered your symptoms, the possibilities and relevant questions multiplied. I don’t think anything short of a clinical interview and possibly directed exam+tests would be helpful., so I’m going to second the trite, but usually wise, advice that you see a physician.
Don’t worry yourself sick over it, but do it ASAP: while most of the possibilities are mild or moderate, a few are quite serious - and someone has to get he oddbal conditions (which often seem far less oddball, once all the circumstances are known). While food poisoning is not out of the question, the varied sources, including a meal of commercially packaged food, make it unlikely, absent a common factor like a late night snack of improperly stored or contaminated leftovers.
The so-called ‘short incubation’ form of Bacillis cereus food poisoning is classically associated with reheated rice and can present with the symptoms and timing you described, but it can only be definitively proven by analysis of a sample of the affected food (which probably isn’t available now). As a general “book” rule, only Staphylococcus and preformed toxins of certain other bacteria -which may not be destroyed by cooking- cause symptoms in 6-12 hours. There are several other conditions that should be ruled out before leaping to that diagnosis.
Sounds vaguely similar to something I had a few years back. Was in Guatemala and drank the water. Picked up an unidentified bug that liked lots of beer. After nights of heavier than normal drinking, I was DONE four about two days. Liquids coming out of everything that could produce liquids. Then fine again. The docs didn’t know exactly what it was, and prescribed two drugs to kill anything that moved. Problem was, no alcohol or caffiene during the ten day course of treatment. It took until the third attack (whilst in Germany on business) that that cure became more attractive than the affliction.
I once had food poisoning after eating at a restaurant. It was a birthday party and only those who ate cake got sick making it pretty easy to guess that it was most likely salmonella. If the others who ate the lamb dinner did not get sick you can most likely rule out food poisoning. However a pet can carry salmonella. Do you have a pet?