Yup, I got food poisoning in the middle of the night Monday morning. Oh, before that, I started having a cold Sunday morning. I’m so glad that the lunar month of October ended on Thanksgiving Day.
Who’s the culprit for my food poisoning: a $50 Cabazon fish! It was around $13 per pound. Obviously, once knowing my husband cooked the fish, I wanted to try it out right away. I ate 3 times as much as my husband did and I vomited 3 times as much as my husband did.
The funny, or not-so-funny, thing is my friend, whoisbaby, and I were just chatting about emergency neighbors/friends Sunday evening. Talk about coincidence… After vomiting for an hour, my husband and I decided that I should go to the Emergency Room (ER). We dragged Baby Koala out of bed and we spent 3 hours at the ER. Fortunately, we went at a “good time”. There was no one waiting at the lobby. Still, with paperwork, waiting for the doctor and the nurse, I waited an hour (vomitted twice) before getting my IV: a dose of anti-nausea drug and sodium chloride (IV fluid).
After getting a “bag” of IV fluid, I had to wait 30 min. to get my second bag because there was a true emergency case going on. I told them to just take the IV out of me, 1 bag was enough, and let me go home! Two of the three nurses were like, “you will have to wait for the doctor to discharge you any way. So, ‘drink up!’” One of them didn’t even check if the IV was dripping… At least, the other one was nice enough to tell me why it wasn’t dripping (my arm was bent).
Of course, the nice (and pretty) nurse who agreed that 1 bag was enough was the one busy attending to the “true emergency”. She was also the one who inserted my IV with the utmost professionalism: no bruise afterward! When she took out my IV, I apologized for “disturbing” the nurses for help and stated that I completely understood there was a “true emergency” and that I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t forgotten and in case any one has a little spare time to look at me. She was even kind enough to apologize back for taking so long. Too bad I didn’t get her name so that I can mention her in, likely, a upcoming survey being mailed to me as I’m writing.
What happened to my hubby and Baby Koala? Hubby saw that they took me inside the ER and he signed in to ER himself as well since he vomitted too and he thought it was going to be serious. Once he found out that I was just getting a dose of drug and fluid then he decided that he wanted to be discharged right away. That would work for him because at least he can stomach-down water but for me, I couldn’t even stomach down a sip of water. Anything that tried to go in, came right back out (with full force). Of course, my husband would still have to pay $50 as co-pay for signing into ER. He spent 3 hours holding Baby Koala in his arm hoping Baby Koala will fall back asleep. She did sleep for maybe 30 min. after watching TV in the lobby.
Why was hubby carrying Baby Koala? Because we forgot to bring her shoes so she couldn’t walk around. Hubby, being super-protective, would not let Baby Koala walk around any way worrying about germs and needles; but the shoes could have kept her feet warm. We had an extra pair of socks for her in the car but hubby didn’t know about it. So I think he used some “clothings” to cover her feet to make sure they stayed warm.
What did we bring to ER with us if we forgot Baby Koala’s shoes? A few plastic bags for vomitting and a roll of toilet paper for blowing my nose AND of course, my insurance card and credit card. The speed of processing payment was definitey faster than the speed of attending to me medically.
Although we knew who was the culprit, we still threw away all the food that my husband and I ate, but Baby Koala didn’t, on Sunday. That included the Roasted Duck we bought from the Chinese BBQ place that we ordered (and paid for) our Roasted Turkey. My over-cautious husband decided not to pick up that turkey and we ordered another Turkey on Monday through Bristol Farm. Yup, another $50 went to waste.
Cost of food poisoning: $12 Roasted Duck, $50 Cabazon fish, $50 Roasted Turkey (Chinese BBQ), $50 co-pay for Julia’s ER, $50 co-pay for Hubby’s ER, very confused Baby Koala with cold feet, 2 hours of vomitting for Julia and Hubby.
Well, at least our car didn’t run out of battery nor did the tires blew on our way to ER or on our way back home. It could be worse.
My “illness” was so bad that Baby Koala thought I put on sunscreen lotion because I was so pale. (When we put on sunscreen lotion, we made sure we are covered with the white paste.) I had sweats and tears down my face involuntarily. I responded to Baby Koala, “Yup, Mommy put on Sunscreen Lotion. You are so observative!”
Believe it or not, I actually had a worse case of food poisoning a few years ago. At that time, I was prescribed antibiotic and I ended up with permanent (minor) stomach problems… likely from those bacteria that won’t leave! My stomach was known as stomach-of-steel before that incident. Since then, I definitely lost the title and was a lot more careful about what I eat. One other memorable, yet minor, food poisoning was when my hubby cooked me moldy noodle. Yup, it was my husband’s cooking again. I’m not complaining about his cooking because he actually cooks most of the time any way. It just “happened” that his better-than-20/20-eyes didn’t spot those mold on the noodle until after-the-fact. That incident proved to me that eating moldy noodle is actually okay… until I drink something cold (like a green tea smoothie).
What good came out of this? My hubby took Monday off and we had a 5-day straight Family Time!!! Of course, I slept when Baby Koala slept and I slept a little even when Baby Koala was not sleeping. Hubby put Baby Koala to sleep at night. He’s horrible at it and usually takes him 1.5-2 hours to put her to sleep. At least, I got a break from putting her to sleep at night. Putting her to nap for me is a breeze. =P
To sum it up, October 2008 lunar month: 1 car went out of battery, 2 cars had tires blew, 2 people got a cold (Baby Koala and me), 2 people got food poisoned (Hubby and Me)