Tom Turkey Has Been Fired!

[TLS Guy]

Well, you are the Doc. However, after doing a little reading on my own I think what I have is a staph infection. This is due to the time frame and the symptoms I have had. The first was nausea--followed by severe stomach discomfort. The severe stomach pain came the next day. I also had blood in my stool. Lots of it. (Sorry, but this comes w/the territory).

I never threw up as I am NOT a throw up person. Nor did I have hardly any diarrhea. Everything seems to be back in order now. Just wanted to share my experience for anyone here that may be going through it himself. Lastly, antibiotics are not recommended for such an infection. Here is some info for those that may be interested:

https://www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/diseases/staphylococcal.html


Cheers,

Phil

No it is definitely not staph. That is toxic food poisoning. You have to leave a soup or stock at a room or slightly warmer temperature for the staph to warm and produce the toxin. The illness is violent and over in 6 to 8 hours.

Your symptoms and course fit very well for Camphylobacter, which the CDC now says is the commonest food born pathogen in the US currently.

 

[speakerman39]

No it is definitely not staph. That is toxic food poisoning. You have to leave a soup or stock at a room or slightly warmer temperature for the staph to warm and produce the toxin. The illness is violent and over in 6 to 8 hours.

Your symptoms and course fit very well for Camphylobacter, which the CDC now says is the commonest food born pathogen in the US currently.

Okay I will do some more reading up on that then. Feeling much better and glad it is over with. Thanks for the info!


Cheers,

Phil

 

[speakerman39]

No it is definitely not staph. That is toxic food poisoning. You have to leave a soup or stock at a room or slightly warmer temperature for the staph to warm and produce the toxin. The illness is violent and over in 6 to 8 hours.

Your symptoms and course fit very well for Camphylobacter, which the CDC now says is the commonest food born pathogen in the US currently.

I see that Camphylobacter can be treated w/antibiotics. Do you think a Z-Pack will do it? If not, what do you recommend? Hopefully, I will get my results today and some antibiotics. Thanks!


https://www.infoplease.com/science/health-and-body/food-borne-diseases-camphylobacter


Cheers,

Phil

 

[Alex2507]

what do you recommend?

Don't send TLS a stool sample.

He hates that sh!t.

 

[Johnny2Bad]

Food Poisoning is tricky. It could have been something you ate a week ago. Hopefully your lab results will shed some light on it.

I'm not convinced it could not be Staph, everyone has a different tolerance to it so no two people will react the same way with the same dose.

 

[speakerman39]

Food Poisoning is tricky. It could have been something you ate a week ago. Hopefully your lab results will shed some light on it.

I'm not convinced it could not be Staph, everyone has a different tolerance to it so no two people will react the same way with the same dose.

It is all good now Johnny. I followed up w/my PCP and put me on an antibiotics. Feeling much better now. Just glad this ordeal is now in the past.


Cheers,

Phil

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

This sucks big time.

Sorry to hear about this crazy incident.

Thanksgiving turkey dinner is supposed to be full of joy, not food poisoning.

I always buy frozen turkey.

After preparing my turkey, I always spray the heck out of my kitchen with 70% alcohol! I figure this should kill those damn bacterias.

I always wear gloves when handling the turkey during prep and wash my hands afterward with soap. And spray my hands with the 70% alcohol.

I always deep-fry my turkey and always check with thermostat to make sure the inside meat is at least 170F degrees at various parts of the turkey.

I usually cook a turkey one week before Thanksgiving for "pre-Thanksgiving" dinner . Then cook 1 turkey for Thanksgiving dinner. Then cook 1 turkey for "post-Thanksgiving" dinner.

In fact, I'm deep-frying my post-thanksgiving turkey tonight.

Anyway, what will you have now if you will no longer cook turkey for Thanksgiving? Ham?

 

[speakerman39]

This sucks big time.

Sorry to hear about this crazy incident.

Thanksgiving turkey dinner is supposed to be full of joy, not food poisoning.

I always buy frozen turkey.

After preparing my turkey, I always spray the heck out of my kitchen with 70% alcohol! I figure this should kill those damn bacterias.

I always wear gloves when handling the turkey during prep and wash my hands afterward with soap. And spray my hands with the 70% alcohol.

I always deep-fry my turkey and always check with thermostat to make sure the inside meat is at least 170F degrees at various parts of the turkey.

I usually cook a turkey one week before Thanksgiving for "pre-Thanksgiving" dinner . Then cook 1 turkey for Thanksgiving dinner. Then cook 1 turkey for "post-Thanksgiving" dinner.

In fact, I'm deep-frying my post-thanksgiving turkey tonight.

Anyway, what will you have now if you will no longer cook turkey for Thanksgiving? Ham?

Yeah, I broke about every cardinal rule this go around. I just figured cooking the wings would be easy peezee. I also will invest in a food thermometer to keep on hand at all times. BTW, ham is much more popular around my home than turkey. Have been known to cook some chicken-N-dumplings as well. My PCP prescribed me an antibiotic that works in your gut. Seems to be working as I am finally feeling much better. The lab results were all negative. So, things are all good now. Thanks!


Cheers,

Phil

 

[Johnny2Bad]

RE: 70% alcohol

That's a pretty decent practice, if a bit expensive. Soap and water works just as well, the key with either is a fairly significant amount of bacteria will remain as long as the surface is wet. With alcohol you only kill the majority (99.9% level) once the surface has completely dried, plus a few minutes*. Soap dosen't kill bacteria, it breaks the oil /surface adhesion so that water will wash the bacteria off the surface.

