Cookaholics Bulletin Board

All,

Have you gotten food poisoning before? Did you find out exactly what it is and where it came from?

For me, the most frustrating thing about food poisoning is that I often never find out what caused it or even what particular infection was responsible. I spent several hours last night throwing up. I'm better now, so I don't want to go to a doctor just to find out what it was. But it's frustrating not knowing.

Also, if it was the fish, I'd like to warn our grocer about his fish supplier.

I have IBS, and a couple of allergies that will cause me to hurl, so I'm never sure if I have managed to ingest a bug or a sesame seed. I know I had it when I was 15 and I know it came from some crock-pot BBQ beef that some family friends made, but my folks weren't much for going to the doctor (There's an axe sticking out of your skull? Put a little peroxide on it!) so I never found out what specifically made me miss the auditions for the school play.

In January, I went to the ER after barfing and other stuff for three days, and there was no end in sight. My fab(?) doctor refused to call something in for me, I had to go there - 60 miles away. So, I went to the ER and changed doctors. While there, I got a prescription for Zofran, and two IV bags. They said it was "something that was going around." But I was the only one who was sick. So, yeah, it it was food poisoning. But I'll never know.

And I got the Zofran refilled -- in case.

While I do not know exactly what bug it was, I know what food caused the poisoning that landed me in the hospital (the dehydration was intense and I needed IV fluids). It was Hardee's burgers (20+ years ago). I know it was the burgers because my husband at the time and I both landed in the hospital and it was the only food that we ate that no one else did.

I also think a bad clam dish gave me a bad case of food poisoning but I couldn't prove it in a court of law. The timing and off flavor of the clams lend me to believe they were the culprits, though.

More recently, some bad larb from a Thai place seemed to cause a lot of gastrointestinal upset that almost cost me a job (night before my interview). It could have been something else, but again the timing seems to place the larb on top of the suspect list.

I have often wondered which nasty critter I had with those instances, but not enough to go the hospital to find out.

Darcie,

Yeah. The fact that many common food poisonings (salmonella, e coli, etc.) can take up to 24 hours for symptoms gets you into the "what did I eat" guessing game. Or the fact that some stomach flu has identical symptoms.