Time to play: Guess that illness

Life Health & Fitness
1

I think I had food poisoning, but I’m not sure.

I ate raw octopus at about 9pm on Sunday. Which is the obvious culprit.

The next day I didn’t really eat anything all day. I pretty much forgot to eat, I mustn’t have had an appetite. At around 9pm Monday I started to feel weird and realised I hadn’t eaten anything. Went to 711 and had chicken curry. Parts of it weren’t heated up properly.

I couldn’t finish the curry.

Went home, started feeling dodgy, especially in the stomach. Tried to sleep it off. No good. I got up and vomitted early in the morning. There was a little bit of blood at the end of the vomit (not that much). After that I felt great. Had a shower cleaned my teeth etc.

Then I suddenly felt unbelievably hungry. I didn’t have any food in my room (living in a dorm, eat out every meal). Asked my friend for some food. All he had was chocolate. I started feeling faint, it was becoming hard to talk, vision and hearing were going. I’ve never fainted before, and I didn’t want to make it a first, so I just sat down and concentrated. Ate the chocolate and I was feeling ok.

My Taiwanese friend who gave me the chocolate “re-assured” me by telling me that someone had poisoned some energy drinks lately. I told him I saw the news and hadn’t drunk any. He said, “Yeah, but they can poison anything”. After contemplating my impending death for a while, I decided it was just regular old food poisoning.

Went to bed again. My friend went to 711 to get me some drinks etc. Had that. Felt ok, went to bed. Got up at 10am, vomitted again. Ate crackers and fruit juice, went to sleep again.

Felt MUCH better after sleeping. Got up ate fruit, drank water etc.

Now I’m feeling ok, I have a bit of energy. Still feel like I want to sleep.

Special facts:

-no diarrhoea
-blood in first vomit but not in second
-24 hours passed between eating octopus and starting to feel sick
-I’ve also been drinking the water out of the “clean” tap. I think they just tell me it’s safe to drink the water out of that tap. I don’t think it really is that safe.

What do you think? Was this just normal food poisoning?

2

Blood in the first vomit? Dude, get to a doctor. Could just be a virus. It’s been warm too, so have you been drinking enough water?

3

please get to a doctor. also get checked for parasites. Best of luck

4

Blood in the vomit might be bad, it might not. For sure you need to ask a doc about it. Sooner rather than later.
As for the rest, sounds to me like you ate some dodgy octopus, got sick from it, didn’t eat properly the next day and ended up hypoglycemic when your blood sugar bottomed out. Did you feel OK after the chocolate?
No squirts lessens the chances of it being full-on food poisoning.
Also, don’t drink water outta the tap down in Kaohsiung. I’ve drunk Taipei tapwater for years without ill effects but a lot of folk get sick off it, and its like crystal-clear spring water compared with what you get in KHH.

5

Thanks guys.

I’m feeling good now, but I’ll follow your advice and get to a doctor in the morning.

And yeah, I felt ok after eating the chocolate.

6

Glad to hear you’re feeling better. I didn’t read all of your post but remember eating raw octopuss. It doens’t taste like much. Just kind of squishy and…

7

[quote=“tetsuo500”]Special facts:

-no diarrhoea
-blood in first vomit but not in second
-24 hours passed between eating octopus and starting to feel sick
-I’ve also been drinking the water out of the “clean” tap. I think they just tell me it’s safe to drink the water out of that tap. I don’t think it really is that safe.

What do you think? Was this just normal food poisoning?[/quote]
I don’t know, but from my own similar experiences (minus the octopus), I have noticed a few things. When it is food poisoning, there are two sure symptoms: rapid and strong. I always get sick very quickly, within a few hours of eating the bad thing. And, the reaction is very strong. It doesn’t matter what I do to try to prevent it, the only way to feel better is to vomit until it’s all gone. Usually feel better the next day. Glad you’re feeling better now.

8

I think it depends on the situation and the type of food poisoning, but it can come on immediately or 2 or 3 days later.

I just got up and haven’t been to the doctor yet. I checked the back of my throat and saw some parts that looked like they could’ve been bleeding. I think it’s quite common to rip up your throat during heavy vomitting, so I think that’s probably what the blood was from, but I guess I’ll find out soon enough.

And I still want to get checked for parasites.

…I feel betrayed by octopus. It’s my favourite type of sashimi. Tako, how could you?