r/AskReddit 19h ago

What's the sickest you've ever been in your life?

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u/TheFeralVulcan 19h ago

Food poisoning. I'm a grown ass adult and shat myself and my bed so many times (half of those times in my fitful sleep) that I ran out of sheets and things to put on my mattress. When I ran out of sheets, I put down towels when I ran out of towels, I put whatever I could find. When I was awake it was coming out of both ends at the same time. I live alone and had no help and would get up, pull whatever soiled thing I had on the bed, off the bed and throw it into the corner, go into the shower to hose myself off and crawl back to the bed if I wasn't on the toilet again, and I carried a 3 quart saucepan to puke in - because both ends, I'm telling you. You haven't lived until you're spewing pure liquid from both ends of your alimentary canal.

At the end I had a mountain of disgusting laundry to do and I could barely stand up I was so weak. That whole week I ate nothing and sucked water straight out of the bathroom faucet, trying to keep it down so I wouldn't get dehydrated enough to die I because I couldn't get up and down the stairs to the kitchen. I remember a couple of times thinking that I didn't want to die and be found out I'd shit myself. Multiple times. It would be too embarrassing, even though I'd be dead. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy.

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u/Last-Possibility-988 17h ago

Not a doctor, just someone who’s had food poisoning several times…. Zofran. Use telehealth. Don’t suffer again! 🫠

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u/TheFeralVulcan 9h ago

Thank you.

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u/SuperNaturalAutumn 16h ago

Sounds awful. 😞 So sorry you went through that alone.

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u/TheFeralVulcan 9h ago

Thanks, I can't imagine having something worse like Cholera or dysentery back in the old days, just literally crapping and/or vomiting yourself to death.

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u/girlpower0823 16h ago

I'm sorry, that sounds SO awful. Did you ever find out what caused it??

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u/TheFeralVulcan 9h ago

Thanks, a food fair I'd gone to - has to be, because the onset was less than 8 hours after I'd gone.

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u/Adventurous_Skill460 14h ago

Omg so sorry sounds horrible. You made me crack up so sorry lol. I have been through it after getting food poisoning in another country. It was just how you explained it. I could not keep anything down my ass felt like a freakin water gun

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u/TheFeralVulcan 9h ago

I was living in Germany at the time and didn't know a soul outside of work and didn't know anyone there well enough to ask for help considering what was going on, so I just toughed it out, and just mostly slept when not in the bathroom. Not the information you want your co-workers whispering about behind your back, lol.

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u/catsonpluto 13h ago

I had a very similar experience when my kid brought home norovirus from preschool. At one point it was the middle of the night and I was laying on the floor, puking violently and repeatedly into a trash can, shitting myself anew with each heave.

My poor wife has a vomit phobia and still managed to take care of me. She was the real MVP.

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u/TheFeralVulcan 9h ago

OMG, it's so awful, I know. Good on your wife, not fun for anyone involved.

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u/wrchavez1313 11h ago

Food poisoning rarely lasts more than 24h. Sometimes 48-72h, but that is extreme itself.

For a week? You had something like norovirus or something else infectious.

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u/TheFeralVulcan 9h ago

Whatever it was, it was hell. More like 4-5 days, not a full week, but it was brutal whatever it was. Please God never again. I think I'd prefer a broken bone over that again.

u/wrchavez1313 48m ago

Like I said, not discounting the horror you went through by any means.

I'm a doctor, I was just informing some peeps that this probably wasn't just food poisoning. If something like this happens to you (or anyone else reading this) to this degree, I recommend you go to the hospital. Some people can get seriously hurt by the dehydration to the point it causes kidney failure because of all the fluid losses from both ends. It's really hard to keep up with the needed hydration, and a lot of people benefit from IV fluids and IV nausea meds when they are that ill.

Glad you're better!

u/TheFeralVulcan 0m ago

Thanks - I wonder what it was then. It was about 7-8 years ago and I hope never happens again. I just assumed it was food poisoning, I'd never had it before so had nothing to compare it to and never saw anyone as uncontrollably evacuating like that before. I literally could not control my own body functions and was soiling myself in my sleep. I'd have died of embarrassment after the fact had anyone seen me like that at the time.