It could be the lack of cleanliness standards, it could be because almost all restaurants lack any sort of industrial grade dishwashing machines, it could be a lot of different things but for me and almost everyone I know, getting a little touch of food poisoning is just something you learn to live with.
The crazy thing about this particular instance of food poisoning is that I think I actually picked it up at a place that actually DOES have sanitation equipment and while I was ordering I noticed the staff boiling all the already clean silverware so that all traces of potential food poisoning would be removed.
While I doubt that anyone can really trace this I do have a nurse friend that said that most cases of food poisoning come from contamination on plates, glasses, and silverware. So I guess it is important to pay special attention to that.
[src](https://img.magnific.com/free-vector/kid-sick-with-nausea-having-green-face_24877-83524.jpg?semt=ais_hybrid&w=740&q=80)I've been food poisoned so many times in the past 20 years that I don't really react to it as violently as other people do. When my sisters were visiting me around a decade ago we all ate some dodgy dish that got all of us. My sisters were laid out for like 5 days, I recovered in 12 hours.
I rarely get to the throwing up stage of things, but I do get some other stuff like intense fever, the shakes (those really suck), and complete loss of appetite.
I've been poisoned so many times that I keep my strategic medicine supply in house at all times and it isn't a big ol' mystery. Electrolytes, paracetamol, and a bit of Tramadol. That's all really.
These ones will stick with me for days but normally I find out that I am poisoned in the first evening when I wake up freezing and also sweating at the same time. This is a rally crappy part of the process because you will shake uncontrollably and while it does seem like a great ab workout you don't really have any escape. You are hot, but if you expose your body to cool air you will start to shake like crazy. I don't really have a choice but to sweat it out and take some tablets that are going to force me to sleep.
The really crap thing is that I never have any energy because I can't stay asleep for more than a few hours in a row.
This is just on the first night though. For the nights after that things are quite mild and mostly it's just a bit of discomfort. I find that if I get out of the house on a walk I feel a lot better but I am also quite grouchy because I am more susceptible to things like honking and construction noise getting me into a rage. So it's a bit of a conundrum. I can stay inside and not be angry, or I can go outside and revitalize a bit but only if I have my sound cancelling headphones in. Crazy city I have chosen to live in.
A lot of people try to find someone to blame and go online and write bad reviews for anyone and blaming them but that is a shitty way to do things. You can't really know where you got it from since it takes anywhere between 4 and 30 hours for you and your body to notice it. I have no idea how they collect this stat but it is unfair to blame it on the last place you ate because that might not be the case. This is why I didn't name the pizza place: I have no idea where I picked it up. I could have just as likely come from a beer mug on Thursday last week. Or just a fork somewhere.
The point here is that I think my immune system has toughened up quite a bit over the years from living in Thailand and Vietnam where for the most part there aren't any cleanliness codes that all restaurants have to adhere to. I think in a way, it is actually better to get rid of a lot of the over the top regulations. I recall when i was working in food service back in USA, small businesses really struggle to adhere to these codes and I think this is intentional so that the little guys can't get involved and the corporations just take everything. Here, if you can make good food and people want to eat it, then you get to do so. I like McDonald's as much as the next guy, but I am happy to have some diversity, dont' you?
While other people would have ran over to the hospital I already know there isn't anything they can do for me and it would just be an irritating situation that exits in all hospitals of "sit over there, fill out this ridiculous form with silly questions, now move over there, now wait an hour, now go speak to someone and let them poke your belly, now take a blood test, now get your "prescription" of paracetamol and electrolytes.... that'll be $60."
Nah. I've learned enough from living here as long as I have that I can do this on my own. Would I rather not have food poisoning? Well, absolutely... I'm not a crazy person. But after you have been stricken with it as many times as I have it doesn't really feel like the end of the world.