(Same thing with washing your hands while cooking, or any time actually ... if you don't completely dry them after washing or alcohol application, a fairly large amount of bacteria will continue to live and continue to multiply).

Also avoid anti-bacterial soaps as all you do is produce resistant bacteria, because you can never kill 100%, that 0.1% that remains will multiply and now it's becoming resistant to your counter-measures. Any "deodorant" soap is anti-bacterial, eg Irish Spring. Use Ivory, etc instead. It is just as effective and doesn't create resistant bacteria.

Also, if you can, use sterling silver utensils as silver kills bacteria naturally, as does brass. If you can't use sterling food contact items, consider using silver / brass on door knobs and cabinet pulls. Be careful because modern "improvements" means that most silver and brass commercial products are coated to provide an anti-tarnish finish.

The coating, of course, prevents contact with the bacteria-killing metal surface. The method silver and brass attacks bacteria is by breaking up the bacteria cell wall, not as a chemical "anti-bacterial poison". When the cell wall is breached, the bacteria dry out from the inside out, killing them. Bacteria cannot become resistant to this kind of attack. Hospitals in the first half of the 20th Century always used uncoated brass and silver door knobs. Today they use Stainless Steel because it's easier to care for, which makes it cheaper to maintain, but requires the use of chemical agents to disinfect, which generates drug resistant pathogens in Hospitals.

* Some pathogens can survive hours on dry surfaces.

 

[Matthew J Poes]

Such Drama! The story you guys share. It's like a big family here.

I decided to try being vegan for a few months to see what happened. Within about 3-4 weeks of this experiment, I became pretty sick. I travel a lot for work, worse yet, most of it is traveling to professional or academic conferences where I'm often an invited speaker. Meaning, I was violently ill for an extended period of time and having to pulled it together to talk in front of a room full of 100's of people. Ick! Also, flying like that.

After waiting far too long I went to the doctor and they didn't find anything in the lab tests, but after a round of antibiotics things cleared up. It's not certain it was a bacterial infection, may have just been enough time passed. In any case, I gave up the vegan experiment after 3-4 months as I couldn't handle the @shadyJ nagging and regular stomach problems. Even after this violent illness was over (it kept reoccurring over 3-4 weeks), I continued to have issues. Apparently, my body needs meat to survive.

 

[speakerman39]

Such Drama! The story you guys share. It's like a big family here.

I decided to try being vegan for a few months to see what happened. Within about 3-4 weeks of this experiment, I became pretty sick. I travel a lot for work, worse yet, most of it is traveling to professional or academic conferences where I'm often an invited speaker. Meaning, I was violently ill for an extended period of time and having to pulled it together to talk in front of a room full of 100's of people. Ick! Also, flying like that.

After waiting far too long I went to the doctor and they didn't find anything in the lab tests, but after a round of antibiotics things cleared up. It's not certain it was a bacterial infection, may have just been enough time passed. In any case, I gave up the vegan experiment after 3-4 months as I couldn't handle the @shadyJ nagging and regular stomach problems. Even after this violent illness was over (it kept reoccurring over 3-4 weeks), I continued to have issues. Apparently, my body needs meat to survive.

I am also a big time meat eater. However, for a while I was eating way too much red meat. Decided to slow that role altogether. Typically, only eat (1) steak a month now. My favorite is Rib-Eye/Prime Rib.


Cheers,

Phil

 

[Out-Of-Phase]

Such Drama! The story you guys share. It's like a big family here.

I decided to try being vegan for a few months to see what happened. Within about 3-4 weeks of this experiment, I became pretty sick. I travel a lot for work, worse yet, most of it is traveling to professional or academic conferences where I'm often an invited speaker. Meaning, I was violently ill for an extended period of time and having to pulled it together to talk in front of a room full of 100's of people. Ick! Also, flying like that.

After waiting far too long I went to the doctor and they didn't find anything in the lab tests, but after a round of antibiotics things cleared up. It's not certain it was a bacterial infection, may have just been enough time passed. In any case, I gave up the vegan experiment after 3-4 months as I couldn't handle the @shadyJ nagging and regular stomach problems. Even after this violent illness was over (it kept reoccurring over 3-4 weeks), I continued to have issues. Apparently, my body needs meat to survive.

Really sorry. I hope you start feeling better.

 

[Midwesthonky]

Such Drama! The story you guys share. It's like a big family here.

I decided to try being vegan for a few months to see what happened. Within about 3-4 weeks of this experiment, I became pretty sick. I travel a lot for work, worse yet, most of it is traveling to professional or academic conferences where I'm often an invited speaker. Meaning, I was violently ill for an extended period of time and having to pulled it together to talk in front of a room full of 100's of people. Ick! Also, flying like that.

I used to be a road warrior too. I've flown with the flu. I've been in a hotel room with bad food poisoning. I've had to go two connecting flights with my back out and shuffling from gate to gate. I've had to stuff my big toe into a work boot after finding an urgent care because I ripped the toe nail off in the hotel room in the middle of the night. Illness, injury, and traveling is no fun. Been there, have the t-shirt. I don't need more!

Blizzards and drift busting trying to get to the airport hoping your flight leaves... Sitting in blizzards waiting... Riding out tornadoes in the basement of Lincoln, NE airport... Plant shut down due to flooding so I go help sandbag... Diverted to Tulsa because of tornadoes... 5 flight delays and 22 hours of travel because Delta can't maintain aircraft...