The Whine thread.

[WarpGirl]

Oh god it sounds like the flu. Really go see a doctor. Not that they could do much for the flu. And no drinking alcohol! If you're throwing up and other stuff you'll dehydrate and be in a world of hurt!

[Kotik]

Oh god it sounds like the flu. Really go see a doctor. Not that they could do much for the flu. And no drinking alcohol! If you're throwing up and other stuff you'll dehydrate and be in a world of hurt!

Hell, dear, I can't keep a slice 'o bread down. Do you really think I'd do booze ? The sheer thought of it makes me... Oh for chris' sake... *runs*

[WarpGirl]

OK OK I'm sorry. You know I care or I wouldn't say anything. But I'm serious, you need to keep hydrated. You should see a doctor, they can give you meds for the tummy, and you should get lots of healthy fluids. If you do have the flu and it sounds like you do, you need to get tummy medicine so you can get fluids. You don't need bread or food as much as you need juices and tea. Maybe milkshakes as the tummy settles down. Why is it that men think eating is more important when you're sick?

[Kotik]

OK OK I'm sorry. You know I care or I wouldn't say anything. But I'm serious, you need to keep hydrated. You should see a doctor, they can give you meds for the tummy, and you should get lots of healthy fluids. If you do have the flu and it sounds like you do, you need to get tummy medicine so you can get fluids. You don't need bread or food as much as you need juices and tea. Maybe milkshakes as the tummy settles down. Why is it that men think eating is more important when you're sick?

I drank gallons of water :S problem is, I almost immediately puke afterwards :S I can't keep ANYTHING down, either solid or liquid. This is the worst thing I've ever experienced

[WarpGirl]

Been there done that, not because of being "sick" though. OK go to the doctor, you live in europe universal healthcare. Get some anti-neausa drugs (the nice high is also fun) and then do not chug down gallons of water! That's just as much abuse to your poor system as a bachalor party. Instead slowly and regularly drink small amounts of juice and tea full of vitamins anti-oxidents and electralights.

Haven't you ever noticed they never give you just strait tap water in a hospital? There is a reason for that!

[Kotik]

Been there done that, not because of being "sick" though. OK go to the doctor, you live in europe universal healthcare. Get some anti-neausa drugs (the nice high is also fun) and then do not chug down gallons of water! That's just as much abuse to your poor system as a bachalor party. Instead slowly and regularly drink small amounts of juice and tea full of vitamins anti-oxidents and electralights.

Haven't you ever noticed they never give you just strait tap water in a hospital? There is a reason for that!

I've been at the doctor's. She told me that I'm sick. How's that for a diagnosis? ATM they don't know what's wrong. I'm on pain med and I snarfed pills against the tummy-revolt all day

[WarpGirl]

Poor baby. But I stand by my original statement. Chugging down gallons of water is unproductive. Gentle room tempature or warm fluids are your best friends. Take a tip from T'Pol peppermint tea, and camomile, are good bets. Mint helps with neausa! Also orange juice (if you're not allergic like me) is good. But if you are allergic like me grape juice has more vitamin C. Red grape juice is even better for antioxidents. And don't try to force mass amounts down at one time. If you manage 4 ounces every 90 minutes you're good. Sip slowly, and consistently. And if the tummy rebels still more, just go slower. Try not to over do the sugar in tea or juice. If you don't have tea or juice call a friend and ask them to read the lables to see there isn't too much sugar.

[Yashida]

Poor Kotik! You've got my sympathies.

Take Warpgirl's advice though, would have said about the same.

It really does sound like a stomach flu, but a doctor would have recognised it if it were that. However there's another possibility that appears to be a more difficult diagnosis since with me the doctors only recognised it as such about the fifth or sixth time I came down with it. It's a spasmic colon/digestive tract. Not fun at all! It has about your symptoms and really severe abdominal cramps (the kind that makes you want to double over). Perhaps you should check with your doctor whether it isn't that. You see, there actually exists some really effective drugs for this.

Further I can only repeat what Warpgirl said, keep your fluids up!
There also exist a few herbs that are specifically helpful with calming abdominal cramps, vomiting or diarrhea. Ginger and a bit of Lemon balm (Melissa officinalis) help against vomiting and nausea; Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) is quite effective against stomach cramps and intestine cramps; carbo vegetabilis (carbo veg) helps very good with diarrhea; liquorice helps with calming your stomach.
You could try these as herbal teas.

Anyhow, get well soon!

~Yashida

[WarpGirl]

My dear Yashida I hope I haven't met a fellow professional patient. You sound like you know your way around a doctor's office. Of course you might be a doctor we have more than a few here.

