18 year old tummy bug - when to worry

[dragonDan]

Hi, Hopefully someone can offer some advice and hopefully some reassurance.

My son went to a party over a week ago, slept in front room with about ten other teens/young adults. No drugs involved as this was a family party and older adults were there.

About two days later he started coughing, had a high temperature, a headache and muscle aches.

Then on Tuesday night this week he started vomiting pretty much non stop for 24 hours. He became dehydrated. Took him to A&E on Wednesday where they put him on a drip and gave him anti-sickness through IV. Seemed a bit better for a while but continued to feel really nauseous. They gave him anti sickness tablets to take orally but they didn't work. He wasn't getting sick as much but couldn't keep even water down. Took him back to A&E last night and they changed his anti sickness medication. This new lot isn't working either.

He hasn't eaten one thing in three days and continues to feel really nauseous and even sips of water make him sick again.

The doctors at A&E said it is gastroenteritis but I'm really worried about him not eating for three days. He was underweight as it is and now he is very underweight.

He is really trying to drink water and he manages to keep a bit down but if this doesn't subside soon he will become dehydrated again and the lack of eating will become a problem.

Should gastroenteritis be this bad? The sickness and nausea and vomiting has been three whole days now with no sign of him getting better at all.
He is also sleeping a lot.

Meant to say two Covid tests came back negative.

You really took a teenage son to a&e twice for gastro!. 3 days is nothing gastro can take a bit longer to leave the system.

@GreenIsle I was told to by my GP because he was showing signs of dehydration and just as well I did because blood tests show it was affecting his kidneys already and they gave him two bags of fluid to rehydrate him.
Would you go against doctors advice ?

How is / was his poo? Appreciate there's probably nothing to go through the system at this point. But did he have diarrhea? Vomiting and only vomiting would concern me more so than vomiting and diarrhea if that makes sense. No harm in calling 111 - they may have further advice on eating and keeping fluids down.

No diarrhea

use a syringe to take 5-10 ml every couple of minutes might be worth getting some diorylyte or similar so he’s getting a bit extra.

Has he been bringing up bile i.e green vomit? Did they rule out a blockage in the bowel when he was seen?

I would consider taking him back if that's a concern. Your instincts have clearly served him well up to now so trust them.

Hope he turns a corner very soon. Horrible thing for him (and you) to go through.

Our whole family all caught an absolutely horrific bug in May, which took everybody over a week to recover from. My son went down on a Friday night and didn't go back to school until weds week. 8 days off school. We were all absolutely fucked.

Anyone else from the party get sick? This would actually be a very good indicator that it's "just" a bug.

He has just said some others from party have been sick but not as bad as him.
He is bringing up bile mostly and the water that he is trying to drink

They checked his tummy, testes did bloods, etc so I think they would have checked for bowel blockage

You did the right thing OP. I had food poisoning so bad at 19 that I needed 6 bags of fluid to stop the hallucinating from dehydration. It was so terrible I remember begging to die (and I never complain about illness).
Your son’s stomach lining may have been affected by the bug, hence the continuous tummy issues if he tries to eat or drink. This will heal in time but make sure he os well hydrated, small rations of stomach-gentle food (I love my food but I ate like a 4 year old for a month), and loads of rest. Poor lad!

How is he doing today?

I thought he had turned a corner last night as he seemed a bit better and managed to eat one Rich tea biscuit and some flat lemonade. He seemed perkier but then he got sick again at 2:30am and again about an hour ago. He's sleeping again now.
He is trying to sip water but keeps coming back up. This is day 4 of vomiting and no eating

Don't worry about the weight loss, there nothing medical science can do about it. All you can do it continue with keeping him hydrated and it will eventually subside.

I had the same thing after drinking and the doctors said it was the same thing. I was so dehydrated and my BP was low but they kept sending me to out of hours and giving anti sickness meds that didn’t work. It lasted 2 weeks

Have they got him on ondansetron? If not, ask if that would be possible. Its a drug for when you’re on chemo - but should also stop vomiting dead in its tracks (if it’s not contraindicated) and would allow his stomach to heal and let the gut irritation settle down. At 18 I had horrendous food poisoning and the vomiting lasted a full 7 days. The key thing is tiny tiny amounts of fluid / electrolyte drink every 5 ~ 10 mins. Don’t worry about food. He’ll put the weight on eventually. Keep off dairy products for at least two weeks.

He was given ondasetron (sp?) and metrozopole (sp?). Neither is working.

Oh dear. Hate to think what state he’d be in without the ondansetron.

I'd be worried, you can get cyclical vomiting where having an empty stomach just causes more vomiting.

He needs to keep trying to get food and fluid in, definitely speak to the GP again as he may need an anti sickness injection rather than the tablets.

I'd ring 111 again. If he was dehydrated enough to require IV fluids a few days ago I'd guess he may need an IV again. He may well need admitting for 24/48hrs. It might have started as just gastro, but days later he could well end in renal failure. Is he passing much urine?

I had Ondansetron and every other anti sickness drug available when I was having chemo and none of them even slightly affected my nausea and vomiting. So don’t feel like it’s out of the ordinary if sickness meds don’t work.

Have you asked about food at the party? Caterers? Did all the sick people eat something in common maybe?

I hope he turns a corner soon. It’s obviously really worrying you.

Thank you all so much for taking the time to reply. He is finally on the mend thank goodness. He is starting to eat tiny amounts and hasn't been sick since yesterday.

Two things strike me: it's a good idea to not drink plain water (mix it with a little juice or squash say). Years ago my wife and I couldn't shift a stomach bug. It went on for a good week or more. The gp recommended very bland food, in particular rice and lentils with a little plain yoghurt. That's all we had and it eventually cleared. Ginger is good too, either fresh or as a cold or hot drink (eg herb tea). Eat little and slowly. Sip drinks. Hope he gets better soon. It's miserable.

Mix up some dioralyte and give it to him 5ml at a time in a calpol syringe - 5ml every 5 minutes. I've done this for dc1 a few times and it really helped.