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How long should food poisoning take to clear out of your system?

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I was in Vegas this weekend for a morning wedding. After the reception, we went to dinner at Wazuzu, a pricey Asian fusion place in Encore. Luckily, the head chef is a close friend of the family, so everything was comped. He brought out a ton of dishes - sashimi, Chinese barbecue, roast duck, steamed seabass, fried rice, various sushi - and it was all tasty. Later that night, I vomited everything up and couldn't sleep. When I did manage to get a little sleep, I had feverish half-awake, half-dreaming fever hallucinations.

That was Saturday night. It's now Sunday morning, and I'm back in LA but still being hit with headaches, chills, sensitive skin, occasional vomit sessions, and just a general feeling of weakness and aching joints. In fact, just an hour ago, I began uncontrollably trembling and spasming. My entire body was tensing up, my teeth were gnashing together, and I couldn't do a damn thing about it. This was preceded by a heavy feeling in my lungs, as if I couldn't take in enough air. A hot shower helped, but I'm still achy, weak, and unable to sleep. The trembling and difficulty breathing has stopped completely.

No thermometer handy, so I can't take my temperature (but I'm assuming I have a fever).

Health insurance from the new job has yet to take effect, so I'm really trying to avoid the doctor.

Does this sound normal for food poisoning? 30 hours later and still doing poorly?

I also don't have a ton of experience getting sick, so I'm wondering what, if any, drugs/medicines I should be taking. I think we have the basics on hand.
 
A friend of mine was bed ridden for 2 weeks in hospital. Probably worst case.

Another friend of mine was bed ridden for 3 days after having badly cooked rice. He was in a right state.

You need to drink a shit ton of water.
 
MarkMclovin said:
A friend of mine was bed ridden for 2 weeks in hospital. Probably worst case.

Another friend of mine was bed ridden for 3 days after having badly cooked rice. He was in a right state.

You need to drink a shit ton of water.

I can move around if I have to, but I don't like it.

Yeah, I'm drinking plenty of water spiked with electrolytes and broth. Thanks.
 
Last time I got food poisoning was a few years ago from (probably) some bad potato salad at a BBQ. The worst of it lasted about three days, but it took about two weeks until my appetite was back to normal.

I haven't been a big fan of potato salad or cole slaw since.
 

Wallach

Member
Sounds about right, last time I copped food poisoning (calamari) I was pasted for like four days.

Feels bad, man. Get better.
 

Meadows

Banned
20090212-fugu.jpg
 
I had food poisoning last month after eating some undercooked chicken. Took four days to get back on my feet. I pretty much lived in the bathroom that weekend.
 

jaxword

Member
It'll take as long as your system has the poison in it.

Drink a LOT of water. You should be living in your bathroom, just flushing it all out. I suppose, if you can take it, some high fiber would help. You want to turn your body into a waste-excreting machine so it'll get it all out.
 

NZer

Member
The kind caused by toxins produced previously by bacteria sets in very quickly and flushes out of your system in 24-48 hours.
If you get food poisoning where the bacteria infect your gut, it can be a week, or more. Good luck.
 

Facism

Member
man i remember the last time. I'd drink water and 5 seconds later that same water was out my ass into the toilet bowl. I could of probably leaked it into a glass and it would of been drinkable.
 
Facism said:
man i remember the last time. I'd drink water and 5 seconds later that same water was out my ass into the toilet bowl. I could of probably leaked it into a glass and it would of been drinkable.
:lol I also experienced this nightmarish effect. Plain icy poles helped me heaps for some reason, i went through like 6 boxes.
 
I had food poisoning in June. Took me about a week and a half to feel 100%. Take it slowly. Don't go back to your normal diet for a good 3 or 4 days.
 

Darklord

Banned
I got food poisoning once. I hoped it would leave but after 5 days of agony and unable to eat for that long I had to go to the doctor. They gave me some tablets that started helping almost instantly. After 2 days I was fine. I'll give you one tip, don't eat fish while sick. Oh my god, I regretted that so much.
 
Facism said:
man i remember the last time. I'd drink water and 5 seconds later that same water was out my ass into the toilet bowl. I could of probably leaked it into a glass and it would of been drinkable.
:lol
 
I got Montezuma's revenge this summer. Took a full day to recover. Drinking plenty of water, pepto bismol, cipro, rest will make the difference between it taking 1 day or 3.
 

Blizzje

Member
A lot of you guys are advising him to drink lots of water, and while I think it's a good thing to stay hydrated, he should also start drinking coca cola. Trust me, it'll take some of the pain in your stomach away and will help destroy a good portion of the bacteria left in your system. Also, when I had a bad case of food poisoning I thought it would be a good idea take a certain medicine called Imodium, mostly because friends said it would help. For me, it didn't go as planned, to put it gently. After taking a tablet, I spent the next 5 hours in the bathroom puking and shitting and feeling absolutely horrible, even worse than before (and I was already feeling terrible). Think about what you eat the coming 48 hours, it's best to stay with dry crackers and water/coca cola than go overboard and put yourself back at square one.

Oh, for me the poisoning lasted an entire week. After about 3 -4 days I could go outside and start doing stuff again. Never want to experience that again.
 

-viper-

Banned
Probably after a couple of shits.

I remember when I had food poisoning from eating bad chicken at a wedding party. It was an unforgettable nightmare :(

I guess I was unlucky since I was the only one who suffered from it.

I had literally lost all kinds of control over my bowels.
 
Blizzje said:
Also, when I had a bad case of food poisoning I thought it would be a good idea take a certain medicine called Imodium, mostly because friends said it would help.
Yeah, imodium should really only be used if you're becoming dehydrated and have no other choice (though if that's happening you need to go to a hospital asap). I know with c-diff (lower intestine infection) it will make the infection much worse by preventing/slowing down diarrhea, thus allowing the bacteria's gut-destroying toxins to build up. In other words if your body's doing something it's probably doing it for a reason; don't stop it.

Anyways maybe you should try some probiotics Price Dalton? You can't overdose on them and I've heard of them helping gut infections when taken in high doses. A doctor I go to recommends refrigerated ones.

Best of luck.
 

richiek

steals Justin Bieber DVDs
I got food poisoning after eating some bad sausages. I was bedridden for a day and it took about a week and a half before I got it out of my system. Funny thing was, I didn't vomit the entire time.
 

totowhoa

Banned
Sorry to hear, OP :( Whenever my fiance gets ill, which is fairly often, she looks up home remedies online while she waits for medicine to kick in (or until I'm able to go to the store and get some for her). There are a lot of tricks out there... and for certain things, they can be as effective as medicine, although not always. You should throw that search at google and see what comes up, at the very least for alleviating the worst symptoms as opposed to the illness itself. You'll probably find some things for both. I know that's partly the purpose of this thread, anyway... so I'd suggest googling around for a bit and see if anything in your kitchen cabinets can perk you up a little bit.

I'm in my mid-20s and never had food poisoning. My family hasn't had it either (at least so long as I've been alive). This sounds absolutely horrid. I have an excellent immune system, so that may partly be why I haven't grabbed it yet, but I dunno. I had my first sore throat ever about 1 year ago and I had no idea wtf was wrong with me. Described it to my fiance, then I felt like a moron. Hope my super effective cells keep functioning well enough to keep this shit out of me. Ugh. I cannot imagine being in the bathroom for days on end like that
 
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