Food poisoning!

[imomus]

Hisae and I have food poisoning! I think we'll survive, but just in case we suddenly disappear off radar, I'm writing this as a kind of technical note in a bottle, information for neighbours and doctors and friends. Jan, we won't be coming to your Recycled Furniture Prototyping Workshop, alas, and Nathan, it looks like we won't make that late-night drink after all. Oh, and Y, you might want to investigate the pickled kabu.



During the night I noticed a little knot of discomfort in my stomach that got more insistent. To my surprise, when I got to the bathroom I was suddenly sick. I very rarely retch. It's been years! To my even greater surprise, this didn't really placate the burning ball in the pit of my stomach; in an hour or so I had to return and start vomiting again. This went on all night, basically, and woke up Hisae, who also started hurling. (Well, two's company!) On some of my trips to the bathroom I got really feverish, drenched with sweat.

I drank as much water as I could, and managed to get some sleep in between the technicolor episodes. H and I also speculated on what we might have eaten that had this effect on us. We narrowed it down to a bag of kabu (radish) a Japanese friend had given us, prepared in the pickling technique called nukamiso. This technique uses a bucket filled with nukadoko, a rice-based medium which ferments whatever's put in it. The nukadoko can be really old -- fifty years or so, although it has to be added to frequently. Sometimes small flies can add to it with their eggs, too. Joi Ito describes the process here.

We're lying in bed in the positions that hurt the least, currently unable to eat anything but at least not hurling any more. We sip water and Hisae whimpers from time to time (in a style that's half-real, half-ironic; whimpering in quotes). Morale is okay; we don't think this will require hospitals, drips, stomach pumps and so on. Just the other day I was reading about how comedian Marty Feldman died of a heart attack brought on by food poisoning, but his was shellfish-related, which I think is more dangerous. Anyway, I'm feeling slightly better now, though the knot in my stomach is still there.

Any food-poisoning tips? Send them along! No pictures of food, though, please.

Comments

[anashi.livejournal.com]

Mix some gatorade with some water. Always helped me.

Get well soon

[ankh156.livejournal.com]

It's all the rage... I've had a 'gastro', user has had the same as you. We're such fragile creatures. Eat simply, drink lots, let it pass - and it will.

[(Anonymous)]

umeboshi! and suck on the seed for a long while too. if you're not ready to eat just drop it in a glass of hot water and mash it up.

hast du? i can bring some over...

nathan

[lilredbite.livejournal.com]

I know I hardly comment but..anyhow, get carbon tablets or take a spoonfull of cinnamon powder and down it with water. Both will absorb the toxins. Don't forget to drink lots of water and take multivitamin and minerals once you're recovering.

[rougeforever.livejournal.com]

Uuurgh - poor you two. I think the key is starting gently with water, then working up to fluids with sugar and salt in them (perversely coca-cola is very good!) Rest plenty. Plain foods until your tums can cope with more. I usually go for banana and bread)

[possiblyperhaps.livejournal.com]

Coke, (not the sugar free one!) cause the fizzyness will ease the queasyness and the sugar will help make you feel a bit better, or something like that....it's my hangover cure!

[girfan.livejournal.com]

If a chemist near you carries Peptol Bismol, get some. It always helped me when I've had food poisoning.

[cap-scaleman.livejournal.com]

Just let it pass and then try to get something that is gentle to your stomach. Some kind of yoghurt can be good but not if it is too sour.

[(Anonymous)]

Don't take anything that would stop the flow from either end. You will be well-served by eating yogurt with live and active cultures in as much quantity as you can stand. The potassium and calcium will replenish your electrolytes and the good bacteria will recolonize your GI tract so the bad bacteria have nowhere to hang out.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Thanks for all this advice, I'm feeling quite a bit better now after a banana and multivitamin drink, Hisae is still in some discomfort, though.

I went into it first and it looks like I'm coming out of it first too!

Re: Food poisoning adVICE

[(Anonymous)]

Practice prevention . . . Don't eat food

Food is superfluous in the kNEW millenium.

[butterflyrobert.livejournal.com]

Sip Green Tea and chew on Saffron.

[(Anonymous)]

I know how you feel. I had about 5 jager shots last night and 6 bud lights. Puked on my floor here. Still haven't cleaned it up.

[atarashi.livejournal.com]

dunno how easy it will be, but if you can, try visiting a Chinese supermarket and buy Po Chai Yin, or charcoal pills. they come in little tiny plastic tubes filled with about 10 even tinier round spheres, you're meant to down at least one tubeful of pills and chase with a gulp of water. they work wonders.

[geeveecatullus.livejournal.com]

Soletti (with salt!!) and coke. Glad you are feeling better already.

You get sick when you're afraid, Nick

[(Anonymous)]

You always did. Stop skimming the top of the barrel. That's where the crap is.

