Traveler's Tummy - Remedies and Warnings

 

Bamboo washable liners are jolly. For a light flow.

On holiday you might anticipate being struck down by a stronger illness requiring something stronger in the way of a remedy. 

Traveller's tummy, Delhi belly, nonovirus, food poisoning from buffets left in the heat too long, food carried around after shopping in the tropics, leftovers from takewawys and restaurants, nonvirus, too much eating and drinking. What can you do to protect your clothes, and bedding, and surroundings, and get back to enjoying your holiday or business meetings?

Discreet Underwear For Travel

 I have made this memor for my own use. I am not a doctor, so please consult a doctor before you are ill.

Packing Protective Clothes

I went away for a week to a conference centre. I did not pack panty liners, padded incontinence pads, or plastic knickers, nor throwaway panties. 

When I got severe diarrhea, I regretted not having emergency panty liners and panties.

These panty liners come in singles and sets of three or more. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Discreet Underwear

You can also buy from a large drug store in the USA or a chemist's shop in the UK or a pharmacy or pharmacies.in other counties a branded product which is underwear, usually disposable and padded all over for incontinence or a tummy bug, also known by slang terms such as the runs, and idioms, often alliterative with the local country or city name such as Delhi belly, Spanish tummy and traveller's tummy.

In London I received leaflets with vouchers in a letter box drop leaflets through the letter box, I went to a website where zi had to give my address to access the information and was emailed a voucher for a free product for money off. Later I was sent a free product.

Waitrose supermarket stocks Always products online. So does Amazon.

Daytime Stain Repellent clothes

Luckily I had  95% polyester (and 5% elastane) clothes. When I got food down the front they were not stained. So I knew my evening dresses and jacket were stain-repellent on all occasions.

However, I made sure to wear protective underwear, day and night.

Staying Near Toilets

Since I was in a wheelchair and using the disabled/handicapped toilets, I knew which conference centre toilet was least busy.

The toilet under the stairs had a washbasin near the toilet, and nobody else using it, so I was not holding up anybody else.

Not having any panty liners, I had to improvise using folded toilet paper. 

I kept visiting the toilet, whether or not I got a churning noise and cramps. I wanted everything inside to come out while I was in the bathroom and could deal with it.

Bedtime Bed Protection

At home, at bedtime, I would have placed a plastic sheeting under the lower sheet. If necessary, a bin liner across the top of the lower sheet.

Washable Underwear & Night Clothes

I would also have worn some kind of multi-layer underwear. It is handy to have not only my favourite, best night cotton night clothes, but also something quick to wash. Synthetic fabric night dresses repel stains. Thin and quick to dry.

Underwear Remedy

I wore black underwear rather than pale pink or cream colour. 

If cotton clothes stain, you can tie-dye them a darker colour.

I used a small towel to lie on. If it got contaminated, it was small enough to wash out quickly. Luckily, I was so ill that I stayed on the toilet for some time, until I had a lull. 

I woke a couple of times in the night. I rushed to the bathroom.

Missed Meetings

I had to miss one evening lecture. And breakfast next day. 

Causes of Vomiting and Diarrhea?

I phoned home. I had not wanted to worry my husband. But I thought that when I was starting to recover, I should let him know.

He assumed I had been over-eating on holiday. 

A friend of mine wondered whether I had suffered from stress, being out of bed, and in a wheelchair, the first time since I was struck down the the pain of a hairline crack in my spine.

Reporting Ill news

I hesistated to tell the conference reception. I was already a nuisance to them with the wheelchair.

However, after two days, I spoke to somebody among the delegates. She told me that she and three friends had all been ill, and had told reception.

So I went to reception. I told the girl on reception about my situation, and mentioned that four other guests also had symptoms. I asked, "Did you know?"

"Yes, staff members had it, too." 

I asked, "Could it have been food poisoning?"

"Defiitely not," she replied. "I ate the same as everybody else and I didn't get it."

Vomiting And Diarrhea Bowl

On holiday at the conference centre, I asked if they had a plastic bowl in case I felt sick in the night and could not get to the en suite bathroom in time.

I wanted something like my emergency sick bowl at home, a small former Xmas Pudding plastic bowl.

The only thing they could find me was a huge black pastic pail, one of several they had, I presume for mopping the floor. 

This large size proved very useful. I was sick into it. I was able to empty it down the toilet. Then wash it in the wet room, flat, walk in shower.

What To Drink?

One friend advised me to drink peppermint tea. She said it was soothing. 

I really only wanted water. But I thought I needed some small additions to my intake of nutrients.

What To Eat

I was ill Saturday Night. No breakfast Sunday morning. Tiny lunch Sunday. For the rest of the conference, no sausage nor bacon from breakfast. Yogurt. Muesli. A little scrambled egg on toast. 

Not finishing it. Stop when feeling full. 

