Fasting to Cure Diarrhea - Help!

[NotQuiteCockney]

Ok, I have had diarrhea since Sundayish. It has gotten worse and worse. I haven't eaten anything since yesterday morning. (Before that, I was mostly having v simple foods, anyway, and not much.)

I haven't even had juice or tea, just water. Nothing else.

I still have diarrhea. Not loads of it, but certainly some.

Do I eat now? Do I keep fasting until the diarrhea stops? Do I have some diluted apple juice?

I feel pretty wobbly (shocker) and my abdomen is pretty tender, but the GP checked me yesterday, and thinks this is just a viral thing.

[desperatehousewife]

i would go really easy on food and drink today. but if you are feeling wobbly and empty and hungry then I would def have a dry plain biscuit or a piece of brown toast with very little on it (marmite..?) and see if that stays in as it were. stay off juice even diluted...stick to lots and lots and lots of water to flush it all out...that's my advice.

[NotQuiteCockney]

Well, I feel wobbly, but the idea of food makes me feel a bit nauseated. I worry if I eat anything, I'll throw it up. (I'm really not a fan of vomiting, after a real Exorcist experience, a few years back.)

I might have a tiny bit of plain white toast.

Or maybe I'll wait until I've had a few hours poo-free.

[throckenholt]

I have also had it since Monday - nothing but water for the first day and a half - then I felt better so had tea - big mistake - spent the whole night on the loo and threw up as well - yuk. Yesterday was the worst day - felt very weak and wobbly. And even found water difficult to drink.

Today I feel much better - have had a piece of toast and a pint of water so far - but still very weak (walking up 2 flights of stairs to work almost finished me off !).

Try and take it easy today and hopefully it will be gone by this evening.

[throckenholt]

by the way - I was craving toast with marmite - maybe needed the salt ?

[NotQuiteCockney]

I can't stand marmite, so am unlikely to crave it.

Not sure what I'll do. Go back to bed, and hope I get better.

throckenholt, you're working with this bug? Why? Shouldn't you be off sick? (I've pulled out all the stops and given up pretty much all child-related responsibility.)

[DumbledoresGirl]

NQC, as a vomit fearing expert, and Throckenholt's experience aside, I would say it was unlikely you would be sick if the bug is now in your lower gut and causing the diarrhoea.

You could try some dry toast, or a plain dry biscuit (crackers are good for this) - bananas, apples and rice are also recommended although I don't think that is what I would fancy in your situation.

If you did want tea( it is excellent for replacing lost minerals) the thing to do would be to drink it black and allow it to cool before drinking as the heat can exacerbate things too.

All the above information I have received straight from doctors BTW.

Oh and sympathies. It sounds like a horrid bug.

[throckenholt]

I was off work yesterday - but I have just had 2.5 weeks holiday - and only work part time - so felt I really ought to make the effort.

Just read your other thread about this - sounds very similar to me - hope you start to feel better soon.

[throckenholt]

not that I am doing anything yet - browsing mumsnet because I can't face the email backlog

[FrannyandZooey]

NQC, I woke up thinking about you and hoping you were better :(

I suppose this would not be the right time for a mildly humourous suggestion that some EBM might settle your stomach?

I know you are a doctor refusenik, but maybe a call to NHS direct (or someone else phoning on your behalf) might be useful - they could tailor their advice to your symptoms.

Oh and while we are on the subject, how is your thumb?

[NotQuiteCockney]

Oh, I actually went to the GP yesterday, F&Z. He said it didn't seem to be anything serious (diverticulitis or appendicitis) and was probably viral. He said I should starve myself for 24 hours and see what happened.

My thumb is mostly better, the weird flap of skin has come off and now there's just a little scab.

Oh, good, the builders are coming in. Doing big noisy things today. Also, the cleaner, who I am having a bit of a pay dispute with, is coming today. Gah.

[NotQuiteCockney]

And EBM isn't a totally ridiculous suggestion, but I don't know where my pump is, and never got the knack of hand-expressing.

I am still having rather startling diarrhea, so will keep fasting for the moment.

I am worried about vomiting because I keep having the warning signs: loads of saliva, lots of burping, and a little bit of fluid coming up. You're right that the bug is probably in my lower digestive tract, but I'm just not 100% sure.

Must go sort things out so they don't get dusty, with the builders doing Big Work. Shoot me now.

