It was a floater.

A long awaited floater, after 48+ hours of either nothing or horrible horrible diarrhea.

This past Thursday and Friday, I was struck with a case of food poisoning. The undercooked pork roast I ate for Wednesday’s dinner was most likely to blame. After having eaten and retired to bed for the night, I had to wake up abruptly around 2am to the sensation of a great wave hitting my colon.

Thereafter, I would return to bed and wake up every hour/half hour to go relieve myself. It wasn’t fun. Didn’t get too much sleep that night. I was struck with fever and chills, with slight nausea. Luckily, I didn’t have to vomit.

Thursday morning. Went to my first class. Almost died. Decided to head over to McKinley Health Center and make use of all the money I’ve been paying the school.

At the doctor’s office, they found my roommates’ lack of any problems quite curious. I guess I just happened to selectively dine on the meat that was undercooked. Yay me. Having struggled to try and finish a day of work, I eventually yielded and went home early. Couldn’t eat anything, and just sipped on the gatorade the doc gave to me. Prolly went to the bathroom over 20 times that day.

The following day, I was better, but not feeling up to a day of work. Stayed home for the most part, chewing on plain boiled rice porridge or sipping on some soup. Had a low fever most of the day which subsided in the evening.

On Saturday, I was to have my first real meal in two days. My friends and I thought I should prolly take it easy and eat something simple. My tastebuds said, “Screw that” and I promptly ordered a 1/3 lb burger with mushrooms, cheddar cheese, onions and extra ketchup. Took some effort to eat the whole thing, as my appetite was rather poopy, but I managed it.

And that night, I was blessed with a steaming log.

So, when you get food poisoning, this is what usually happens: After a certain incubation time, whatever nasty stuff you ate starts wreaking havoc.

When the food to symptom time is around 5-7 hours, you most likely have been hit by some bacterial toxins, which is what I had. After that, up to 16 hours means you most likely have ingested dead bacteria and the breakdown is releasing toxins. At 16-24 hour incubation, you most likely have ingested living bacteria which are actively messing with your body. Usually, longer the incubation, the worse it is. You can also get a viral condition, but I don’t know about that.

Anyway, generally, if you ever get food poisoning, drink lots of water and keep your salt and potassium levels up. After that, all you need is patience!