How long after food poisoning before I'm normal again? (Warning: TMI)

I had a serious case of food poisoning over 2 weeks ago - was hospitalized overnight. I've been taking probiotics and they seemed to really help initially. Then, I tried to up my diet and felt sick for about 24 hours (nausea, one episode of loose stools, etc). Now, I still have to be careful what I eat and, even with that, I do not feel normal yet. I still have bouts of nausea, am very gassy and sometimes crampy. The last few days, I do pretty well all day, then late afternoon and evening, I have a lot of gas and some mucus when I try to go to the bathroom. There is also the weird/bad odor that goes along with diarrhea. I seem to have irritable bowel - feel like I'm going to have loose stools, but then can't go. Sorry, I know this is all TMI, but I am wondering if others have had this experience or do I need to go back to the doctor?

Yikes. Sorry to hear about your illness. I am prone to "intestinal issues" and I had a very serious infectious colitis when I was in college. Even after I was technically recovered, I had a hard time getting back to normal. The gastroenterologist (SP?) I saw told me that after a bout of severe diarrhea (mine lasted for about a month), your GI tract needs time to heal, and can be thrown into an IBS-type state. I actually had to go on IBS medication for about 4 months before I got back to normal. I had just what you describe-the spasms, cramps, nausea, etc. I really had to be careful about what I ate for a long time. I remember eating a lot of plain turkey sandwiches, rice, plain pasta, etc. Anything acidic or greasy would send me right to the bathroom. If you are still not feeling better, I would see a doctor and ask if they have any suggestions. The anti-spasmodic medication really helped relieve the awful cramping I would get. I hope you feel better- food poisoning is the worst........

Val
DD 7/04
DD 7/07

I am sorry that you are still feeling yucky. It can last a long time, that's for sure.
After our AWFUL bout, at Thanksgiving, it took my dd 6-7 weeks, and that was with an acid reducer 2xs a day, from week 3, going forward. It took me almost a full month. I lived on brown rice, boiled in chicken broth, boiled chicken breasts and saltine crackers. 7Up was my best buddy.

We got sick on the Friday after Thanksgiving, the 26th. We were still too sick to fly on Dec. 14th! We missed two weeks of our 4 week holiday vacation. We were able to add a week on at the end, but it was hell for a long time. Luckily, we were able to change our flights and the rental guy was so darn sweet and understanding!

Doctor told us to do the acid reducer and eat bland foods. We did. I was really worried about my dd, but if we gave her the med twice a day, it got better. We were giving her too low of a dose for the first week, after we realized it wasn't getting better, so about 3 weeks into it. Our doctor told us to give her that dose twice a day. Doc said that the salmonella or whatever it was, could have caused an ulcer/raw spot, from the bacteria, and the not eating. The meds ultimately took care of it, but it was a LONG few weeks, of eating bland food.

Go slow, your gut can take a while to heal.

I'm so sorry you're still having a hard time Kim. How awful. :(

It takes a while. Right now your bowel is still building up its lining, so it's very sensitive.

When I went through this, iirc, I had to be careful about what foods I ate together. Eating dried and/or sweeter things (like sweet potatoes and pineapple, OY they would do a number on me) definitely irritated me for a year afterwards. My mom gave me a food-combinations chart she got from her naturopath - I finally got desperate enough to use it and found it eased enough of the irritation to get myself back on an upward trend.

The one piece of advice I found most useful was to keep anything refined out of my system, including sugar. Add to that the injunction not to eat fruit (or anything remotely sweet) with anything else, and you get a limited but comfortable diet.

I think it was this one - though I'm a bit of a skeptic and blush to post the link:
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=...ed=0CC8Q9QEwBA

(This was before I lived in Cali with mold and got all my allergies. I used to have a cast-iron stomach, ironically.)

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Originally Posted by ThreeofUs

It takes a while. Right now your bowel is still building up its lining, so it's very sensitive.

When I went through this, iirc, I had to be careful about what foods I ate together. Eating dried and/or sweeter things (like sweet potatoes and pineapple, OY they would do a number on me) definitely irritated me for a year afterwards. My mom gave me a food-combinations chart she got from her naturopath - I finally got desperate enough to use it and found it eased enough of the irritation to get myself back on an upward trend.

The one piece of advice I found most useful was to keep anything refined out of my system, including sugar. Add to that the injunction not to eat fruit (or anything remotely sweet) with anything else, and you get a limited but comfortable diet.

I think it was this one - though I'm a bit of a skeptic and blush to post the link:
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=...ed=0CC8Q9QEwBA

(This was before I lived in Cali with mold and got all my allergies. I used to have a cast-iron stomach, ironically.)

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Don't blush to post that link. I have heard of food combining before and believe there is probably some merit to it. My Mom used to work for a Naturopath and I highly respected him. I found this chart which appears to be basically the same, but a bit easier to read http://www.alderbrooke.com/images/chart.jpg

If nothing else, it will give me some ideas on what to eat and cook for dinner. My poor family has not really had much of a meal lately because I just haven't felt like cooking and nothing really sounds good. Funny that I am just now reading this because I did actually cook tonight and made chicken with pasta. That is a poor combination according to the chart! I have been avoiding sugar and dairy, other than cheese. I do eat a small amount of sugar at times, but it does make me feel a bit icky. The only fruit I have had have been bananas and tomatoes.

I was able to eat a decent meal tonight, though, thanks to another BBBer who sent me a pm recommending S. Boulardii probiotics. I had heard of them before but had forgotten the name. Bought them yesterday and felt better after one dose. I'm still cautious and definitely not normal, but soooo much better today after having 3 doses. Not so gassy, still a little crampy, but no nausea and none of the other yuckiness I described in my OP. So, I will keep taking them for a few weeks, I think. I'm hoping that those probiotics and following this food chart to a degree will put me over the edge to normal that I have not been able to seem to climb!

You might want to lay off even the cheese for a while. I had a similar situation and, several weeks later, finally went back to my doc. She explained that as the lining to your intestines grow back, the part that takes the longest is the part that helps digest dairy. Eating dairy before you have all the right villi to digest it leads to trouble. Of course, I had been eating lots of yogurt in an effort to get my gut bacteria back to where it should have been. I laid off all diary for a full week and was much better within just a day or two.

Good luck!

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Originally Posted by randomkid

I was able to eat a decent meal tonight, though, thanks to another BBBer who sent me a pm recommending S. Boulaardi probiotics. I had heard of them before but had forgotten the name. Bought them yesterday and felt better after one dose.

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Sounds great! Where did you get them?

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Originally Posted by ThreeofUs

Sounds great! Where did you get them?

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Whole Foods - Jarrow Brand http://www.jarrow.com/product/265/Sa..._Boulardii_MOS

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Originally Posted by randomkid

Whole Foods - Jarrow Brand http://www.jarrow.com/product/265/Sa..._Boulardii_MOS

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Thanks!