[FrannyandZooey]

Oh NQC. What a disaster. I think I would definitely not eat anything, if I was feeling like that. Just have lots of water.

I personally dislike vomiting much less than actually feeling nauseous. Have you not got anyone who can just come and deal with all this crap at home? Where's dp?

[NotQuiteCockney]

DH is at work. Well, he's on the way to school with DS1, then taking DS2 to (crappy emergency) nursery. He will pick up DS2 from nursery. A neighbour will get DS1 from after-school club at school.

I don't actually have to do anything today, though. The cleaner doesn't actually speak english, so the pay dispute is via letters to her daughter. (And I can just change cleaners if we get into trouble, there are plenty of other, well-recommended cleaners about.) The builders have doors through from the other house to our house, so it's just noise, dust and disruption, not actual work for me.

The scary thing is, if this were to happen after the knocking through, I would want my PILs to come and stay with us and sort things out. I seem to get seriously ill about once a year, so I need to have a plan.

(The only food I'm craving is hot dogs. Sad, eh?)

I used to be very very fine about vomiting, would do it on purpose if nauseated, and always felt loads better. But then, about 5 years ago, I suddenly started throwing up, every 20 minutes, and couldn't stop. Bile and blood, eventually. Ended up going to A+E (after finding out from SIL that they could help me), and got a shot in the butt to fix it. I don't know what caused this, but it's moved me from "happy to vom" to "really would rather not". I don't think I'm phobic, though.

[NotQuiteCockney]

Oh, and I am drinking loads of water, and peeing, so not all the water is going straight through me.

I might have a dose of dioralyte, to see if that helps. Couldn't hurt, anyway.

[FrannyandZooey]

:(

Is dh so excitingly high powered that they can't live without him?

It all sounds dreadful, with or without diarrheoa

For god's sake don't eat a hotdog

[throckenholt]

I wanted to come to work (although just wasn't up to it yesterday) - have just got back from a holiday on Sunday - haven't had the energy to unpack anything yet, washing everywhere, DS1 has chicken pox and head lice (!) and DH is grumping around the house trying to do work on the extension.

Work seemed a positive haven as long as I am not rushing to the loo every 20 minutes - so far so good.

[NotQuiteCockney]

DH is alarming high-powered (he manages a team of 23, around the world). I feel quite lucky he's managing to help as much as he is, frankly. (Picked up DS2 from co-op on Tuesday. Did school run yesterday morning. Picked up DS1 from school, at the end of after-school club, yesterday. Did school run today, and is doing nursery trip.) He's had to cancel a lot of meetings to do this, and was up working until after 1am one night this week to make up for it.

Maybe we want an au pair when we knock through. Or something. Well, using a friend's au pair yesterday worked quite well.

[NotQuiteCockney]

Oh, and no hot dogs in house, so no fear. I have apple sauce and white bread and apple juice for when I can actually eat.

I do quite like hot dogs, frankly, but back home you can get "nice" ones, that are better.

[FrannyandZooey]

Well

at high-powered husband, au pair, cleaner and knocking through then.

Count your blessings woman :o

[NotQuiteCockney]

Goodness throckenholt, your life sounds messier than mine! Where did you come back from? Could you have caught something nasty there, rather than the garden-variety gastric 'flu thing most people have?

[NotQuiteCockney]

I know, I know. I can't really b*tch about it, if DH wasn't so stupidly high powered, we wouldn't be able to afford any of it. (Well, I paid the deposit on first house, and did used to make serious ££ too.)

Probably won't get au pair. Not sure we'd want one.

[throckenholt]

the outer hebrides - think I picked up something from service stations on the trip back home - honestly we had seen practically no-one for 2 weeks . DS1 must have picked up chickenpox and head lice on the day before we left from school and spent 2 weeks incubating them - only discovered both as we got him ready for school on Monday !

[NotQuiteCockney]

The high-powered thing is nice for ££, but not nice for him not being around much, and often being distracted etc. And going on business trips a lot - he leaves for the Far East in just over a week.

[NotQuiteCockney]

Your poor DS, throckenholt, he must be the itchiest person in the world at the moment.

[MrsBadger]

defintely recommend Diarolyte - my bet is you're wobbly because your blood sugar is way low. Lucozade Sport diluted down a bit, or weak squash, or anything slightly sugary should make you feel better if not actually stop the diarrhoea. Would avoid fresh juice though as it can be pretty acidic.

hope you feel better soon