Food poisoning or flu?

[MaggieTheCat]

I was reeeally sick yesterday. It started off as a headache in the morning, but evolved into a migraine by the afternoon and then nausea by early evening. I hadn't eaten much earlier in the day, but it all came back up late last night and I couldn't keep anything down, not even water. My husband ran to the drug store at 11pm and got pepto bismol, saltine crackers, and ginger ale. After taking a dose of pepto bismol, I was able to keep down 1/4 cup of the ginger ale and about 5 crackers and managed to sort of get to sleep.

I felt a little better this morning -- the migraine was gone, at least -- so I had some more crackers and ginger ale and braved a bowl of plain oatmeal made with water and no milk. I ate maybe half of the oatmeal and a few crackers and was able to drink almost the rest of the can of ginger ale before my stomach started cramping up, so I stopped eating and took some more pepto bismol. I did take my temperature and I don't have a fever, at least.

At first I thought the sick stomach was due to the migraine (I get them bad enough that they've made me lose my lunch before in the past) but since the migraine is gone and the cramping/nausea is continuing I wonder if it's something more. I did have some bloating, stomach cramping, and ... other stomach issues yesterday that I didn't really pay attention to, but now I wonder if I have either the flu or food poisoning. We went out for lunch Sunday afternoon to a mongolian grill, and I've never gotten sick from their food before but I suppose it's possible. (I only suspect them because other than that, my husband and I have eaten the same things and he's not sick.)

Either way, this sucks. I have a show I'm vending at on Saturday that I have stuff to get ready for, and I didn't get ANYTHING done yesterday, and today I feel exhausted and just want to curl up and sleep.

[Dave1982]

I am not a doctor, but I do not believe food poisoning generally causes headaches/migraines. Either way though, you'd be best advised to consult a doctor if you're unsure what ails you.

[It's me]

Could be an allergic reaction......................

[surreal20]

Let's put it this way. If you have food poisoning, you'll know.

It comes out both ends...with no care as to if you have a place for both of them to empty by.

It also doesn't happen right away, so it would normally start about 12ish to 14 hours after you've had the offending food.

Nor would you get a migraine.

So, my safe assumption would be that you either had a terrible migraine and got horribly sick from it, or that you have a flu bug.

[blas]

This is what happened to me, almost to the T, this past Saturday-Monday.

It all started with a bad headache that wouldn't go away and got progressively worse, then throwing up what I had just eaten, and as Saturday went on, it became horrible soreness and weakness and lack of ambition to do anything.

And I swear, from Saturday early afternoon until last night, I was probably sleeping like a cat, for hours on end every few hours. I sat online and just window shopped and researched random stuff to keep busy (I was up at night, mostly), when I wasn't in the bathroom. And I had it out both ends, started out the front, ended out the back end.

I felt ok to go to work last night, but I bloated heavily off of plain popcorn and I've had a tummy ache all day, and nasty bubbles that are really loud. I've been popping Gas X like it's sweet-tarts and it's not working, but now nothing is coming out either end.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Back when I was in my late twenties/early thirties, I got sick. And I remember it because that's how sick I was. Started out with a migraine like headache, followed by high fever and vomiting with diarrhea so bad "Ask a Nurse" (remember them?) was actually calling MY house every couple hours.

To this day I don't know what I had. And migraine can cause vomiting. But this was not a migraine, at least not by itself. I was so weak I couldn't walk. I was too sick to do much but shuffle or crawl to the bathroom from Friday to Wednesday, and then when I tried to go to work on Thursday (Kinko's, incidently) the boss took one look at me and sent me home. I don't remember ever being so sick.

Don't know if the migraine was incidental to the illness or if it was part of it, but it was definitely there.

[Frantic Freddie]

It also doesn't happen right away, so it would normally start about 12ish to 14 hours after you've had the offending food.

Not necessarily so,I've seen it happen in as little as 40 minutes.A coupla years ago an OL friend from the Great White North came down to visit & I took him to lunch at a local place.He really enjoyed his 1st chile rellenos,but since it was Sunday we couldn't get beer so we drank iced tea.40 minutes later,on the drive back to my house,he asked me to pull over.
We made it to the exit & the DQ there,where he spent the next 45 minutes in the men's room.I called my wife the pharmacist & she said it was likely the tea,he wasn't used to our local microbes.He didn't lose his lunch but thought he was going to.

