What are these terrible GI symptoms?

Factual Questions
1

A doctor’s appointment has been made - seeking anecdotal info and possible causal thoughts

A “friend” had a terrible bout with some sort of gastrointestinal reaction this is what happened:

She was feeling fine all day long, when she suddenly had an urge to go to the bathroom #2. While in the bathroom she immediately broke out with profuse sweating, nausea, weakness and fatigue. The bout of sweating lasted for approximately 30 minutes and she could not leave the bathroom because she felt too weak and drenched in sweat. WHen she finally was able to leave the bathroom she got the chills as she walked back to her desk. She felt fatigued and out-of-it for the next few hours. The symptoms gradually subsided.

The next day she felt less than 100% and when she ate she could not finnish meals and felt full quickly.

On day three she felt a little better but still not 100%. And upon eating she feels gross again…nausea and gurgly stomach.

Sounds to me like salmonella or food poisoning… if not food poisoning or salmonella what then? Anyone have any ideas before she finds out from the doc?

2

Is she having lots of gas and burps that taste like sulpher? If so, it’s likely giardia (gurgly stomach is a pretty classic giardia symptom), which you can get from funky water or food that has touched funky water. I think it is relatively common in the states. It’s fairly easy to treat, but if it’s untreated it will go away and come back in cycles.

It could also be a random bacterial or viral infection. There are all kinds of things you can pick up and it can be pretty hard to figure out exactly what went wrong. Salmonella and e. coli are just the more popular ones.

These things happen. I would see a doctor, but I wouldn’t freak out about it.

3

How old is she?

(Fair, female, forty, fat and flatulant= gall bladder disease) {But, not necessarily}

4

30, female, olive skin, not fat, but sulphurous flatulence for sure. But not so much with the burping.

5

I doubt it’s giardia or salmonella.

It sounds like one of thousands of transient GI pathogens than the body acquires and gets rid of on its own.

If it lasts longer than a week, is associated with bloody stools, high fever, or change in consciousness, a doctor should be consulted.

And yes, IAAD

6

Thank you, Sir, much appreciated! :smiley: I think it was more scary than anything else as she’s never experienced something like this before with sudden, profuse sweating.

7

Of course, Qad is right (maybe one day - April 1st? - he’ll slip up just to keep us on our toes).

Given the sudden onset and spontaneous resolution, the GI symptoms may well have been due to either Rota or Norwalk viruses. One way to build a case for either of those diagnoses is whether anyone who had ‘close contact’ with her gets sick, too. Rota and Norwalk are notoriously contagious.