Not nice

[(Anonymous)]

Glad to hear you're feeling better. I only experienced extreme food poisoning twice; both times from rice dishes. The second time was the worst and left me shaking uncontrollably, along with the usual symptoms. I'm told the nervous effects are a sign of botulism poisoning, but that might be nonsense. I was disappointed not to get visions, ergot-style, but at least I'm still here. Much more cautious of cooked rice these days.

Not nice

[http://openid.aol.com/sharl@mac.com (from livejournal.com)]

Glad to hear you're feeling better. I only experienced extreme food poisoning twice; both times from rice dishes. The second time was the worst and left me shaking uncontrollably, along with the usual symptoms. I'm told the nervous effects are a sign of botulism poisoning, but that might be nonsense. I was disappointed not to get visions, ergot-style, but at least I'm still here. Much more cautious of cooked rice these days.

[notazionist.livejournal.com]

Hot water with lemon and ginger. Always. Hope Hisae and yourself are feeling better.

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

Crackers or toast with tea or Coke always seems to settle the stomach.

Nasty stuff, food poisoning. Lost twelve pounds in Africa once.

[ganatronic.livejournal.com]

That's gross. Stay strong, but also try to relax it away. Watch a movie.

[nina-blomquist.livejournal.com]

From the symptoms you describe it sounds like you have the Norovirus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noro_virus). It has been going around in Berlin for a while and a lot of people I know had it. In Munich a school was closed because of it two weeks ago. It is highly infectious (airborne!) and has an incubation time of only 10 hours. When I had it, the doctor told be to drink lots and eat lots of electrolyte, there is nothing else you can do really.

[sylvia101.livejournal.com]

i had horrible food poisoning once in Las Vegas. It was bad. Small amounts of antacid and apple juice helped. Mild juice was better than water alone.

Talking to Jesus on the out-sized porcelain telephone.

[(Anonymous)]

My partner Ruth is a nurse and she recommends you wait until the tum has settled before introducing liquids.
Lemonade gets some of the electrolytes back in, if that doesn't rebound introduce bland, dry solid foods such as toast or crackers.
Sleep and taking it easy for a day or two afterwards should oust the beastie. Good recovery.
Thomas S.

[microworlds.livejournal.com]

I usually bring a bowl with me to bed in case I can't make it to the bathroom. When I had food poisoning, just standing up and walking around made me throw up. So just limit yourself every so often to get the necessities and get back to laying down.

glasgow

[(Anonymous)]

thank your lucky stars you dont live in glasgow....

remedies

[pay-option07.livejournal.com]

It happens to me occasionally. However It is from mixing recipes of one culture with another. Try vanilla milkshakes,
yogurt, or my favorite rice pudding after.
I'm surprised because radish is easy to digest.
Bacteria are amazing organisms, very resilient.
Wish you well.

Re: remedies

[imomus.livejournal.com]

We have an alternative theory, perhaps more likely. The same Japanese friend gave us two kaki (persimmon) cakes which, he pointed out to Hisae, were a little mouldy. He said that if we fried them lightly in oil they should be fine. Hisae did this, and in a spirit of self-sacrifice gave me the less-mouldy one (she now tells me). Which might explain why I'm now completely fine and she's still got a sore stomach.

[skazat.livejournal.com]

The last time I got food poisoning was after a show at the Brixton Academy. I was eating a sandwhich I bought at a small store - the store looked shady, the sandwhich more so, but I was hungry and broke and thought I should eat something before the show I had traveled from Denver, CO, USA to go to.

I kept eating the sandwhich, bit by bit, while in line for the doors to open, and the little voice in my head told me, sternly to STOP eating the sandwhich. I didn't listen. It kept talking. I kept ignoring.

I got to the box office and the girl told me that I had bought a ticket for THE NIGHT BEFORE. That's a different story altogether on how I got in (still broke!), but I did.

The next day, I woke up and that same little voice told me that I needed to, very quickly, find the nearest bathroom and do my reverse ingesting business.

And that happened, until the very minute I got on the plane - I couldn't even keep tea down.

Luckily, there was no one sitting by me and they had the French Connection on the little TV thing in front of me. I began to feel a whole lot better. Enough to even eat the food they gave me.

So yes, watch the French Connection. It has gangsters in it, which is a plus.

food poisoning

[geweih.livejournal.com]

well it seems you have no shortage of helpful hints, just to add my two-penneth worth, BURNT TOAST always worked for me (I guess it's the same principal as the carbon / charcol pills but doesn't involve a trip to the pharmacy)

stomach flu?

[(Anonymous)]

Hi Nick,

Wasn't it stomach flu than food poisoning?
it's going on in here in new york,
people call it 1 day stomach flu.
my boyfriend, my co-worker, friends, many
people got infected. my boss actually was in
munich but she got it too. You get sudden vomiting
,diarrea, fever(very mild) and chills for 1 day,
caused by weird virus, and you are fine after that.
i'm protecting myself to not get it.

Hope you feel better now!

-Hikaru