Food poisoning

Was struck by a severe case of food poisoning 2 days ago. Am unsure what exactly caused it but I have my suspicions.

I was literally throwing up every time I took anything via mouth. I couldn't even keep down water. As a result, I was dehydrated. As a physician, I knew what I needed to do, rest and drink lots of fluids.

Unfortunately, as the day went on, I realised 2 problems; firstly, I hadn't pass urine since 8 am in the morning, and secondly, I was tachycardic (high heart rate) at 137, which meant that I was not only dehydrated, but severely so.

So, at around 7 pm, I put on my winter coat, gloves and boots, and walked the 100 m to the emergency room of the hospital that I worked. I felt mildly embarrassed to be there as I was working in the emergency room a few days ago, so I saw a few familiar faces.

Despite being a resident at the hospital and being severely dehydrated, I waited a loooong 2 hours in the waiting room. I know I shouldn't complain and people are seen in order of acuity. So I guess I wasn't considered acutely ill enough.

But I just needed an IV line and a bag of normal saline to hydrate myself. Heck, I can probably even put in the IV line myself!

Patience is a virtue, patience is a virtue....

Finally, I was seen by an ER colleague of mine whom I had work with recently. He was very nice and asked me what I wanted, to which I replied, Give me IV fluids until I start to pass urine.

So, for the first time in my life, I had an IV line inserted, a 20G pink line. And 1 litre of normal saline was started. I didn't want to spend a long time in the ER, so I asked for a pressure bag to speed up the infusion. (Pressure bags are normally used when a patient is severely hypotensive, ie low blood pressure, to speed up the rate of infusion.) I wasn't hypotensive (yet!) but I just wanted it to go faster.

At the end, I actually required 2 litres of normal saline and an injection of anti-emetic medication before I had the urge to pass urine. My pulse had come down to a normal 87 and I was free to go. No longer feeling nauseous, my housemate walked to McDonalds (yes, I have both KFC and McDonalds just 50 metres from my house AND the hospital!) and bought me McNuggets. And luckily, I managed to keep it down and went to bed.

Unfortunately, the next day, I was in the second phase of gastroenteritis. Severe diarrhea.

At least this time, I was able to keep my fluids down.....