What should you do if you get food poisoning? Report it. The procedure may vary state to state, county to county, and even city to city, but here’s what we did.

The first thing: Paula called the restaurant where we ate and told the manager what happened, what we ate, and when. We can’t be sure their food was the culprit, but that’s the only time Paula and I ate the same things for the prior 24 hours. What we had to eat before then we shared with Riley, and he never had any digestive issues. It doesn’t have to be an accusatory conversation, but they should know—think of all the people that may have eaten at the same place. The manager was grateful for the information and said she’d check their stock of the food we ate.

Then I looked up the procedures for the county. They had an online form to fill out that asked about the symptoms, the timing in relation to meals, and what we’ve eaten over the past 72 hours. I filled it out on Sunday and they called Monday to check on some details. The forms were very detailed, and that’s probably why most food poisoning isn’t reported. By the time we feel better, which is just usually a couple of days, we think it won’t make any difference. But remember that no one can count the incidences if we don’t report it and let the health department do its job. Every time we see on the news that romaine lettuce or whatever has been recalled, that’s all the health departments working together to do their jobs—but they can’t help us if we don’t help them.

Paula and I have recovered from our bout with food poisoning. It was a very unpleasant 48 hours, but we made it; Paula adds that vomiting hard every 60 to 90 minutes is a great core workout. Most cases of food poisoning are not going to be fatal; only 450 deaths were reported per year out of the 1.2 million reported cases of salmonella poisoning. We don’t know how many could have been prevented with better info from the public.

We can never be sure our food supply and our home cooking techniques are perfect, but we can strive to make them better. So if you suspect you’ve gotten food poisoning, tell your doctor, your health department, and the store or restaurant as soon as possible. It’s the right thing to do, and it could save many other people from a miserable day or two. It might even save a life.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet