Last night I had an attack of stomach woes way beyond any usual: diarrhea and upset stomach with just a hint of nausea. I took a couple of two year expired generic Pepto tablets and it seemed to do the job eventually.
What I wondered was, this was almost certainly due to something I ate, right? More likely dinner than breakfast? I worked out before I had a chance to fully digest, but that was probably not a factor, right?
I’m tossing the leftovers I had last night regardless (only one serving left anyway), but I was curious about whether it was as likely as I thought that said leftovers were to blame.
Usually, yes. If it’s intense and sudden, it’s most likely caused by the most recent meal(s). How spoiled were the leftovers? What was the content of them?
By the way, in most circumstances, you should not use anti-diarrheal meds if you suspect you’ve got some sort of food toxin in your intestines. Diarrhea is simply the body’s natural way of ridding itself of something bad, and those meds would make you hold the toxin in longer.
But vomiting should be avoided except as a last resort; it can cause Mallory-Weiss syndrome. I had a bit of such bleeding last year.
I was having intense chest pains, so, at my age, I went to urgent care. After a bunch of negative tests, they were sending me to the actual hospital for more tests. On the way there I projectile vomited right out the car window. I spent the next two days explosively expelling matter out of both ends.
I do not eat expired food, or forgotten leftovers. I have no idea what it was that got me, but it sure was something!
It’s actually not uncommon for people to even be admitted to a cardiac unit with chest pains, and it turns out to be a GI issue. They’re always really embarrassed and apologetic about wasting the doctors’ time, but the doctors are actually happy to give them news like this, and are also glad they came in, because GI issues can be serious too.
My symptoms were classic heart attack symptoms. Can’t get comfortable, pressing pain in the chest. Fortunately I have great healthcare. Did you know, you say the magic words “chest pain” and they take you right to the head of the line? Fortunately, it wasn’t busy that day. I didn’t cut in front of more than two IIRC.
It’s also fortunate I vomited in the parking lot, and not at my desk at work! Ho-lee crap! They took away our trash cans. They might have had to replace the carpeting!
Not necessarily. I had occasional bad cramps, chills with uncontrollable shivers followed by sweating and hot. It turned out to be a blocked gall bladder. Had it removed and no problems since then.
Yep. I had the worst chest pain imaginable and thought I was dying. When the pain went away I thought I was a wimp. Each time it recurred I assumed since I hadn’t died it must be gastrointestinal. Spent around 5 weeks doing this.
Turns out I had unstable angina, had at least one heart attack, and was made better with a single stent.
I went to the ER twice with bad chest pains. Both times it was a GI issue. But the docs said not to be embarrassed by checking in. The long wait time as people in really bad shape (correctly) went ahead was kind of annoying.
A subsect of digestive issues that aren’t directly related to food can be temperature.
For me, especially during summer months where I’m letting the house get warmer than ideal (to me) to cut A/C costs, I have a noticeable increase in stomach distress. A related problem to warmer temps is frequently dehydration. Both of them together (and I’m sure the poor sleep from being overheated as well!) means that nausea, along with occasional gas pains and diarrhea.
Nothing some GasX (simethecone), maybe some Pepto, and a lot of water won’t improve after an hour or so, which is on the extremely low side of duration from any true food poisoning.
Although, counter, there are times where I knowingly eat something (too spicey, too much dairy, or just too much) and I know that I’m asking for sudden, intense, but hardly unexpected digestive issues!
It took a long time, especially because I have little time sense. You can find at least one thread by me about not being able to identify the problem.
This particular form of food poisoning is called chinese buffet syndrome because a lot of those buffets make their fried rice from improperly stored white rice.
I finally identified it when I was helping clear my mother’s house out. On Friday evenings, i would have Chinese buffet after being at Mom’s, then Saturday at Mom’s would have bad diarrhea. Seeing that pattern, I stopped eating there. Later, I started eating at another chinese buffet (it’s one of my weaknesses) and had the problem again. Finally stopped getting the fried rice and it’s stopped.
I’ve also had problems with eating old bread, but I don’t know how long that takes to percolate through the system.
Note that these were diarrhea only issues. Current medical knowledge is that food takes 24 hours to go through the system. So if that is the only problem, it probably came from something had more than a few hours ago.
Once, I had a Sonic chili dog for supper, and had a bad bout of food poisoning that didn’t start till the next day. Nothing I ate in between should have caused it. Also, I was getting the ghost of chili burps.
