Help, food poisoning

[llwynogbach]

My DP has had food poisoning for 8 days now, it seems to be getting no better if anything it seems to be worse. He got a bit better on Sat and then relapsed on Sunday evening. He's not being sick but has horrific runs and literally nothing stays in longer than 10 min (Sorry tmi) I'm really worried, he went to the dr on Mon and they gave him rehydration stuff and old him to give a sample.

He's was on strong anitbiotics for 3 months recently for an infection on his skin, I'm worried the antibiotics have left him with no resistance to whatever he has. WWYD NHS direct, return to GP (v hard to persuade him to do that) or a walk in/ urgent care centre??

Apart from anything else my poor poor hands need to stop being washed and bleaching the house, they currently look like the hands of an 8oyr old lady.

[JackSkellington]

www.nhs.uk/conditions/food-poisoning/Pages/Introduction.aspx

This will help, although it does say that if symptoms are severe or don't go away within a few days, you should see your GP.

It sounds like it would be best for him to go back to his GP, or even visit a walk-in clinic if there is one nearby.

[Germgirl]

Did he do a sample? I would definitely try to get him to go back to the doctors.
When you said he'd recently had a long course of antibiotics I instantly thought of Clostridium difficile infection. The GP needs to get his stool sample tested for that.
Severe food poisoning can last for several weeks but he needs to be tested and if it's C diff, he needs treatment.
Hope he's better soon.

[pinkfrocks]

ABs won't necessarily have weakened his immune system but they do affect the bacteria in the gut so this may contribute to the runs carrying on for longer.
People who have IBS often find it's started after an episode of food poisoning when the normal bacteria levels in the gut have been altered.

What is he eating? If he is still badly affected then he ought to stick to really bland foods such as plain rice, fish and oats ( as in porridge.) fried foods and dairy which can make it worse. Obviously keep well off anything that has lots of fibre.

I have had the runs before for 7 days then it cleared up. An old remedy recommended by my mum's late GP is to grate an apple, let it stand then eat it all- the pectin evidently helps to stop the spasms etc.
I tried it and it did work!

But you also need to follow up the stool sample.

[pinkfrocks]

See the link here for grated apple- about half way down the list.

beamingwithhealth.com.au/community/conditions/diarrhoea

[mawinter]

Do you remember which antibiotic he was on?

[llwynogbach]

He was on 3 different types, I remember that one was flucoxacillin. He's had a few days of eating nothing but even the rehydration stuff goes straight through he really does look very ill. He handed his sample in today so hopefully the results of that will come back by fri. I just worry that is getting no better at all. I've never seen any one be this ill for so long.

[mawinter]

It really does sound like Clostridium difficile afraid. He may need to submit another sample, if this one comes up empty handed. For me it was Clindamycin which did me in. I was on this for 17 days following a wound reopening and draining. The whole time I was on it, I was totally fine until the 3rd day after stopping the meds. For me it unfortunately took until the second sample to detect I even had it, by this time I was on a new antibiotic against Bronchitis, so things got a little worse.
While you are waiting for results you may want to stock up on some bone based beef and chicken soups as these are really helpful in building back up healthy gut flora following antibiotics. Additionally Yogurts made from Live Cultures and Sauerkraut.