There is nothing funny about diarrhoea! …Or is there?

There follows a true account of the tragic story of Mary and her diarrhoea woe’s.

Mary had been unwell for a couple of days; she had a galloping dose of the trots. She had been fasting for about a day and was feeling slightly better when her sister called.

“Mary, do you fancy a trip to the bingo? We could pick up mum on the way”
Mary loved the bingo and, as she was feeling better, she jumped at the chance.
Arrangements were made for Mary to pick up her sister and her mother that evening.

The bingo was great, both Mary and her sister won some money and at the end of the session they decided to go back to Mary’s for a drink.
Before leaving the bingo hall Mary thought to herself, “maybe I should visit the loo before we drive home”
But when she went in to the ladies there was a big queue, she decided (unwisely, as we will shortly find out) to wait until she got home, after all it was only ten minutes away in the car!

No sooner had they started for home that Mary felt her stomach begin to twitch, suddenly she started experiencing severe cramps and had begun to sweat profusely.
“I’m never going to make it home,” she thought, and it was too late to return to the bingo hall.
Her sister, on seeing Mary in some discomfort, asked her if she was all right.

Before Mary could answer, her bowels answered for her, the smell was awful, so bad in fact that Mary’s sister promptly vomited all over the dashboard of Mary’s car. In the back seat, the sister’s mother was laughing so much that she wet herself and the back seat. Even with all the windows open, they were all physically sick again before they reached home.

Anyone who has had a bad dose of the trots will know how painful it can be, think of how painful it would be if someone aimed a blow torch at your chocolate s
tarfish and that would be a pretty good indication of how sore it could be.
So what can you do if you have the runs? First off, the sensible thing to do is to stop eating for at least twenty-four hours, giving your stomach a rest and hopefully stopping the diahorea getting any worse.
Of course sometimes the diarrhoea will return with a vengeance one you resume eating and so a trip to the doctor may be in order.

Dehydration can also be a major problem, especially in children, so whilst fasting you must drink plenty of fluids, water is the best bet as fruit juice can make the problem worse. There are also many tablets on sale that “dry” up your system, Imodium is one of the treatments and it works pretty well on milder cases of diarrhoea.
Imodium comes in capsule form (2mg per capsule) and in a bottle.
You are supposed to take 4mg initially and then one 2mg capsule after your latest visit to the loo.
Because of the way Imodium works, it is unwise to take more than 14-16 mg in any one day. If you take more than the recommended dose you could end up with constipation.

Never ignore the problem, it can have devastating results on both your health and social life!
It can be an indication of more serious problems, some of which include Chrones disease, Gastric problems and in a few cases cancer of the colon. So if you have frequent bouts of the runs you must see your doctor for proper diagnosis and peace of mind.