A Common Food Poisoning Story

Continued from Food Poisoning Prevention Home Page

"I was driving when it first started."

It began with a small stomach cramp.  Then after just what seemed like a few minutes, the cramps became much more severe, almost like a grumbling, and I felt the beginning of a nauseating feeling, which I knew was telling me I might have to throw up soon.

Fortunately, I was close to home when the severe cramps, and nausea started.  I pulled into my driveway.  Quickly got out, which was not a good idea since as soon as I stood up, the ‘might have to throw up’, turned to 'have to throw up' within the next minute or less.

I quickly made it to the door, unlocked it and just made it to the toilet to release whatever was in my system, at least the top part.

After a few minutes of vomiting my lunch (it was about 7pm and I hadn’t eaten anything since lunch), my body didn’t believe my stomach when it kept saying there is nothing left.  I almost missed the other symptom.

Severe cramps are to diarrhea what nausea is to vomiting -  a warning that something wants to get out!

I wasn’t quite finished throwing up so I grabbed the trash can near by, pulled down my pants and quickly turned around to sit on the toilet, almost all in one very quick motion (sorry if you can picture this).

This is where I remained, even though my stomach and intestines kept expressly saying that there was not one molecule of organic, or inorganic matter left.

I remember only praying in between the small breaks in pain.  Nothing else occupied my mind until I heard someone come in. All I could say in between moans was 'HELP' !!

I was told that I was there for probably an hour.  My wife finally came home and found me moaning on the toilet.  She helped clean me up and move to the bed.  When I tried to stand up, I felt the other symptoms, which surprised me because my brain was still occupied on the first ones.  Chills and a definite fever.

How could this be happening so quickly, I remember thinking.   I felt perfectly fine just a short time ago.

I slowly crawled into bed and attempted to take off my clothes and put on some PJs.  I knew as soon as I lied down that this was going to be temporary.  The short break was over and I needed to get back to my "throne".  My wife helped me up and back to the bathroom again just in time.

In the morning the wife packed what little was left of me into the car with the gear needed to catch anything I might dispel, and off to the doctor’s office we went.  I didn’t realize how bumpy our streets are (actually they are quite smooth).  When you're weak, the muscles you normally depend on are just absent.

After literally dragging myself into the doctor’s office and trying to get comfortable (impossible at this point), the nursing assistant finally came in and asked me a lot of questions;  symptoms, when they first appeared, types of pains, any blood in the stool (not that I saw) and more, including what I had eaten the past few meals.  That’s easy…nothing!   Actually she meant before the symptoms started. 

Normally, when I'm healthy I can’t remember what I had eaten the day.  How can I remember now when pain is clouding everything?   I gave her as much as I could remember going back to breakfast and dinner the day before.  After documenting all this, taking my temperature, blood pressure etc. she left and a few minutes later the doctor came in.  After reading my responses he asked a few more questions and then proceeded to poke me in a few areas and take a stool and had the assistant come back in to take some blood.  I had been so cleansed, I don’t know how he could have even find anything to examine.

His basic conclusion was that it could very well be related to something I had eaten and that if the symptoms continue and I’m not able to keep any liquids down, the next step would be to admit me to the hospital to start an intravenous line to help re-hydrate.  He recommended some off-the-shelf products from the drug store, and he wanted to wait for the lab results to come back before prescribing anything more, as well as wait and see if I don't get better on my own in the next day or so.

I passed on the hospital and said I might try something off the shelf at the drug store.

After what appeared to be a worthless trip to the doctor, I struggled back home and climbed back into bed.  First though, one more visit to the toilet.  I decided not to take any drugs and to keep drinking or sipping fluids.

To my surprise, the doctor was right, I did start to feel almost human by the evening and was able to actually eat some soup and drink some water.  The symptoms had begun to disappear almost as quickly as they had begun.  I have experienced similar symptoms before with the flu, but never with such speed of onset, continuous pain and then quick conclusion.  This is what I learned are the major differences between the flu and a food borne illness.  Including the fact that the food poisoning symptoms were mainly gastrointestinal, with some fever and chills, but no sore throat, stuffy nose, cough etc. 

The doctor called the next day to let me know that the lab came back with a positive for Salmonella in my stool.  I had contracted the Salmonella bacteria probably from the breakfast on the day I experienced the symptoms, or from the dinner the night before.  In any case he said that since I was feeling much better, he wasn’t going to prescribe anything but he would like to get another stool sample in a week or so to see if the Salmonella bacteria is still hanging around.  (Normal healthy people can become carriers for Salmonella, as well as many other nasty organisms)

He also mentioned that someone from the county public health department would be contacting me ask a lot of questions to try to locate the source.

I had forgotten that the nursing assistant had asked about my last few meals and so I started thinking back again and remembered something that escaped me during my incapacitation.

I had gone out to breakfast that morning to a local restaurant I had eaten at countless times before, and had ordered scrambled eggs.  Again something I had done countless times before without any problems.  This time though the eggs seemed  runny or undercooked, and only warm.  I didn’t bother to ask about it or return them for further cooking.  I knew that raw eggs can be a source for Salmonella and are risky to eat, but these were at least partially cooked and I had eaten scrambled eggs here many times before without ever contracting such a nasty bug.

These were my 2 mistakes:

Physically, I am fully recovered, but in other ways I’m not the same.  I am now much more aware of what to look for, or look out for, not just in a restaurant, but markets and even at home.

There is no way I will ever be that ignorant or take that chance again.  After doing some research, speaking to the local public health department  and learning what to look out for, there is very little that gets by me, or will not cause me to bring something to the attention of the restaurant staff or the local public health department.

I know the health inspectors are working diligently, but from what I've learned they inspect food facilities once or twice, on average, per year and can not possibly see everything in the one or two hours they are inspecting a facility. Someone from the public health department did call (again asking many of the same questions) and after doing some investigation at the restaurant and getting additional reports of Salmonella, it was concluded that the eggs were the likely source, or it could have been one egg, since everyone that tested positive for Salmonella ate a dish that had come from a batch of pooled eggs.

Don't wait for this to happen to you or someone close to you before becoming an educated and aware consumer!