Food Poisoning

I had the pleasure of going to visit my daughter up in Boston this weekend where she attends school. We had a great time, shopping, going to a museum, more shopping and eating. Friday night we went to a great Italian restaurant and then Saturday night we went to a favorite of the locals that was listed in a magazine as one of the Best of Boston. It was cute, quaint, casual and had a friendly atmosphere.

We both ordered the same entree but she had a side of soup and I had the salad. Part way through the salad my stomach started to feel funny but I dismissed it. Then I ate the entree’ and couldn’t finish because I felt a bit nauseated. By the time we got back to my hotel I said to my daughter, “look at my stomach it’s HUGE”. I knew I didn’t each that much but it sure looked like I had.

The entire night I tossed and turned. I couldn’t get comfortable because my abdomen felt so enlarged. At 4:30am I woke up and went to the bathroom. Well that was it. I couldn’t get off. By 9am I was calling my Dr. back home. After describing my symptoms she assured me it was food poisoning and not H1N1 or some other virus.

To make matters worse I was leaving on a flight that evening (Sunday)to come back to St. Louis. The Dr. told me to take Imodium so that I could at least be comfortable on the plane. However, even though that stopped me from running to the bathroom, it made me feel sick to my stomach.

Got to the airport for a 6:50pm flight. Boarded the plane only to have to get off because someone ran their truck into the plane and damaged it. LOL! We then had to wait 3 hours for another one to arrive.

In the meantime here I am sick as a dog. The women at the American Airlines gate check-in saw how sick I was and offered to get me a pillow and blanket to lie down behind their station until the plane arrived. The Starbucks person next to the gate gave me some Calming Tea which seemed to help. To say the least I was extremely grateful and almost in tears.

The plane finally took off at 10:00pm and I arrived in St. Louis at 12:10am. Once home I fell into bed for the night. Today was a little better but definitely had to watch what I ate or else!

So I was online this evening looking up information on food poisoning and found this recent article written about how to determine if you have food poisoning or H1N1. Here’s the article. Other articles I read on food poisoning said that it occurs suddenly or within 48 hours after consuming a contaminated food or drink. Just thought I’d share this in the event this should ever happen to you.