Food poisoning or getting the flu?!


Question: yesterday afternoon i got a mcchicken from mcdonalds and then a half hour i felt sick to stomach. it lasted all night and i had really bad smelling gas and diarrea a few times.
anyways, i got a great night sleep and woke up feel sick to stomach so now about 20 hours after eating the mcchicken i feel very weak and light headed and just in a daze of being 'out of it' and of course the stomach still hurts. I've been drinking alot of 7up. im not normally one to throw up and i have not but most food ive tired to eat doesnt agree with my stomach. I THINK i might be running a fever, not sure as i can't tell.
does this sound like food poisoning or maybe the flu?
what else can I do other then drink clear soda? (7up, not really a water drinker)
Thanks


Answers: yesterday afternoon i got a mcchicken from mcdonalds and then a half hour i felt sick to stomach. it lasted all night and i had really bad smelling gas and diarrea a few times.
anyways, i got a great night sleep and woke up feel sick to stomach so now about 20 hours after eating the mcchicken i feel very weak and light headed and just in a daze of being 'out of it' and of course the stomach still hurts. I've been drinking alot of 7up. im not normally one to throw up and i have not but most food ive tired to eat doesnt agree with my stomach. I THINK i might be running a fever, not sure as i can't tell.
does this sound like food poisoning or maybe the flu?
what else can I do other then drink clear soda? (7up, not really a water drinker)
Thanks

Food poisoning usually hits very fast. The food has bacteria that your body says "hey! get it out of here!" as a defense measure. You will throw up undigested/partially digested food. You can get a milder form of it where you have diarrea. Most food poisoning will keep you up all night in the bathroom. No great night of sleep! Your body will continue to expell the food until it is gone. Then you are weak from loss of fluid and a sodium/potassium deficiency. Drinking gator aid and eating bananas helps this. If your stomach still is delicate, eat dry toast and drink juice and broth or other fluids. Gator ade is the best for food poisoning or the flu. If this continues for more than two days, you have the flu. It can involve your GI tract and you need rest and fluids. Vomiting or diarrea for more than two days? Call your doc. Hope you feel better soon! :-)

Sounds like food poisoning to me. The flu usually doesn't involve GI problems.

I think your best bet is to see your doctor.

I looked up the symptoms of the flu and for a certain kind of food poisoning in the Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy (www.merck.com). Take a look, then give your doc a call:

Food poisoning (staphylococci): Symptoms usually begin abruptly with severe nausea and vomiting starting about 2 to 8 hours after the contaminated food is eaten. Other symptoms may include abdominal cramping, diarrhea, and sometimes headache and fever. Severe fluid and electrolyte loss may cause weakness and very low blood pressure (shock). Symptoms usually last less than 12 hours, and recovery is usually complete. Occasionally, staphylococcal food poisoning is fatal, especially in the very young, the very old, and people weakened by long-term illness.

The symptoms are usually all a doctor needs to make the diagnosis of gastroenteritis. A more specific diagnosis of staphylococcal food poisoning may be suspected when other people who ate the same food are similarly affected and when the disorder can be traced to a single source of contamination. To confirm the diagnosis, a laboratory analysis must identify staphylococci in the suspected food, but this analysis is not usually performed

FLU symptoms:
Symptoms start 1 to 4 days after infection and can begin suddenly. Chills or a chilly sensation is often the first indication. Fever is common during the first few days, sometimes reaching 102 to 103



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