[Mytical]

Let's put it this way. If you have food poisoning, you'll know.It comes out both ends...with no care as to if you have a place for both of them to empty by.

Pretty much THIS. Imagine three of four grown men, all with food poisoning..and one bathroom. NOT a pretty sight. The one person who escaped was the one who liked beans. Everybody else ate some Chili Cheese Burritos (yes these had no beans) from Taco Hell. Ugh.

I've had food poisoning before, but that one felt as if my stomach was going to revolt, burst out of my stomach, and move to Hawaii or something.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Yeah, a buddy of mine ate Taco Bell in a strange town right before our Twelfth Night party last year. He commented that "Now I know why they call it the Volcano Taco."

[BookstoreEscapee]

I got food poisoning once about 3 hours after eating the pizza. I almost threw up at work so I went home early, and I got there without about 2 minutes to spare...spent the next 7 hours . Never ordered pizza from there again. (One other girl wasn't feeling well but I was the only one who got that sick.)

[BlaqueKatt]

It comes out both ends...with no care as to if you have a place for both of them to empty by.

It also doesn't happen right away, so it would normally start about 12ish to 14 hours after you've had the offending food.

Nor would you get a migraine.

So, my safe assumption would be that you either had a terrible migraine and got horribly sick from it, or that you have a flu bug.

and none of the above is true

facts on foodbourne illness from the CDC

some bacteria, produce nausea only, no vomiting or diarrhea, some will give you a sore throat.
Some bacteria produe toxins that can make you gravely ill in under an hour, botulism colistridium can kill in two hours.
Not only are migraines symptoms of some types of foodbourne illness, but you can have foodbourne illness and just happen to coincidentally get a migraine(symptoms are not always related)
the "flu" or influenza is a virus of the respiratory tract only, it does NOT cause vomiting, a "flu bug" that causes vomiting is either a mild case of foodbourne illness, or one of the multitude of gastrointestinal viruses that exist.

Preventing foodbourne illness is MY JOB, preventing the perpetuation of ignorance and misinformation is merely a hobby.

[MaggieTheCat]

Thanks for the good info, BK. I didn't know that the flu by itself didn't produce vomiting.

I'm starting to feel better today. Yesterday I didn't vomit but I was nauseous a good part of the day and my stomach cramped up every time I ate. I ate a lot of bland foods, crackers, toast, rice, chicken broth. I tried cereal this morning and I think the milk didn't agree with me, my stomach cramped up again after that. I'm making chicken for dinner tonight so we'll see how I handle that.

[BlaqueKatt]

Thanks for the good info, BK.

I get paid to know this stuff, just doin' my job.(at work we HAVE to know the symptoms of the most common foodbourne illnesses, as we are exposed on a daily basis to just about everything, thankfully at the new lab I no longer have to fear botulism, or typhoid, but if we get sick the doctors have to test for EVERYTHING)

I think the milk didn't agree with me

yeah milk is pretty harsh on a system that has just been depleted of a considerable amount of beneficial flora, what with the fat and the sugars in it, normally takes most people a few days to be able to tolerate it again.

[Amusement Gal]

Would a nonfat plain yogurt, or some ol' acidophilus pills help any? They can bring your flora back up the par, I'm sure. If you're going to try the plain yogurt, go for Greek yogurt. It tastes nasty without something sweet, sure, but it has a lot more goodies for your stomach. Also, for upset stomachs, ginger tea in my experience is wonderful, if you can keep it down well. If you could, it might help with your tummy discomfort.

[Dreamstalker]

I'd second the acidophilus; there's a product called "acidophilus pearls" that might be good if solid food is an issue. I take one every once in awhile anyway.

I have a pretty good immune system/stomach (mom says all the chile I eat would kill any bacteria), but have gotten foodborne crap twice. Once was probably frozen shrimp that was not thawed/cooked properly (so heavily sauced/spiced I couldn't really tell until I got sick), and the second time seemed to be bad green chile on a fsastfood burger (that was the only thing I ate that day that my dad didn't)...he was scared it was botulism as the chile had been canned.