Party pooper
All day Monday I felt kind of bloated. Fat, swollen, and bloated, actually.
You know the kind of feeling I mean? Like I’d pigged out, that completely stuffed feeling you have after a Thanksgiving-sized meal. That night, we went to my dad’s house for Christmas celebrations, and I couldn’t eat too much because I felt so full — despite having eaten nothing all day but a small bowl of bean soup.
Monday was also the day I had to clean up a chicken’s butt and got so grossed out by it. Usually, things like that don’t get to me, but something about the smell coming off that buff made me seriously want to blow chunks. In retrospect, I understand why I felt so nauseated. Something appears to have been…gestating, for lack of a better word, deep down in my guts.
At my dad’s on Monday night, I felt like crap. Tired, worn out, and kind of feverish. The whole night, I sat off to one side with my eyes closed, wishing for it to be over. I ate a little bit of dinner, and skipped dessert. Anyone who knows me knows that’s a red flag. I have a sweet tooth the size of Canada.
I felt similar to the way I did a few weeks ago when I got a one-day stomach thing, only without the puking and runs I had that time. I checked my temperature when we got home and sure enough, it was just under 100. I took a couple of Tylenol and felt fine Tuesday morning.
That day we went to my sister’s house for breakfast and Christmas celebrations with my mom. I still felt all bloaty and gross, and while I ate some breakfast, I didn’t eat as much as I nearly do. Other than feeling obscenely full, I felt fine. I wasn’t tired, and I definitely didn’t feel feverish. Just full, as though everything I ate was sitting there not being digested.
The diarrhea started shortly after we got home. Through it all, I felt perfectly fine, except for the grossly bloated feeling. I didn’t eat the rest of the day Tuesday.
The first thing I did yesterday morning when I woke up was run for the bathroom. I still felt swollen and bloated, too, even though it had been almost 24 hours since I’d eaten anything. That feeling started to taper off in the early afternoon, I guess because I was running out of stuff to, uh, run. I was finally getting a little hungry, too. It was a weird feeling, because I felt full and bloated at the same time I felt kind of hungry. I ate the lunch I took to work and enjoyed it, except for the part where it made me feel so full I thought I was going to throw up.
I was hungry by dinnertime yesterday, too. For real hungry. I ate a can of mushroom soup and some saltines, then spent the rest of the night feeling grotesque and fat. But, no diarrhea because nothing had had time to get through me. That was kind of nice.
What wasn’t nice was how full I felt. It was like a junk food Friday when I have a little too much, and spend the night almost in pain. It was like having a bowling ball in my innards all evening, and it actually hurt a little to lay on my back in bed because it stretched the skin too tightly across my gut.
Those of you who enjoy gross things may like this. My nausea / overstuffed / gross feeling crept into my sleep last night, and I woke at one point from a dream where I was burping a baby until he puked up sour milk…and then I ate it.
You’re welcome for that. It made me feel the same way.
The diarrhea was back this morning, though. Just like yesterday, my first And again, I feel perfectly fine except for the full feeling, and not really wanting to eat anything. Heck, I’m not even getting a raw ass because I’m drinking enough to make sure and keep things diluted. But, I’m getting kind of tired of it, so I started googling around to see what might be the culprit. I’ve had plenty of 1-day bouts of diarrhea, but this is the first time as an adult it’s lasted this long.
What I found is that the most common cause of the runs in the entire world is a bacteria called compylobacter. It’s often found in poultry, and people usually get it by eating chicken meat that came in contact with intestines during processing. Somewhere along the line, poop got on the meat. Since I haven’t been slaughtering chickens, I suspect I got it by accidentally ingesting some of the poop I seem to get on myself daily. Seriously, if I knew I’d be covered in chicken shit on such a regular basis, I would have rethought the decision to get chickens in the first place.
If that’s not an argument for washing one’s hands more, I don’t know what is.
There’s no real treatment for compylbacteriosis in adults unless it’s really bad. You just have to let it run its course, which usually takes about a week. I’m thankful I’m not in pain or pooping blood, which some people do. I’m just ready for my life to get back on solid ground, so to speak.
Gross as it is to think about, I can one-up myself. I got hepatitis A several years ago, I suspect from a Mexican restaurant. For that, I had to eat some PEOPLE POOP.
My name is Fred, and I believe in giving out too much information.
GUILTY
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go to the bathroom.
Hi Fred. Good thing Robyn is still home to take care of you! Back in my younger days, we knew about this problem with chickens. My Dad always made us cover our face with a wet rag when we were cleaning out the chicken house. It did seem to help us kids from getting sick after cleaning up the poop and spreading it on the garden. Hope you get over it soon.
“People poop.” HAHAHAHAHA, that was FUNNY!
Thinking about digesting chicken poop is bad enough, but PEOPLE POOP??!! OMGGGGG! Gross!! I may never eat in a mexican restaurant again!
Hmmm … last month here is Santa Cruz (CA) there was a stomach “virus” running rampant through the entire county. As I was reading your account of your own illness, I was thinking the symptoms sounded exactly the same as what I had. I wonder if you had the same kind of virus … or if we were all victims of the chicken-poop-itis.
And as for Jeanette’s comment on never eating in a Mexican restaurant again — um, do you think that’s the only ethnic group that poops? Maybe you should consider never eating in an Italian, Chinese, Indian, American fast-food, French … you get the picture.
Jeanette, it was some pretty tasty people poop, all things considered. I never even knew I was eating it. And it’s entirely possible it was from something else, but that was the only restaurant we’d been to in several weeks.
