liz_marcs | I'm a fucking idiot...(adventures in food spoilage)

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Current Mood: irate and icky...eeeewwww!

I'm a fucking idiot...(adventures in food spoilage)

People looking for Part 31 of Water Hold Me Down posted yesterday, go here.

People who know me in RL know that I've been dealing with some stomach issues for the past six months or so. I'd been putting it down to a persistant stomach bug or the fact that I had my gallbladder removed and some foods disagree with me as a result.

This is tiresome because sometimes I end up bowing out of social engagements that I want to go to (like today...I wanna see

szandara's piccies of her trip).

But nooooooo. I couldn't get two feet away from the bathroom. We're talking cramps, sharp pains, and the inability to think of food without the threatening gurgle.

We're not talking upchucking (thank god), we're talking watery feces.

There, TMI over.

So I call my mom complaining about my digestive system feeling like crap again. She pointed out that this had been going on waaaaay too long and starts with the Mom-ish questions about what I'm eating and am I eating well, whether I'm smelling my food for spoilage and washing my veggies.

Cue me: "Moooo-ooooom."

Then she hits this question: "Are you keeping your fridge cold enough?"

I snort. "Of course."

So I get the "Check for mommy" speech.

I go and check and what does my fridge thermometer read? A fridge I hadn't opened all morning because the thought of food makes the ol' tummy gurgle?

Let's put it this way: Cold enough that food won't spoil, but warm enough to let the bacteria and fungi (for the veggies and fruit) have a party.

*headdesk*

Keep in mind, I've had food poisoning twice in my life, so I'm hyper aware of food smelling off. Even if it smells a little off, it goes in the trash.

My food hasn't been spoiling, but I gave the little bastards a party zone.

Obviously I haven't been paying attention to the thermometer. It needs to be at most 38-degrees F. Let's just say it was higher than that.

Unfuckingbelievable.

And I used to work in food service, so I know the right temperature to store food at.

*headdesk*

So, my mission this afternoon between running to the WC:

Dump everything in the fridge. All food goes in the trash. I don't care what it is. I have to assume that nothing is safe right now. That means I'll have to do a massive food shopping sooner rather than later this week and spend money that I didn't budget for.
Wash every dish, pot, and pan in my cabinets like a madwoman in water so hot I can't stand it. I've been using one of those sponge-y things with a soap feed and not soaking dishes in hot sudsy water. It's not related to the refrigerator issue, but I want to tackle every possible source of bacteria and I'm wondering if I haven't been cleaning my dishes well enough.
Scrubbing all my countertops, the table, and the stove with Lysol. Again, not connected to the refrigerator, but I've been cleaning them with this Orange Clean stuff. Suddenly, I don't trust it and I think a chemical-based bacteriocidal agent might be the way to go. Environment be fucking damned. If my use of teh ebil Lysol kills a forest, than that forest was doomed to die anyway.

Little bacterial bastards. I knew they were tricksy, but I didn't think they were that tricksy.

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I hope for your sake that you've found the source of your problems. I had some similar serious issues back in my early and mid-20's, and was finally diagnosed with IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome). Sometimes it would act up the way yours has been, and other times it would feel like my colon was having the dry heaves. They didn't give it a name until nothing showed up on both an upper and lower G.I. series (you haven't lived until you've had to drink a barium solution, followed one month later by having the same solution shot up inside you from the other end).

Honestly, I think that IBS is a just a catch-all for anybody whose insides don't work for no apparent reason. They gave me a pill to take 1/2 hour before I ate, that seemed to help a little. I also started wearing looser pants (seriously!), cut dairy out of my diet, and made a mental decision to remove as much stress from my life as possible by simply not allowing myself to get so worked up about little stuff. I'm not sure which thing ended up being the thing that helped (personally, I suspect it was all three). It still comes back once in a while, when I don't get enough sleep, when I eat a bunch of dairy products without taking a Lactaid first, or when I'm really stressed out.

