We haven't met, but give her my regards.

 

How do you tell Salmonella from regular old, garden variety food poisoning? I know the docs can tell, but how can you tell to realize you need to get to a hospital?

I recently got garden variety food poisoning from a Long John Silvers. It was the slaw that was kept at too high a temp. Nasty stuff. I barely made it home before the shakes, sweating and throwing up began.

I've found a sure sign is any foods that taste sweet when they shouldn't

 

Food poisoning is serious stuff!
I'm glad to hear your wife is ok, but next time she needs to see the Dr. sooner.

Me and the girlfriend at the time got Botchulism many years ago, and I did indeed think my life was over, the pain was out of this world. We were both in the hospital and both underwent lots of tests. One of the factors in food poisoning is it is very, very, very difficult to nail down with 100% assurance where the infection was picked up from. Many food poisons take 12 to 36 hours to kick in, and because that span of time is so great it is hard to know what caused it, unless the infected person only ate once in 36 hours.

In my case it was impossible to know where we got infected, it was just before the holidays and we had been to lots of parties and had been eating lots of things prepared by all sorts of people.

 

With a renewed sense of appreciation...

 

Thanks for the info. It can get pretty nasty and dehydrating. Unlike most others, Salmonella is accompanied by fever and has more systemic effects. As food poisoning goes, Salmonella is much, much less common that the rest. Most food workers with it would to too sick to come to work - think chicken. Staph -sometime referred to as ptomaine - is the quick one (6 plus hours) that makes you wish you could die but you won't. Severe cramps and the desire to assume the fetal position are most prominent. Generally you're back to normal in 24 hours or less. Campy is probably the most common with nausea and diarrhea and 2-3 days duration. Toxix E. coli is life threatening, particularly in the aged and children, due to kidney failure.
I feel sorry for your wife, and it explains her hospitalization. Glad she is OK.