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Suggest Treatment For Severe Vomiting And Diarrhea In An Elderly Person
Question: I am a 64-yr old female & I think I got food poisoning last night. I had vomiting and diarrhea for about 3 hours & was very weak. I felt like I was going to faint but I never did go out completely. Today I've had 3 small watery stools but no more vomiting. My concern is that the last stool was red & looked like it had blood in it. My abdomen, back, and neck are also a little tender but I feel like that is from the vomiting, which was quite strong. I don't have fever & am keeping ginger ale & crackers down w no problem. Do I need to see a doctor today?
Brief Answer:
If it repeats again I would recommend you to see a doctor
Detailed Answer:
Hello,
Thank you for asking at Healthcaremagic.
I carefully went through your question and understand your concern.
It is very important that you make sure you take good amount of fluids during the day. Oral re-hydration solutions are the best as they help you substitute the electrolytes also. Water is good also.
As for the blood in stools it rarely happens with viruses also. The amount of blood with the stools and if it is bright red blood or not is very important. If you had clear blood than this might be more significant than if you had few stripes of blood with the stools.
Another factor would be if you have hemorrhoids, they get worse with diarrhea and you might bleed because of this.
The lack of fever is a good sign. Generally bacterial diarrhea that causes blood causes also fever in most of the patients.
So I would recommend you to:
1. make sure you drink well, frequent small amounts of fluids so not to aggravate the nausea and vomiting but make sure you take enough of fluids to pee as usual.
2. If you had the stools with blood only once and it is not bright red blood than I would not go to see a doctor but wait.
3. if you get another episode with blood and you are sure it is not related to hemorrhoids than it would be a good idea to see a doctor and he might need to examine you and probably will ask for stools for ova and parasites and also a stool culture to try to find the cause of the diarrhea with blood.
4. meanwhile make sure you eat frequent small amount of food also- BRAT diet: banana, rice, apple, toast and other food that you feel you can tolerate well but take them in frequent small amounts during the day so not to irritate your stomach and cause vomiting.
5. Make sure you wash hands with warm water and soap and also avoid contact with other people as long as you are having the diarrhea- this might be infectious. Try not to touch the food of the others in family also.
I hope this answers to your question and is helpful to you but please let me know if anymore clarification is needed.
Kind regards
Dr Antoneta Zotaj
If it repeats again I would recommend you to see a doctor
Detailed Answer:
Hello,
Thank you for asking at Healthcaremagic.
I carefully went through your question and understand your concern.
It is very important that you make sure you take good amount of fluids during the day. Oral re-hydration solutions are the best as they help you substitute the electrolytes also. Water is good also.
As for the blood in stools it rarely happens with viruses also. The amount of blood with the stools and if it is bright red blood or not is very important. If you had clear blood than this might be more significant than if you had few stripes of blood with the stools.
Another factor would be if you have hemorrhoids, they get worse with diarrhea and you might bleed because of this.
The lack of fever is a good sign. Generally bacterial diarrhea that causes blood causes also fever in most of the patients.
So I would recommend you to:
1. make sure you drink well, frequent small amounts of fluids so not to aggravate the nausea and vomiting but make sure you take enough of fluids to pee as usual.
2. If you had the stools with blood only once and it is not bright red blood than I would not go to see a doctor but wait.
3. if you get another episode with blood and you are sure it is not related to hemorrhoids than it would be a good idea to see a doctor and he might need to examine you and probably will ask for stools for ova and parasites and also a stool culture to try to find the cause of the diarrhea with blood.
4. meanwhile make sure you eat frequent small amount of food also- BRAT diet: banana, rice, apple, toast and other food that you feel you can tolerate well but take them in frequent small amounts during the day so not to irritate your stomach and cause vomiting.
5. Make sure you wash hands with warm water and soap and also avoid contact with other people as long as you are having the diarrhea- this might be infectious. Try not to touch the food of the others in family also.
I hope this answers to your question and is helpful to you but please let me know if anymore clarification is needed.
Kind regards
Dr Antoneta Zotaj
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Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Prasad
Answered by
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