"24 hour illness" is a misnomer
I had wanted to attend the Maple Syrup festival this past Saturday, but my systems had other plans.
In the wee hours of Saturday morning, I got quite ill. Let's just say that it was a spectacular ordeal, and by morning not a single bit of foreign organic matter remained between my pharynx and my anus. When the time came where I would have left for the Maple Syrup festival, I was lying on my couch in great pain, just cognizant enough to realize I shouldn't venture more than ten metres from a bathroom.
It's now Tuesday, and I'm still recovering. I haven't had a full meal since then, for one. My abs are still sore, for two. There's more, but I'll spare you that.
But I'm posting about this for a reason. It's not just that I want to use my soapbox to bellyache (haw, haw.) There's some humour in here, which I will now share with you.
So the symptoms were completely consistent with food poisoning, right? But how I got food poisoning was something of a mystery, since there were so many items I ate that day which carry what I call "background risk" (think background radiation), but nothing in particular stood out. Was it the sandwich I made with deli meat? The meat was purchased earlier that day. Was it the beefy-spaghetti sauce? I bought the beef the previous day. Was it the maple walnut fudge I had that day? Hm, maybe.
Amusingly, I still have samples of all of these things. The spaghetti, and deli meat are still in my fridge, and I still have some fudge at work. So, if I was a dedicated but misguided scientist, I could try and give myself food poisoning again.
But, I am neither dedicated enough to repeat my Saturday morning experience, nor am I misguided enough to believe two or three anecdotes are much better than the one I already have. Maybe if I had a couple dozen data points I'd start to get somewhere, but that would probably kill me. Sure, some science is worth dying over - but figuring out which bit of food is tainted ain't it.
Remember this xckd? I guess if you replace the lever machine with possibly tainted food, and replace the awesome lightning with all the disgusting and painful ways your body uses to eject contaminated food - while I do wonder if that "happens every time", I can live with not knowing. I guess that makes me a normal person now.
Further complicating the mystery: my housemate's boyfriend, who was over this weekend, got violently ill the following night. Coincidence?
In the wee hours of Saturday morning, I got quite ill. Let's just say that it was a spectacular ordeal, and by morning not a single bit of foreign organic matter remained between my pharynx and my anus. When the time came where I would have left for the Maple Syrup festival, I was lying on my couch in great pain, just cognizant enough to realize I shouldn't venture more than ten metres from a bathroom.
It's now Tuesday, and I'm still recovering. I haven't had a full meal since then, for one. My abs are still sore, for two. There's more, but I'll spare you that.
But I'm posting about this for a reason. It's not just that I want to use my soapbox to bellyache (haw, haw.) There's some humour in here, which I will now share with you.
So the symptoms were completely consistent with food poisoning, right? But how I got food poisoning was something of a mystery, since there were so many items I ate that day which carry what I call "background risk" (think background radiation), but nothing in particular stood out. Was it the sandwich I made with deli meat? The meat was purchased earlier that day. Was it the beefy-spaghetti sauce? I bought the beef the previous day. Was it the maple walnut fudge I had that day? Hm, maybe.
Amusingly, I still have samples of all of these things. The spaghetti, and deli meat are still in my fridge, and I still have some fudge at work. So, if I was a dedicated but misguided scientist, I could try and give myself food poisoning again.
But, I am neither dedicated enough to repeat my Saturday morning experience, nor am I misguided enough to believe two or three anecdotes are much better than the one I already have. Maybe if I had a couple dozen data points I'd start to get somewhere, but that would probably kill me. Sure, some science is worth dying over - but figuring out which bit of food is tainted ain't it.
Remember this xckd? I guess if you replace the lever machine with possibly tainted food, and replace the awesome lightning with all the disgusting and painful ways your body uses to eject contaminated food - while I do wonder if that "happens every time", I can live with not knowing. I guess that makes me a normal person now.
Further complicating the mystery: my housemate's boyfriend, who was over this weekend, got violently ill the following night. Coincidence?