Food Poisoning

On Sunday, O and I went to eat lunch at the officer's club at the end of the block, El Circulo Militar. We had a small ceviche that we shared and later in the evening, I had a bowl of won ton soup.

Yesterday, in the afternoon, it hit me: that dreaded roiling and cramping of the stomach, multiple trips to the bathroom, waves of nausea which were luckily pretty mild, headache and body aches. Quickly to the pharmacy to get a couple of ciprofloxicin tablets. If I hadn't taken the cipro tablets, I think it would have been much worse, but still, I couldn't finish teaching my second Survival class and had to go find a substitute. When I went to tell the evening director that I needed to go home, I must have looked absolutely green, because he leapt into action and found me a taxi home. They also called O, and he met me at the door of the apartment building.

We didn't go to the hospital because I had already begun the treatment they recommend, so it was just a matter of going to bed and waiting it all out. O dosed me again with cipro and gatorade sometime during the night and again this morning. I'm happy to say that I'm back on my feet again and, although kind of washed out and tired, I'm functioning again and have a bit of energy. Whew! Glad that's over!

The thing about living here is that food poisoning is not that uncommon. I've never gotten sick from eating at home. I take a lot of care to be sure that our food is clean and wash everything well with a clorox solution, especially fruits and vegetables that we eat right from the fridge: apples, cucumbers, tomatoes. And usually food from the Circulo is safe. But I guess once in a while, someone skips a step (like washing hands) and something ugly can creep into the food.

I'll be eating at home for a while, till I get past the memory of last night.