If you’ve never had food poisoning, consider yourself lucky. It’s usually quite an unpleasant experience. You might get over it within a couple of hours if it’s a mild case.
However, foodborne illness cases often require professional treatment, especially if you feel like you’re in serious pain or that you might be in real danger. It’s not likely food poisoning will kill you, but it does happen occasionally.
In this article, we’ll talk about what you should do if you suspect you’re dealing with a food poisoning incident. Since it can happen to anyone at any time, it’s best you know the logical steps to follow.
Stay hydrated and replenish your electrolytes
If you have a food poisoning case, you can often trace it back to one particular thing you ate. If you just had sushi, you can easily point to that as the culprit. However, you can also contract food poisoning from eating undercooked poultry.
You can get it from eating a contaminated salad, especially one with raw vegetables that you didn’t wash before you consumed them. You can even get food poisoning from rice in some instances if you leave it sitting out at room temperature for several hours.
When you have food poisoning, your stomach will probably start hurting. You might have diarrhea. You may also develop a fever and have cold sweats.
If you notice these symptoms not long after you ate something, you should drink plenty of fluids. Water can help, but you can also drink Gatorade to get your electrolytes back. You’re going to need them.
Avoid over-the-counter medications
If you’re in pain from food poisoning, you might feel like you should have Aleve or some other over-the-counter pain meds. However, most doctors say that won’t help you.
It’s also not usually helpful if you drink some Pepto or a similar product. While that can alleviate some forms of upset stomach, it’s not going to do you much good in a food poisoning situation.
Rest
Resting after consuming something that didn’t agree with you makes the most sense. Don’t leave the house or stray far from the bathroom.
If you have work the next day, you might call off. If your boss tries to get you to come in, you can describe your symptoms. Hopefully, they will take pity on you. You don’t want to go anywhere till you’re sure your stomach has stabilized a bit.
If you can get some sleep, do that. The bacteria that made you ill should work its way out of your system after a while, but it can take hours or even a couple of days in the most extreme circumstances.
The BRAT diet
You probably shouldn’t eat for a while. However, if you start to feel a little hungry the following day, you can implement the so-called BRAT diet.
That’s shorthand for bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast with nothing on it. Those bland foods should not irritate your stomach. However, if you can’t even keep those down, you’ll know you’re still dealing with whatever made you ill, and you should remain at home and rest for at least another day.
Consider contacting your local poison control
You can also call your local poison control center if you feel particularly lousy. They can give you some further advice. They may also ask if you know what made you feel ill.
If you went to a restaurant and started feeling sick, the poison control center might want to reach out to the restaurant and let them know they have a possible contaminant on the premises. If the restaurant gets multiple calls, they’ll know for sure they caused the outbreak.
They can start to investigate their food supply to try and figure out what made everyone feel ill. Then, they can dispose of it safely.
When should you see a doctor
You should probably not see a doctor if you feel that you likely have a mild case of food poisoning. They will probably send you home after giving you the same advice we have.
However, you can call 911 or have someone in your house drive you to the emergency room if you start feeling sick and then notice you have a fever of over 102 degrees. If you have bloody diarrhea, that’s also a sure sign you should get some medical intervention.
If you have diarrhea for more than three days, go see a doctor as well. If you’re vomiting to the point where you can’t keep down any liquids, that is a sign you need medical help. Finally, if you have signs of dehydration, such as feeling dizzy when you stand up, a dry mouth, or you’re not urinating very much, you should at least think about involving a medical professional.
What else should you know about food poisoning
You now know some food poisoning basics. If you gave yourself food poisoning, like if you prepared and ate undercooked chicken or turkey or if you ate a salad of raw vegetables that you did not wash beforehand, you can’t blame anyone but yourself. You can chalk it up to a learning experience.
However, if a restaurant made you ill, you can consider suing them. If you had just a touch of an upset stomach for a couple of hours, then it’s probably not worth it. If you became ill to the point where you needed medical intervention, though, and if you have doctor bills, you can consider bringing a personal injury lawsuit against that particular eatery.
If you do that, you will need to contact a lawyer who does these kinds of suits. They will probably ask you some questions and determine whether they think you have a good case.
If you do, they can represent you. If you say you just felt sick for a couple of hours, though, and you didn’t even see a doctor, the attorney probably won’t consider that worth their time.
The article What you should do if you suspect you’re experiencing food poisoning first appeared in TravelDailyNews International.
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