[Yashida]

Sorry, I'm not a doctor. I do have a medical background though; I did veterinarian studies but couldn't finish them due to major familial upheaval, might try to finish them or get another degree in a few years.

I'm not a proffesional patient either, but do have a bit of an unfortunate medical history concerning spasmic colon and a number of doctors not reaching that diagnose before one just sort of immediately said after an examination, in a very casual fasion something along the lines of 'Oh, not to worry it's just a case of spasmic colon, here's your description and you'll feel much better in a couple of days'... It was about the fifth time or so that I had these complaints, and I really wanted to strangle the other doctors I went to the former times...

Further I've a son with children's astma, which he's luckily starting to grow out of and an interest in herbal medicine. It works better than some people think.
Anyhow, just adding my two cents of home-remedies.

[WarpGirl]

Oh doctors are a pain after the 3rd or 30th visit for the same problem! But it's nice getting to know you.

[Distracted]

LOL! Doctors aren't miracle workers, Warpgirl.

We can't fix most hereditary or congenital problems, we can't cure addictions, we can't make people change unhealthy habits if they don't want to, and we can't cure viruses. Sometimes we have to just take our best guess about what's going on, and all we can do is give our patients advice about how to be less miserable while their own immune systems fight the illness. And at least half the time, in my experience, people decide not to listen to us even after paying good money to ask our advice.

Your advice about managing dehydration was spot on for the most part, BTW.

Yashida, unfortunately here in the US we don't have standardized herbal products like you guys do in Europe. Although I wouldn't rely on American made herbal products to be consistently effective for nausea and vomiting, since Kotik is in Germany your advice was good. German herbals are top notch.

[Linda]

And doctors get sick too! My poor dad was always catching from me what I brought home from elementary school through high school that he was trying to help me get rid of. And after that, he still paid for my college expenses. Now that is real love! Or maybe he did that just to not get sick because I went away to college?

[Yashida]

You honestly don't have standarized herbal products in the US, distracted? How come?

So, you mean that for a decent herbal tea, herbal pills or concentrated drops (I don't know how you'd call it properly in English, but you know, like alcohol/water based concentrated essence of one or several herbs in a certain formula which you take by putting a required dose of drops into a little water, like echinacea to strengthen general immuno resistance during the winter period) you guys would need to order it from Europe? Or visit the local Chinese shop for a good herbal tea?

That's really too bad. I actually never thought about the possibility of you guys just not having it available.
I know that Amarican medicine seems for some weird reason to generally have a bit of an unreceptive attitude towards herbal remedies, but I'd just always assumed you just split it up more, you know, keep it really apart, like just for homeopathic medicine instead of intermixed.
Is it really like this or am I now jumping to the wrong conclusions? I'm just being curious here, so please correct me if I've misunderstood.

I guess I'm just rather used to the fact that here even in my little town we've several alternative/herbal shops available to us as well as of course the local pharmacies. Here it's the pharmacies who next to normal medication also carry a wide selection of homeopathic and herbal medecine, but there are also a lot of different herbal shops which carry all kinds of herbal products and then usually have a selection of herbal remedies and medecine you don't need a doctor's prescription for as well. We've even a rather popular low-budget general store called 'kruidvat', which translates literally as 'barrel of herbs', that carries their own (more modest) selection of herbal remedies (once again only those remedies that don't require a doctor's prescription).
I think I'm just too used to it being rather integrated in the landscape here so to say.

Also, most family doctors (I guess that's a general practitioner, isn't it?) here sort of take it into account that a number of their patients probably also use herbal medecine or supplements and if whatever you have requires some treatment that might interfere or be interfered with by a certain herbal medecine they sort of routinely ask whether you take anything.

I'm not saying that here we all take or rely on herbal remedies like crazy, but it's just that some basic things like for example taking echinacea to strengthen general immuno resistance, herbal cough sirops, supplements of vitamine C and such during the winter period, or things like ginseng and ginko for stressful or demanding situations like exams (very popular with college students stressing through exam period) are considered rather normal and used widely.

I was just curious if you could tell me whether it's really that much of a differene with the US?

[Misplaced]

Yashida, we do have plenty of herbal shops here in America. I might be wrong here, but I think Distracted was saying that we don't have any kind of regulations for herbal care. Also, unless you are seeing a doctor who specializes in holistic medicine, herbs (or other alternatives like accupuncture, etc) are generally not going to be part of the treatment regime that a medical doctor prescribes.

So basically, we're kind of left to our own devices if we want to use herbs, etc for medicinal purposes. We have to do our own research or find someone who specializes in alternative medicine (which depending on where you live, isn't always easy) in order to make proper use of that kind of care.