Leslie - it’s possible that people had the same chicken-poop-itis; everything I read said that the compylbacter bacteria is the most common cause of the runs in the whole world. Two million cases each year in the US alone.
So sorry Fred! Perhaps some masks are in you future. Feel Better!!!
A couple weeks ago I had to stay home from work because of a stomach thing that had me running to the bathroom all day. I also had a low grade fever and was exhausted. But I hadn’t had any form of chicken so who knows where I got it from. Two days later after I was pretty much better my poop came out green. Freaked me out, looked it up and there’s several different reasons it could be that color but one of them is from too much iron and/or diarrhea. Luckily it was only the first one in the morning, after that all was ok. It just seemed weird because I hadn’t had it since two days prior and why would it be green now? Who knows, the body does some weird things.
Hope you’re all better real soon.
My husband began getting that bloated, crampy, gassy feeling, along with nausea and diarrhea, every few weeks. Turned out to be major gallstones.
But I hope, in your case, it was just the chickies.
Wearing coveralls when you work around the chickens and then stripping(woot!)them off and also your footwear in your laundry room/shed/garage will help.
)
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Think of it as practicing “bio-security”.
After I visit my sister’s outdoor aviary,whose cockatiels ARE exposed to the possibility of wildbird diseases,I change all of my clothes. The socks too,and THEN begins the soaping up of my hands and arms.
All this I do for the safety of my three indoor pet cockatiels. It takes time and adds to my laundry pile,but nothing is too safe for my babies. Awwwww.
Oh and that bacteria you might have in your gut? A little colloidal silver will cure it right up! Hee ;op
Those guys who turn blue are brewing their colloidal silver wrong! They are ingesting big flakes of silver. They aren’t following correct brewing procedures…Anyway…I hope you feel well soon.
I hope you are all better real soon too. Having just gone through c-diff this Summer I know full well exactly how you feel
My husband had it first here… lasted 3 days. I got it Sunday and I still feel like a train wreck. I think I actually pulled a muscle in my side vomiting because I feel like I have a broken rib. Fun times!
Im sure at some point Robyn told you to eat s*&$, so all you really did was comply. Feel better soon
I once had hep-A, from contact in cleaning bathrooms for a ’sick’ friend. My BMs were nearly white. Also,in our State a number of Mexican resturants were shut down in the last year from MDRTB and hep-A brought in by illegal aliens who frequently work in food service; especially fast food and ethnic Mexican establishments.
Migrant workers-infected and not-releive themselves in the very fields they harvest. Illegals, since they are illegal, don’t get tested. Also, their kids are in our schools and inadvertently infect other kids. So, you may even have gotten it from produce. What I’m saying is you could have picked it up in a number of ways, and, you’re absolutely right; WASH HANDS A LOT!!!
Sammi
And I think that is why, despite having had hundreds of chickens, I have never cleaned one of their butts!
Then again, I have always lived around poultry and livestock, and eat my steak raw — err rare — I have enough bacteria in my intestines to overthrow small nations at this point!
I could have sworn this happened to you once before. In fact, I had to check the date on this entry to make sure I hadn’t somehow started reading one from the archives. That time was before you got the chickens, I think, because I don’t think you had moved yet. Am I nuts?
In fact, it was this time last year. See Dec 29, 20006. Odd.
In fact, it was this time last year. See Dec 29, 2006. Odd.
Poor Fred. I know how you felt. I had the trots right before Christmas. Felt the whole sick, yucky, bloated, headache, pukey and everything else - except I had the sore ass from wiping. Thank goodness I was the only one in the house that caught it.
It’s not the chickens that are guilty, it’s the people killing them for your consumption and it’s you for eating it. In every pack of chicken, there’s some poop. Either deal with it or become a vegetarian
PJ obviously didn’t read through the entire post or s/he’d know that it is from your own little chickens that you likely picked up this bug from. Deal with that PJ! Get over flaming people! Also you don’t think you can’t get sick from being a vegetarian? Ever hear of pesticides, hormones in eggs or milk? I guess Fred would have to become a vegan and live off vegetables he grew in his own organic garden to pass your standards. Geez louise, can’t people leave nice comments or helpful comments instead of stupid crap???
Fred, what about installing a hand sanitizer pump right outside the coop door so you’ll wash your hands all the time? I see them quite frequently wherever they have petting zoos.
yeah I agree with heidi - it was the time you sharted - sorry, that still makes me laugh!
My Dad loves to eat fresh fruit (and lots of veggies) in restaurants. I tend to go for the meat and potatoes (cooked stuff, plus I have trouble eating fresh fruit). We had a funeral to go to and the night before the funeral we went to a buffet restaurant. Dad loaded up on the fresh fruit. He spent the next morning in the motel puking his guts up and missing the funeral. The culprit? Likely the raw fruit that was infected with something (while I was semi-protected by eating cooked food). Being vegetarian doesn’t protect you from getting sick, it might actually set you up for more food-related illness. Most of the restaurant illness I hear of here in the midwest is from people eating salads (uncooked).
Fred, the chicken poop fun can go on and on. I grew up on a farm and my mother now has a disease called ocular histoplasmosis. Apparently, you get it from shoveling dry chicken poop as the stuff floats around in the air. Anyone who has shoveled out a chicken coop knows what I’m talking about…you can see dust floating everywhere. Mom will be blind eventually but the doctors tell her that it will be very slow. So hand washing is great (and necessary) but won’t solve every problem. What does?