Day four of gastroenteritis after reheated rice and still feeling awful

[Zorgothslugofdoom]

I'm on day 4 of gastroenteritis, likely the result of eating warmed up rice. Since Sunday i've only managed to eat 4 bananas and one portion of porridge. I feel completely wiped out and the heat isn't helping. What can I do to get better? The doctor said they would see me after 5 days, if no improvement. I've hardly eaten anything but am managing sips of lucozade. Every time i've tried eating something i have horrendous diarrhoea within about 2 hours. I also feel nauseous (but haven't vomited) and my stomach hurts and cramps but that's not constant. Does anyone have any suggestions? I am really fed up with it and will try anything!

B. Cereus, I remember it as being like cereal.

I’ve known people who grew up in Hong Kong / India and China and say that they always just cooled rice on their outside windowsill and never had a problem. It seems to be one of those things that unless it’s never happened to you, it’s not true.

When I cook rice and I’m going to have to save some in the fridge, I cool it down really quickly with water, drain it and put it in the fridge, within minutes. I do sometimes reheat it but quickly and I eat it straight after, in the winter.

You poor thing, I hope you start to feel
better soon.
I’ve been reheating rice often several times a
week over three decades. No one has ever been ill, yet I hear of stories like this and wonder whether we’ve been lucky to get away with it so far. I will cook the rice and leave on the work top for 1-2 hours and then refrigerate it before I go to bed. I will then reheat it the following day. I don’t understand why we’ve never been ill, can anyone explain why ?

just to clarify - I only reheat each portion once. I often have a big bowl of rice already cooked in fridge which will cover a couple of evenings. I will never put reheated rice back in the fridge - any leftovers will be put in the bin.

Just your luck really. We had the whole family, six of us, one after the other sick after a Chinese meal when we stopped on the drive home from holiday. The only thing every one of us had was the rice, every other dish was different (both vegetarians and carnivores in the family). Decades ago now, but I never take chances with rice now. It’s cheap, so any leftover gets binned in this house.

OP hope you’re in the mend soon, I feel for you, it’s so so horrible,

This is what I do. Cook the rice, cool for one hour, then in fridge. Only reheat once.

I think it's if you leave it out for hours before refrigeration, or reheat twice that makes the bacteria really flourish.

Enterosegel works for my husband. It’s supposed to bind to the toxins, which you then excrete as normal stool, as opposed to Immodium type stuff which just stops the diarrhoea but the toxin is still in you. Dioralyte is good for replacing salts but it tastes vile, flat full fat cola or sports drinks taste slightly less horrible. No idea why he is always the one with holiday tum, we eat and drink the same stuff, maybe my guts are made of cast iron after all. But he definitely recovers faster on the Enterosegel.

Same here; couldn’t tell you the amount of times I’ve eaten reheated rice over the last four decades, and fed it to my family. It’s probably true we’ve been lucky; might start avoiding it in future, this sounds awful.
Although I do recall the lovely Phil Wang saying every time you eat fried rice that’s been reheated! 🤷‍♀️

Not all rice has the cereus spores, but if it does the problem is they aren't killed by normal cooking (needs to be at over 115 C for a while) and multiply rapidly between 50 and 20 C, producing the toxins that ref giving OP such problems.

Op I feel for you, last week I took some rice outbof the fridge that I’d cooked and debated for a good few minutes about whether to use it. Decided not too (told myself off for wasting) but with the weather decided I’d probably not cooled and refrigerated swiftly enough.

Are you feeling any better yet @Zorgothslugofdoom? I hope so.

Definitely get a sample tested. I had the most terrible diarrhoea earlier in the year and it turned out to be Salmonella. It lasted 3 weeks. I've honestly not been the loo so much, every few minutes, I thought how have I got that much in me! Just keep sipping water and keep hydrated. After the results came back the GP sent a standard text saying it should clear up within 7-10 days, no chance! It was more like 3 weeks.

The blackcurrant Dioralyte is okay. The one with rice is absolutely vile though and made me heave.

This isn’t supposed to be an ‘oh we were ok’ kind of post, but many years ago we’d get a Chinese takeaway from time to time and the leftovers - including rice - would be left out on the countertop until the next day. No refrigeration; then just eaten cold.

Was it the lack of reheating that made it ok? We didn’t get ill.

If you’re still getting diarrhoea, and have hardly drank anything, go to an and e. You could be severely dehydrated. My dh ended up in hospital for a week. It turned out it was campbylacter. He was on drips, and had almost dangerous potassium levels. Admittedly he’s diabetic, which diesn’t help.

try and eat little bits of bland food - i had food poisoning recently and felt so so ill - first few days i felt ill from diarrhoea but the next few days so ill from not eating anything. electrolyte drinks helped, avoid caffeine (although this will give you a headache) and i found bananas, dry toast and tinned minestrone soup were the only things i could eat and i think rhe salt probably helped. then i slowly started bringing back other bland food. it took me a couple of weeks to fill totally ok.
keeo drinking water, squash etc

Rice food poising is THE worst thing in the world. It’s up there with childbirth and labrynthitus. Your body has dealt with a major toxin op so you are going to be a while getting over it. You will get better incrementally - just got to ride it out I’m afraid.

I was brought up by an American mother and there are lots of American mints that taste the same. I love it! Its like nostalgia and cure!

Don't combine with Nurofen though . I also discovered today that Nexium can cause diarrhoea. Even though GPs recommend it for gastritis.

Rehydration sachets are what you need, lots on Amazon if you can't get someone to get them for you.

Yeah, I’ve heard a lot of people say it tastes like Root Beer and certain sweets that are from the US, so it probably depends on if you’re used to that flavour or not. I remember watching an episode of Friends where Ross was chugging it straight from the bottle and thinking it looked lovely because we didn’t have it here at that time 😂.

I really wish I liked it because I wouldn’t be such a drama queen when taking it.