A stomach bug and food poisoning feel nearly identical from the inside, and they leave you in the same place: hours or days behind on fluids and electrolytes, wrung out even after the worst of it has passed. That deficit is the part an IV addresses.
Most stomach bugs and most food poisoning get better at home. A few things that feel identical are emergencies and they are hard to tell apart early, so that list comes first on this page, before anything about what we sell.
Read this first: when a stomach bug is not a stomach bug
Go to an emergency room or call 911 now, and do not book a drip, if any of these are true.
- Pain that is severe, constant, or in one spot. Especially pain that began around your navel and moved, pain in your upper belly that bores through to your back, pain that is worse when you press and let go, or a belly that is hard, rigid or swollen. Pain that came before the vomiting is more concerning than pain that came after. Appendicitis, a blockage, and a gallbladder or pancreas problem can all look like a stomach bug in the first hours.
- Blood. Blood in vomit, vomit that looks like coffee grounds, blood in stool, or stool that is black and tarry.
- You have stopped passing gas or stool while you are still vomiting, especially if you have ever had abdominal surgery.
- You have diabetes and you are vomiting. Heavy thirst, urinating a lot despite vomiting, fast or deep breathing, or breath that smells sweet. This can happen with a normal blood sugar reading if you take an SGLT2 medication such as empagliflozin or dapagliflozin.
- You could be pregnant and have lower belly pain, shoulder-tip pain, or faintness, whether or not a period is late.
- Signs of a serious infection. Shaking chills, a fever that will not come down, a temperature that is unusually low, fast breathing, skin that is mottled, grey or clammy, or feeling worse by the hour. If you are on chemotherapy, steroids, or medication that suppresses your immune system, any fever is an emergency.
- Chest pressure or pain, pain spreading to your jaw, arm or back, breathlessness, or a cold sweat. Nausea and vomiting can be how a heart attack presents, particularly in women, people over 50, and people with diabetes.
- Confusion, unusual drowsiness, trouble staying awake, fainting or nearly fainting.
- Little or no urine, a racing heart while you are sitting still, or dizziness that does not ease when you lie down.
- Sudden severe headache with a stiff neck, or new weakness, numbness, slurred speech, double vision or drooping eyelids.
- Nothing staying down for many hours, or vomiting and diarrhea that is getting worse rather than levelling off.
- Anyone 17 or younger. We do not treat anyone under 18, with no exceptions. A child who is vomiting and cannot keep fluids down should be seen by a pediatrician, urgent care or an emergency room.
If you are not sure which door you need, call (615) 592-6529 before you book, or read mobile IV, urgent care, or the ER. An IV is elective wellness care and we are not a substitute for emergency care. A drip can make some of the problems above feel better for a few hours while they get worse, which is why this list is at the top of the page rather than the bottom.
What is actually going wrong
Vomiting and diarrhea remove water and electrolytes. Sodium and potassium go out with the fluid, and those are what your nerves and muscles run on. When you are behind on both, you get the familiar package: lightheaded standing up, a pounding head, weak, cold hands, no urine or very dark urine. That is not the virus or the toxin doing it directly. When an ordinary stomach bug is what you have, that package is usually the fluid deficit rather than the illness itself.
Normally you fix a fluid deficit by drinking, and for most stomach bugs that is exactly what you should do. Oral rehydration works. Small amounts, often, is the standard advice for this. The question this page answers is what to do when the nausea has settled enough to sip but you are still badly behind, which is a different situation from being unable to keep anything down at all.
What an IV does here
An IV puts sterile fluids and electrolytes into a vein rather than through your stomach. That is the whole mechanism, and it restores the deficit without asking a gut that is still unsettled to do the work.
Our Stomach Bug and Food Poisoning Drip is $239 and contains IV fluid and electrolytes, vitamin C, zinc, B-complex, plus prescription medication for stomach relief and nausea relief. The relief medication is why this drip has more in it than fluids alone: the goal is getting you back to keeping sips down, because drinking is what gets you through the rest of it. A Nurse Practitioner reviews whether the medication is appropriate for you, and it is not always appropriate. Anything that settles nausea can also quiet pain that is telling you something, which is the reason the warning signs come before the booking decision on this page.
