Oakland,
California,
United States
I had recently been eating Urban Remedy salads, and salads made with mixed lettuces from Organic Girl (in Salinas, with romaine as the first type listed), as a mainstay of my diet. This past Tuesday, I felt fine, but at bedtime it was suddenly as if someone had flipped a switch, I was in extreme pain (abdominal), and then spent the night projectile vomiting and defecating, sometimes both at the same time. Fever and chills, with uncontrollable shaking, added to the picture. And yet more pain.
Went to the ER, got diagnosis of E Coli (don’t know the variant) in kidney and blood. Blood pressure dropped to dangerous levels, as low as 80-something over 40-something, and stayed there for a couple of days. Fevers spiking, etc.
ER gave IV antibiotics and a heavy-duty oral antibiotic call Levofloxacin (fyi, my recommendation now that I know more about it: never take this if you have any other option.) After a couple of days in hospital with docs telling me I could die, I convinced them to let me go home with oral antibiotics, on the condition that I would return immediately if anything got worse.
I’ve just finished the antibiotics, and am at least able to eat a tiny amount of food, now, and stand up (carefully) for small amounts of time. I’ve never needed to go to the ER before, very rarely need to see a doctor, and am usually very active. But I am still not out of the woods on this, and am facing at the least a slow recovery. (Based on doctor advice, research, and the fact that I can still barely stand.) I don’t know if this is food-borne in origin, but I think that is one likely possibility. | Symptoms: Diarrhea, Nausea, Vomiting, Other, Fever, Chills, Stomach Pain, Shaking
