When you woke up two days ago with a case of diarrhea, you chalked it up to the previous evening of excess and the combination of Mexican and margaritas. With you feeling worse than you did the morning after, the symptoms are a little more than your typical evening of excess but instead show symptoms of bacterial infection.
Often bacterial infection symptoms are difficult to diagnose in the beginning because they mirror so many non-bacterial symptoms, which tend to go away on their own within a few days. Bacterial infections tend to hang around until treated, simply because the human body is rarely strong enough to fight them off on it’s own.
Bacteria can be found in almost every surface found in the world and it isn’t any wonder that some of those bacteria enter our bodies and cause problems with our immune system. This can eventually create an infection that can leave us feeling less than stellar until we seek the appropriate treatment. Typical treatment will include a course of antibiotics ranging anywhere from a few days to a few weeks, depending on the severity of the infection.
In many ways, infections are like the gun fights of the Wild, Wild West days, they can be both dangerous and unpredictable but can be kept under control with the right sheriff in town, and in the world of bacterial infections, that sheriff is the antibiotic.
Since we can’t see bacteria with the naked eye, actually diagnosing the type of bacterial infection with the naked eye is impossible. This creates a situation wherein the healthcare professionals have to resort to blood tests to find out what type of bacteria they are dealing with and also to observe the symptoms in order to eliminate some options and provide an accurate diagnosis as to what type of infection you have and the proper course of antibiotics.
Remember that long gone are the days of shoot em ups in the Wild, Wild West, and even those of us with the best weapons of defense, good health can find ourselves victim to bacterial infections. If you are having any lingering problems, such as nasal discharge, for example, you should contact your physician for a diagnosis, and you’ll be up and at em’ again in no time.