To be plain about who this is for: an adult who knows why they are sick, has none of the emergency signs above, and can keep small sips down but is drained and behind. That is the same line our mobile IV, urgent care, or ER guide draws, and it does not move.
The Nausea Relief Drip at $199 is the lighter version: fluids, electrolytes, B-complex and nausea relief, without the added vitamins. It is the pick when nausea is the whole problem and you are not several days into an illness. Motion sickness, the queasy day after a migraine, and medication side effects are the usual reasons people choose it.
What an IV does not do
It does not shorten a stomach virus. Norovirus and the rest run their course on their own schedule and a bag of fluids does not change that schedule. It does not treat food poisoning either, in the sense that the toxin or bacteria is not being removed by the drip. What it addresses is the fluid and electrolyte deficit.
It also is not the right call on hour one, as long as none of the warning signs above apply. If you have thrown up twice, have none of those signs, and can hold down small sips, sip. That is the usual advice for an ordinary stomach bug. If any warning sign is present, time spent sipping is time lost. And it is not the right call at the other end either: if nothing is staying down, an IV at home is not the answer, urgent care or the ER is.
What the intake review can and cannot do
A Nurse Practitioner reviews your intake, and if what you describe points somewhere else we will tell you and will not dispatch a visit. Be clear about what that review is: a history review, and for some visits a brief video check-in. No physical exam before arrival, no bloodwork, no imaging. It cannot rule out appendicitis, a bleed, a blockage or a diabetic emergency. Nothing on this page and nothing in that review is a reason to wait if any of the warning signs above apply to you.
Who this is not for
- Anyone 17 or younger. No exceptions, and a parent's consent does not change it.
- Pregnancy. Possible, but your obstetric provider signs off on elective IV hydration before the visit, so tell us before you book.
- Heart failure, significant heart or valve disease, kidney disease or dialysis. A bag of fluid is a real volume load and the right answer may be less, or none. Tell us before you book.
- Anyone 60 or older. IV fluid volume is capped at one liter every two weeks with no extra-fluid add-ons, so mention your age range when you book.
- Anyone taking a water pill, lithium, an ACE inhibitor or ARB, metformin, an SGLT2 medication or a blood thinner. All of these change what is safe when you are dehydrated. Bring the list.
- Anyone on chemotherapy, steroids or medication that suppresses the immune system. Any fever needs urgent medical review, not a drip.
Whether it is a bug or something you ate
People ask, and the honest answer is that you usually cannot tell a virus from a bad meal by symptoms alone, and between those two it rarely changes what you do. Both dehydrate you the same way and the rehydration is the same either way. What does change what you do next is anything on the warning list above, and that is the distinction worth your attention.
Two cautions on the usual rules of thumb. Severe pain that starts after a meal, particularly a fatty one, can be the gallbladder or the pancreas rather than the food. And more than one person in a house getting sick is not always a shared virus: in cold weather, carbon monoxide causes headache, nausea and vomiting in everyone in a building at once and eases when you leave. If that pattern fits, get outside and call 911.
How a visit works
A Nurse Practitioner reviews your intake before any drip starts. A licensed nurse comes to you, which for this particular illness is the point: nobody in this condition wants a waiting room, and neither does anyone sitting near them. The drip runs about an hour. $239 flat for the Stomach Bug and Food Poisoning Drip, travel included across most of our service area, with the exact amount shown before you pay if your address is farther out. Same-day depends on the schedule, and if you are unsure which door you need, call (615) 592-6529 first. The stomach bug page shows what is bookable today, and nausea on its own has its own page.
A&M IV Co. is a Nurse Practitioner-owned mobile IV practice based in Brentwood, serving Nashville and Middle Tennessee.