Hi there, I know these are going to be pretty vague symptoms, but hopefully someone can help me out.

I recently came back from a trip to Chiangmai. I was there from Wednesday to Saturday, staying at a guesthouse that I have stayed at plenty of times before. I've eaten the food there several times and sampled their delightful banana shakes. My last meal there on Saturday was a banana pancake with honey. Came back to Bangkok Saturday afternoon and ate some Kraft Dinner (my Canadian comfort food), and hit the town at about 9:00.

Around about 11:30 (perhaps two drinks into my night), I feel an intense wave of nausea envelop me. Now, I have had my fair share of alcohol-induced vomit-sessions, and this was not one of them. I tried to persevere, but was home by 1:00 or so, and vomited an ungodly amount of brown fluid into the toilet. This was followed by frequent trips to the toilet to expel waste from the other end. This persisted all day Sunday without dissipating, until I passed out from sheer exhaustion. Monday, I was feeling slightly better, but opted to call in sick. Monday night, I felt almost normal, so I resolved to come in to work.

This morning (Tuesday), I woke up and had a much-needed shower. As I felt water run down my back, I knew it felt 'strange'. I looked in the mirror at my back (tough to do!) and saw that I was covered in what looked like 'backne' (acne of the back). I'm not a stranger to this, but this amount was something I certainly wasn't accustomed to.

I'm all plugged full of drugs now, keeping the fluids inside so I can teach. What I'm wondering is if there's any way my symptoms (vomiting, diarrhea, backne) could be related? It's Tuesday morning now, and I really haven't eaten anything since Saturday afternoon. I feel 'better', but I know that I'm still not out of the woods.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. By the way, I WILL go to a doctor if things aren't better by tomorrow.

Thanks,

BFD!

The diareah, vomitting and rapid onset shortly after a meal sounds like food poisioning.

The rash.... I don't know where that plays into this.

ARS, HIV primary infection involves, nausea, sometime diareah, and the two tall tale signs are rash usually on the trunk of the body & fever 101 or above.

But I don't think ARS is a sudden rapid onset, kind of a build up like a flu.

So I don't think that fits too easily either. I also don't know your sex life or your tendencies, so I can't or shouldn't make any conclussions there.

Maybe the rash is unrelated at all, just guilt by association. You may of had just a bad boubt of food poisioning. You know the name of the game is make profit, and if that means cooking up some spoiled food.... oh well.

Gotcha, thanks for the reply. No fever at all, so I guess I'm somewhat clear.

As I said before, backne isn't a new thing to me, but this seems to be more widespread. Again, possibly jumping to conclusions due to the simultaneity of the issues.

Thanks,

BFD!

My very worst experience with food poisioning was so bad.... that I honestly feared I was not going to die.

I ate something much like an REM? Ready to Eat Meal, they have in Taiwan. You buy a food pack which contained a stew, throw the pack in boiling water, the contents inside warm up, and u dump that out on rice, and presto good eats.

So I did that, and mayber 2 hours latter I began to vommit, vommited so hard, every 30 minutes for 24 hours. I vommited so much I blew out the capilaries in my right eye. I was so full of poison, that when I urinated it burned like crazy.

Later, the natives told me I was crazy to buy such meals because everyone knows that those REMs are extremely cheap, and there is no way to make profit on those things unless they use spoiled foods.

Well, I had to say, there was logic in their explanation.

But I contend that single bout of food poisioning has screwed me up internally since then. Any time I take any medication I always react stongly. In other words if the doc says take 10mg of ambien, I take 2 and pass out.

Any how, I think you are on the road to recovery.

The joys of food poisoning !!!! and it is almost certainly just this no more no less either.

The backne suggests someting toxic but I'm no expert.

You should see a doctor you know: it's a gruelling experience and if it is bacterial you may need antibiotics to prevent dysentery.

I don't think the GI problem and the "backne"are related except that the first would have taxed your immune system and acne of all sorts tends to worsen when the immune system is weakened, for example from stress, insufficient sleep etc.

Make sure you take plenty of fluids. Green copconut water is ideal, so is the Thai style "nam minoa"with salt and sugar. Or electrolyte drinks if you prefer. You need to replace fluid and electrolytes. And catch up on sleep.

Thanks everybody. It turns out it was bacterial. Something to do with bananas in Chiangmai. I've been given appropriate meds and am on the road to recovery. I didn't eat a single scrap for almost exactly four straight days, when I was able to get a peanut butter and jam sandwich into me. Stomach is still a but tender, but I'm definitely getting my strength back. Now, I'll just need to get back to beer-drinking health!

BFD!