Food poisoning horror stories - share yours?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Vietnam street food. A year of diarrhea, dehydration, meds and hospitals to get rid of a parasitic infection. Zero stars, do not recommend.

Like, in Vietnam?

Same happened to me in Vietnam. I was 18, travelling with a friend. Never been so sick. Would not recommend Vietnamese hospitals circa 1992.
In the end a tiger balm massage helped.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A relative got salmonella. After extensive interviews with Heath Delartment and testing, they determined the most likely culprit was sprouts from a high end sandwich shop in Manhattan. The health department peoole said sprouts are one of the most common causes. Relative was hospitalized for weeks and at least partially disabled for a year due to after-effects. Relative saw many specialists and finally was able to control the lingering symptoms by totally reworking her diet — the salmonella basically destroyed her gut and all sort of foods she had previously been fine with gave her really debilitating symptoms.

This story is enough to convince me not to ever eat sprouts again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1) Crab ravioli. This was the worst. I could barely function for 24 hours after the onset (4-5 hours after eating). Spend most of the time in the bathroom, sometimes puking and pooping simultaneously. 2) Crabs. Puked at the restaurant. No one else got sick, so I assume I just got a really bad one. 3) Indian food. Haven’t touched it since. Had to crawl back and wake my husband up and let him know that he couldn’t go to work the next day (SAHM with an infant). 4) Crab legs on a Sunday. Never buy seafood on a Sunday!

You have a theme going on here. 3 of your 4 examples are crab. Have you considered that it might be an allergy instead of food poisoning?

Crab cakes made me sick once too. I’m definitely not allergic.

You don’t see the difference of one time vs three? I guess everyone has different levels of food tolerances, but for me personally getting sick from the same food multiple times would indicate a pattern. At minimum I wouldn’t be eating the offending food any more.

+1. I had the same experience when I cooked with broad bean paste. I don't think it was food poisoning, but I got awful cramps the next day and really bad diarrhea. Just terrible. It took cooking with it three times over several weeks to make the connection since it wasn't immediate, but I tossed the broad bean paste, haven't used it since, and (knock on wood!) haven't had the issue since.

It is interesting that different people have different reactions. Years ago DH and I went out for sushi with another couple who were visiting us. We all ate the same things. The husband got violently ill and was barfing all night. The other three of us were fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Vietnam street food. A year of diarrhea, dehydration, meds and hospitals to get rid of a parasitic infection. Zero stars, do not recommend.

Like, in Vietnam?

Same happened to me in Vietnam. I was 18, travelling with a friend. Never been so sick. Would not recommend Vietnamese hospitals circa 1992.
In the end a tiger balm massage helped.

What's a tiger balm massage? I have tiger balm but thought it was just for sore muscles after exercise.

DH got salmonella from Long Horn once. We were in our mid-20s and he was a very healthy, athletic guy with no other health issues at the time. He got so sick he nearly had to be hospitalized. We haven't eaten there since.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Near miss: went out for dinner with my boyfriend and a couple he knew. The woman ordered a seafood soup. Next day we heard she got so violently sick she had been admitted to the hospital.

Never order seafood soup unless it’s a purpose made soup like clam chowder

“It’s not old fish, it’s a whole new thing”

https://www.eater.com/2016/1/13/10759544/anthony-bourdain-the-big-short-film

so true. I never order seafood at all unless it’s a seafood restaurant with a good reputation.

I apparently didn't take all my childhood viewings of Airplane to heart and ordered the fish on an overnight flight to France. What an awful experience trying to repeatedly cover up the smell and the noise that was echoing off those metallic toilet bowls during the silent/sleeping portion of the flight (with a cadre of stewardesses congregating in their station right outside that door).

[Anonymous]

I got food poisoning at in-office interview during law school. We were at the tail end of lunch at a very upscale restaurant when it hit so I'm assuming it's whatever I ate at the hotel that morning for breakfast, which I don't even remember. It was so awful. The associates were lingering and chatting, while I started sweating and went to the bathroom for a couple extended visits. Then we went BACK to the office for my final interviews. At the first one I said I had to use the bathroom and basically exploded once I got in there. Was completely horrified to come out of the women's room and find my male interviewer standing there waiting for me. I can't even imagine what he heard. I made some apologies to cut the interviews short and went back to spend the night in my hotel bathroom. It sucked because I had dinner plans with a friend in that city and had to beg off. I remember she made some suggestions (maybe just soup?) but I had stuff coming out both ends by that point so anything was out of the question.

[Anonymous]

How can you distinguish between food poisoning and stomach flu/norovirus, which also can come out of nowhere?

[Anonymous]

Went to a wedding in LA. DH got sick on something-no idea what as he ate everything. We had volunteered to help out a lot so now I was driving around in LA (sucks/don't know it) and doing all the tasks the next day while DH stayed at the hotel. We started to hear others were sick but no one wanted to upset the happy couple.