Other people and websites suggested bland food, white fish and white rice and potato and white bread.

Some people warned, no dairy. Because dairy feeds the bad bugs and helps them to multiply while you are trying to reduce their number.

By the end of the fifth night I was much better. I was driven home without mishap. However I had a blood test scheduled for Friday.

Postponing Routine Medical Appointments

I looked up on line the timeline for being infectious. As far as I could tell, you could be leaving infections around for a fortnight. So not a good idea to go into the doctor's surgery. For the sake of other people. 

Regarding myself, my poor health and blood tests, I understood from what I read that illness can affect the results. Something to do with white platelets.

So I postponed the appointment. No problem from the receptionist. No insisting that I should come in.

Diet After Diarrhea

I also checked online dietery advice from sites which claim to be written by medical professionals. One recommended BRAT.

Banana.

Rice.

Apple Sauce

Toast.

My husband asked, 'Why apple sauce? What's wrong with an apple?"

I supposed apple sauce is easier to sip.

The BRAT diet is not for long term, just a day when You are struck down, but ready to eat something and wondering what.

Useful Websites

https://www.temu.com/uk/5-10pcs-random-color-reusable-menstrual-pads-bamboo-cloth-pads-large-sanitary-pads-set-with-wings-for-women-washable-overnight-cloth-panty-liners-period-pads-g-601099971942800.html

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=always+discreet

https://www.nhs.uk/symptoms/diarrhoea-and-vomiting/

https://health.clevelandclinic.org/brat-diet

This post was updated with more text and photos Oct 15 2025. Again on October 19th.2025

Update Wed 22 2025

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-15212879/Always-statement-dozens-women-claim-sanitary-towels-painful-agonising-burns.html

 Please bookmark this article so you can find it again if you need it. Also share links to my useful posts.

Stomach bugs from holiday - could it be nonovirus or shigella - how to tell

My husband rturned from Indonesia to Singapore with a sore throat. I often get a sore throat from lack of sleep.

But what about stomach bugs? I have had them travelling to India and Asian countries.

Over in the USA children have been struck down by two kinds of stomach bug.

Nonovirus is a virus, which means there is not treatment. Just rest. Bland food.

Shigella is caused by bacteria which can be treated with antibiotics, meaning anti living things.

Which do you have? One of the questions which doctors will ask is, when did this start?

I read the article in the Daily Mail about shigella and nonovirus and the first time I read it quickly, I got to the end and could not remember which was which. The second time I started looking at the letters and be the end I was clear. Here is what I did.

You can use the letters in the names to remember the symptoms.

Nonovirus

Nonovirus, v for virus. It says virus in the name. 

Non-o-virus - what can I remember from the first three letters, non-o-virus lasts not so long. One to three days.

Shigella

Shigella - shigell-a bacteri-a. Bacteria, biological, living thing, lives longer. Can be treated by antibiotics. Last how long? Up to a week.

 

Useful Websites

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-11863889/How-tell-difference-shigella-norovirus-stomach-flus-rise.html

Please bookmark your favourite posts and share the links.

Lunch At Dinner Restaurant - Heston Blumenthal - Brilliant Wine matching food

Snails crawl unhurriedly around my garden safe from any risk that I shall turn them into porridge. I have not been tempted to turn snails into dinner. We never made it to the Fat Duck restaurant at Bray which had such a waiting list we never got to try the famous, or infamous, snail porridge.
     But we did splash our cash on buying Heston Blumenthal's Christmas pudding with the fruit centre, from, Waitrose and loved it. So we were keen to visit Blumenthal's Dinner Restaurant at the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park hotel.
   Nonovirus, apparently, was the cause of food poisoning which closed down the restaurant for a week, but we had booked a set price lunch and were mentally committed to going. Yes, we had booked to visit in the week the restaurant was closed. But they allowed us to re-book for the following week.
  From the hotel's dark lobby with its real fire, we were quickly directed to the entrance to the modern interior bar. Beyond is the light dining room where tables for two overlook the spacious park and majestic tall trees.
 

Our table is a large 'small' table for two. The white napkin is sealed with a black paper cover. Unwrap the paper and inside you find printed with a snippet of fascinating restaurant history.
  What of the service? When a diner at a nearby table drops a piece of cutlery, a posse of servers rush forward, co-ordinated  like hospital staff called by an invisible bell to resuscitate.
  The set meal has two dishes for starter, two for main course and two for dessert. Simple. Two us chose a different starter and dessert each. We picked the same main course - in any case I had no choice as I am allergic to shellfish. We had notified them in advance and notified them on arrival. I thought they might have given me a menu which had two main courses, neither of which had shellfish. I was mistaken.

