Contagious GI Thing?

On 1/19, my boyfriend woke up around 6:30a.m. and vomited a few times, then had diarrhea. His stomach was upset all morning, but seemed to settle after he ate. He had diarrhea a handful of times the rest of the day, but it was small amounts. Over the next 24 hours, he had another couple of bouts of diarrhea, alternating with regular stools. No more vomiting or nausea. He was feeling much better by the evening of the 20th and I kissed him, both of us feeling it was safe.

I was ok until the evening of the 21st, when my stomach started to hurt a little. Nothing major. I woke up the next morning and had a few minor episodes of diarrhea between 12-4pm. Otherwise, I felt ok and ate a large dinner around 4:30pm ( 1/4 rotisserie chicken, broccoli and cheese, and a piece of cake). This huge meal proved to be an enormous mistake because I was apparently already coming down with something. Almost immediately, I experienced explosive diarrhea. I was also nauseated, but couldn't vomit even though my stomach was full. I tried 3x. I had approximately 35 episodes of diarrhea that night. Late in the evening, I had a terrible headache and even though I took Ibuprofen, I went from no fever at all to 101 in about 30 minutes and had chills and body aches for hours. My normal temperature hovers around 97.

The next day, I had another 20 episodes of diarrhea, but no more fever or major nausea.

Now it is day 3. I have had one episode of full-on diarrhea and one semi-formed stool. All I have had to eat in the last almost 48 hours is 1 cup of chicken and rice soup, some crackers, and a banana, but I am not hungry. I have tried to drink as much Gatorade as I can, but even this begins to grate on me and I will either feel nauseated or gassy. Any time I eat, I still experience stomach discomfort. I am weak and napping every few hours.

I do feel I am getting better. I was considering the ER if I continued to have diarrhea at the rate I had the last 2 days or if a fever returns. However, I was curious if this sounds like something that has been going around. I recently stayed in the house of a relative who had the Norovirus in December. I read it can stay in the environment for weeks. I also live in Washington DC and attended the Inauguration ceremony, thus being surrounded by hundreds of thousands of people who could've been carrying God knows what. Furthermore, I work in a VERY high density workplace where people are always trading illnesses. Any thoughts? Sorry so long....
 
Your symptoms sound like one of the reports I type at my hospital as we see this all the time. I would just make sure you do not het dehydrated and if you have more than several loose stools in a day (suggestion) I myself would go to the ER. Please remember (this is for anyone who reads this) the ER is for EMERGENCIES.... and I am glad you came here..... MRSA, clostridium difficile are bacteria that can be contagious, and need treatment with antibiotics...but I am not saying that is what you/he has. I hope you get better....also Salmonella can cause these symptoms as well check what you have eaten recently?

Please do not be offended by my highlighting emergencies....in our facility as with many others, people use it as a walk-in. You can even call you ER and speak with a nurse, explain your symptoms, and she can advise you if you need to go to the ER.

Hope this helps.....:wave:
 
Thanks for the reply.

Unfortunately, after I wrote that last night. I did not improve.

I ate one small meal of white meat chicken, boiled white rice, and a small amount of dry cornbread in the late afternoon/early evening that was divided into 2 meals 2 hours apart because of my lack of appetite. Pretty much as bland as I could get. I continued to drink Gatorade. I had another 3-4 episodes of diarrhea (total of 5-6 now) by 8pm.

The real trouble started in the evening when my boyfriend consulted his dad (a dr.) about how I could help myself. He suggested Pepto Bismol. I took Pepto and first, it gave me these awful stomach cramps. Then I had more diarrhea. In late evening, I felt good enough to get down a handful of plain pretzels, but I continued to have very bad diarrhea until I fell asleep around 1a.m. All told, I had another 18-20 episodes of diarrhea yesterday. This means, I have had 73-75 episodes in 72 hours, of which maybe 48 were waking hours.

I woke up at 7:30 this morning with 2 more episodes of explosive diarrhea. Went back to sleep and now have woken up just before noon with bad gas and the feeling of more diarrhea coming on.

I have to go work a 10-hour day now. I tried to get a replacement, but could get nobody. I'm in a supervisory position at work and am also on call. I know it is not ideal, but I have to do it. 'Tis life.

I wish now that I had gone to the ER last night. At least I would've gotten SQ fluids and might not be so weak. It would be nice if there was somewhere to go on weekends and evenings where one wouldn't be overburdening the ER system with sub-emergency complaints, but there really isn't. At least not near where I live and I live in a city and have no car to drive to some far away suburban urgent care center (many of which are only open during the day anyway). That is a frustrating situation and may be why you see alot of misuse of the ER. I do understand your sentiments, though and that's part of why I haven't gone.

One more thing, I'm not sure if you miswrote or not, but your post says you yourself WOULD go to the ER for several loose stools, but then remind that the ER is for emergencies only. That seems to contradict?
 
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