Stomach bug and persistently ill

Hello,

Thank you for choosing DoctorSpring.

Well, this is not normal - but it does seems like a food poisoning. You are having a protracted reaction to this particular stomach bug. Individual reaction to the gastroenteritis virus or bacteria can vary in different individuals.

I understand that you not feeling any better now. But can I know what all symptoms you have currently ? Is the fever persisting ? If so the approach will be different. It would be great if you can list down the current symptoms.

Also is there any blood or mucous in the stool ?
Is there a pain in the abdomen ? If there is, what is the location of the pain ?

You can reply as a followup
Thank you

Hi dr. Sebastian,

Thanks for reply.

There has been no blood or mucus in my stool. I have not been having regular bowel movements though and there has not been any diarrhea.

My current symptoms are as follows:

Constant nausea and headache
Bloated tender stomach. When the doctor pressed on my stomach on Tuesday to locate the tenderness it was in my lower belly. Now it is also below my ribs, so just about my whole abdomen is tender. There is no one particular spot.
My stomach is crampy and gurgles and groans a lot.
I am very fatigued and just want to lie in bed all day.
Along with my headache, my arms feel mildly achey.
No matter how much rest I am getting I still feel tired and nautious.
Even though I am really nautious I am still able to eat, but mostly bland things like toast and crackers.
The heachache and nausea has not subsided for 3 weeks now. At times it gets a lot worse. I don't have a fever, but have been getting hot sweats.

I couldn't check the boxes above for my health history but I haven't had a history of any of those things . I don't smoke and am a social drinker. I was on vacation the week before I got sick and was drinking more than regular.

Please let me know if there is another information you need. I need to get back to work and am so tired of feeling this way.

Thanks,

Bec

Hello,

This indeed seem to be protracted response to the stomach bug (bacterial gastroenteritis ). Do continue the antibiotics. You can take a Probiotic capsule or drink twice a day. This will settle the normal bacterial flora in the gut. There might be a mild infectious Irritable bowel development in the gut causing all these symptoms.

In addition you can take an OTC anti ulcer medication like Prilosec once a day without food. This could help in the bloating and pains. Since the fever has settled it could in a stage of resolution.

HOWEVER if you have easy acess to medical help further testing in warranted. If not you can judiciously wait for a couple of days and still if there is no resolution further testing is indicated.

You will require a baseline blood tests, stool pathogen study, ultrasound abdomen, and other specific tests (like Typhoid test) if Indicated. You should discuss this option with your Doctor.

Do not worry, this is more like a passing, resolving phase. Most likely you should get good resolution of symptoms with the above mentioned measures.

Hope this helps
Feel free to ask followups
Thank you

Thanks for your quick response.

My Doctor took a regular blood test and everything came back normal.

Is it unusual for the cipro antibiotics to have not cleared this up after 4 days?

Blood tests are of not much use for diagnosis in gastroenteritis. Ciprofloxacin is a recommended antibiotic and it should clear the infections. 7 days is the ideal course duration. So by day 4 you might not get complete symptoms resolution. Do take it for the full prescribed duration.

Thank you