   I was in two minds about the bread. It looked like a baguette, with more holes than emmentaler. The butter was nicely salty. The novelty was that the chefs had produced what looked like slices of baguette, in such a pale brown that it was later in the meal that I realised there were two sorts of bread.
    At the time we salivating diners were impressed by the combination of soft centre and noisily crunching shell. Sorry to say that, in retrospect, I preferred the walnut bread I've had at other restaurants, such as Gilbert's and Hawtrey's is better.
   However, we had chosen the matching three glasses of wine. As I was dining with a wine buff (doing the WSET wine and Spritis level 4) my dining partner's enthusiasm influenced my mood.

   Surprise Starters
  The famous starter of meat fruit - an imitation mandarin with pate inside, was not on our set menu. We saw it tantalisingly being served to other diners.
     My lemon starter was certainly tangy. However, I much preferred the other dish. Ragoo of Pig's ear sounded off-putting.

    The meal got going with the main course of roast Quail. The purple kale was great, the inion and smoked chestnuts scrumptious. How could they make quail so tasty and tender. Quail is normally a scrawny meat, like a starved chicken, the meat clinging for dear life to the bones, like some kind of dinosaur herring, full of belligerent bones, designed to distract the diner and inconvenience conversation.

White Mist Around Ice Cream
   By now we were playing guess what the other diners have ordered. A wonderful white trolley was wheeled up to another couple. The white trolley enveloped itself in a mist of dry ice, like an Indian smoke signal trying to gain attention. It was ice cream. Served in two cone shaped cones.
   The server does not seem to be wearing gloves. Surely a week after the nonovirus ...? In the southern USA servers would all be wearing white gloves. But no time to worry about others. We are waiting for our own desserts.

  We were both now onto our third glass of wine, and the dessert wines were both wonderful sweet wines. So we were smiling before the dessert appeared.  The piece de resistance was definitely dessert. It didn't look as exciting as the other table's ice cream snowstorm. But what was missing in appearance was compensated for by tantalising taste.

   At last - an amuse gueule. A free treat.

    (You would think that as we'd had our plans to dine the previous week had been changed, we might have been given a little note thanking us for our patience, or some recognition of our valued custom. Fellini of Hatch End would have dashed over with drink on the house.)

   The teeny serving of chocolate and accompanying biscuit looks good. Alas the chocolate doesn't really taste strongly of chocolate. The biscuit is like gravel. Not nutty or seedy, just stick in your teeth grit.
 

 I call for a toothpick. The toothpicks are wrapped. Untouched by nonovirus. Score one point for that.
 
Delightful Desserts
   But the piece de resistance is the delightful dessert. Perfect prune and tamarind tart. Sensational steeple cream. Again, I preferred my partner's choice, the lick your lips prune and tamarind tart. The prune pastry base is perfect, the creamy centre is yummy and topping is munch crunchy and sugar sippy.
 

   We don't want to leave. What else can we have here? Lemongrass and ginger tea. It looks good n the small glass teapot. I am not overwhelmed by the flavour. I think my nose is blocked from reaction to the sugar or the previous chocolate or cream. I thought I had tasted stronger ginger from squeezing sliced ginger root through through a garlic press into hot water yesterday. But my companion declares that the lemongrass is extremely aromatic. If Mr Fussy likes the smell from a plate away, it must be good.

 On my way out of the restaurant I realised that the kitchen was glass sided so you could watch the busy chefs and see the spotless kitchen.

    The hotel itself is undergoing renovations, of the swimming pool, some bedrooms, an additional eat and drink area and more. I must admit I was a bit disappointed. My partner in dine likes dark and traditional. I look for the wow factor. I've been to Disneyland and all over America and Asia, in restaurants with floor to ceiling aquariums, triple waterfalls, Las Vegas five star hotels with flowers around the lobbies and restaurants made into framed imitations of famous old Masters and Impressionist paintings, waitresses in cheongsams, atriums so high you nearly fall over backwards. And London's top hotel which entertains HM The Queen has just a lot of charming girls in short silk skirts and two armchairs by a fire in the lobby, enough for two people to sit, and when you are two, and a stranger has one of the chairs, you are directed to the lounge bar, and one of you loses the other.
    Service charge is 12.5%.  
I was banned from hiding leftovers from lunch in my handbag, gloves or boots. In any case there were no leftovers. So I had no souvenir to bring home except my photos.
   Petrus restaurant gives diners a teeny cake to take home. Such a lovely idea.

Meat Fruit Recipe
  I was happy to be told by my dining partner that if we ever get any really good financial news (does anybody wish to donate a lottery ticket?) I shall be treated to the a la carte menu at Dinner restaurant.
    I've looked online and found a recipe for the meat fruit. You need to spend only six days making it. So if your hobby is cooking, no need to go out to Dinner, you can make your own. Unfortunately, I regard making a piece of toast in a toaster as tiresome, time-consuming, messy and dangerous. So I shall wait for the treat of Meat Fruit until I am invited to lunch or dinner at Dinner.