I hope that you feel better soon, and that the refrigerator solution turns out to fix everything. If it doesn't, get thee to a G.I. specialist pronto. The sooner you start with the tests and everything, the sooner you'll be on the road to recover.

That would be the road to recovery, obviously. I don't know if being on the road to recover would be enough. (Heh.)

I had a similar experience with a water bottle. Kept getting sick with no apparent cause. Finally went through the exact same thing with my fridge and kitchen, didn't help. Then chucked all my water bottles. Voila. It's amazing how the rotten little bacteria can survive.

Ditto. It never occurs to people that bottles can harbor all kinds of icky things.

Best of luck, Liz. I really hope this takes care of the problems you've been having. Chronic illnesses are never any fun.

I'd think twice about the spongy thing, too. My suggestion? Buy a bunch of dishcloths and grab a clean one every day.

I heard on NPR or somewhere that people's kitchens are actually much more bacteria-laden than their bathrooms.

I hope this all helps, chica. The perpetual stomach crud is no fun whatsoever. (And neither, as was pointed out above, is the GI series.)

I'd think twice about the spongy thing, too.
ITA. I hate sponges with a passion. I grew up on the Texas Gulf Coast... Hot and humid. I use a clean dishcloth every day too. Someday I will train DH to wring out the dishcloth and spread it out to dry, instead of leaving it in a sodden lump next to the sink. Oh well--he's from Southern California and knows not of the strange concept called "humidity."

forget the Lysol - sounds like you need a 50% bleach solution (half water, half bleach) to get rid of any and all bacteria.

I hope this does the trick (and if not, see a specialist!)

Hope you feel better soon.

That would do it--and then some. With chloring concentrations that high, you run the risk of dammaging anything it touches (hair, clothes, plastics...). The housekeeping book I have (Home Comforts by Cheryl Mendelson) recommends 1 tsp chlorine bleach in 1qt water. Apply to surface and do not rinse.

Yup, I was going to recommend bleach too. I use it for all my cleaning, so that I know that I've made it clean from germs without involving chemical poisons. 1 tsp to 3 cups (which is about the same as the above mentioned 1 tsp to 1 quart) is enough to do the trick.

I read an interview with a bacteriologist, and he uses 50% bleach in his kitchen to make sure it's germ free (I don't think this was for day to day cleaning, tho)

*coughs*

Chlorine bleach is a chemical poison.

You're right. Incorrect terminology on my part. But in dilute amounts, bleach is what one would add to water in certain situations to make it drinkable, so I think of it differently than, lets say, Fantastik. That is, while I have to be careful about how strong a concentration I use, and I have to be careful about not inhaling it, and what I mix with it, I don't have to clean everything again to eat off it. I was searching for a decent way of phrasing it :)

I hope you feel better soon, toots! I, too, missed

szandara's brunch (H and I both have the kind of colds that we're fine if we don't talk, but talking -- or, worse, laughing -- induces coughing fits)

I'm very sorry I didn't see you today, and even more sorry now that I know why.

*pets poor sick liz*

First: Yay for your Mommy! I hope she has pointed you to the source of your problems, and that today's scrubbing will result in a happier gastric system. I second the DixieChick's suggestion of using a bleach solution for your initial "kill 'em all" attack. I also recommend getting some rubber gloves so you can use really hot water to wash dishes.

Liz,

I used to be REALLY bad about keeping the kitchen clean... One thing that I would do when I got around to it was I'd wash all the dishes mostly because I was out of dishes and all of them were sitting in the sink in need of washing. (this was years ago, in my defense) When I was done, I would then take all of the dishes and put them in the microwave for 3-4 minutes, just to sterilize them. Silverware went into the biggest pot I had and were boiled on the stove for 15 minutes to make sure. I even boiled glasses once or twice, but you have to be careful there...

Now, I'm much better about it, and dishes are done within an hour of the meal being done. But, our next house is going to have a dishwasher to make life easier on sandy, who doesn't even like me in the kitchen due to the state it was in when we got together...

IceWing
(who is GOING to have another Divergent Destinies Chapter off to the beta tomorrow...)

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