Then we get to the airport and on the flight we were seated separately. I asked the other passengers next to DH if I could switch and they could sit at the front. All said no- though they weren't traveling together. I made a point of advising that he had been really sick and I just wanted to be sure I was there in case he needed help. They kind of ignored us/blew us off and DH proceeded to projectile vomit all over the three people who would not move for the rest of the lengthy and turbulent flight. We still cringe/LOL at that.

[Anonymous]

Take out Chinese while working in an office in the UAE. One bad shrimp. Hit me about 45 mins after I ate it. Threw up in the bathroom, left work early, threw up in my hotel and spent the rest of the day by the pool feeling fine.

In Brazil for a wedding. Bad salad, I think. Ate early lunch, got on a plane in the afternoon to head to the wedding, the flight attendant was blocking the aisle, told her she needed to move NOW, spent the rest of the flight in the bathroom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tips from Peace Corps: you can make rehydration solution in a quart/liter jar, fill it with water and enough salt so it tastes like tears. Add 7 or 8 spoonfuls of sugar, choke down what you can. To test for severe dehydration, pinch the skin on the back of your hand. If it doesn't bounce back quickly it's time for the hospital. And diarrhea like rice is probably cholera. Drink whatever you can and get to the hospital ASAP! Once you can eat a bit, the BRAT diet is a good plan. Bananas, rice, applesauce, toast. I've also found bananas excellent for vomiting, they absorb stomach acid and chunks don't get stuck in your nose. I'm sorry this is happening, I hope you feel better soon![/quote

Hello to my fellow RPCV!! These stories are good, but nothing compares to the level of GI distress you can achieve in a rural community in West Africa when you’re 23 and think you don’t need to wash your vegetables thoroughly.

[Anonymous]

I'll tell a story:
My son was about 8 months old. It was Labor Day weekend. We stayed in town, nothing to do and nowhere to go. Son and I met a friend of mine for lunch at a restaurants who's name I can't remember, but it's closed now. I had a delicious chicken sandwich, but, babies being babies, I didn't finish. I brought home half to my DH, who promptly ate it and said "that was delicious."

About two hours later, I have uncontrollable nastiness coming out both ends. I just cannot stop throwing up. DH starts about an hour after me. Violently ill. The baby is laughing, and having a grand time. Meanwhile DH and I are panicking as we puke, because we know that with both of us down, we need help with baby. We start calling people. My parents were 10 hours away on a weekend long trip and we figured by the time they got there we'd be ok. My brother was six hours away, working, but willing to ditch his job and help. We said "let's wait and see." No friends around, no neighbors around, because of the holiday. At one point it was so bad, I had the baby in his little jumper, eating six cheerios for every one I tried to keep down. I sat him in the doorway of the powder room, within sight of the TV, where he would only stop crying for Food Network. So as I threw up, we watched Guy Fierei chop up chicken on TV.

Fun times.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In Mexico, where I was living. I spent 5 days in the hospital and the Bacterial infection I got from eating something infected my appendix so I had an appendectomy 2.5 days after I was admitted.

Yeah, right! More like your appendix was sold on the black market!

[Anonymous]

What is it with Food Poisoning and young kids?

DH and I got it from Wegman’s prepackaged salmon. And also got it from a frozen pizza. All within a 1.5 years while DS was a baby/toddler. Luckily it came out the bottom end and only for 3-6 hours. Then it was 24 hours of cramps nausea and feeling like death. We had to tag team taking care of DS.

[Anonymous]

This isn’t food poisoning per se, but noro from food. Went to an annual Christmas/birthday party at a friend’s. They actually warned people that the guy host & kid got some kind of stomach thing from our-of-town visiting friend’s kid, but were recovering. Pretty much everyone (100-150 people?) came anyway. By the time the party started, girl host was upstairs too ill to even give toast for husband’s birthday. Everyone had a fantastic time. 75% of the party got super sick. I was vomiting for 48 hours and felt ill for 2 days after that. Common thread was folks who ate the incredible dessert spread girl host made while she obviously had noro but didn’t know yet. Lots of pretty high level DOJ folks and some State Department people there. A week later Hilary Clinton got noro, as did a bunch of her aides, and fell and got the blood clot we all heard about for half of 2016. We basically blame our friends for Trump’s victory. (Everybody went back to the party the next year(s) though. They are great people and fabulous hosts. They really may have given Hilary noro though.)

[Anonymous]

Pretty sure I gout it from an airport poke bowl. It has smoked salmon so I figured it was safe. Still it took a few days to hit. But when it did it was brutal. No vomit but so much diarrhea. I lost 5 lbs in a day. I couldn’t keep anything me. It was awful. Took 5 days before I felt fairly normal. I did take Imodium which made me feel weird, almost like I was empty inside. But it did allow me to hydrate. I was on the mend after that.