When we go to Erie, we always make it a point to eat at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants. We’ve done this for a long, long time. I had become great friends with a little dish they like to call Burrito Deluxe. Delicious. Simple. Safe. Or so I thought.
Last Saturday we made one of our many trips to Erie and stopped in at what I will now only refer to as el Coli. All 11 of us assumed our regular positions around the 3 tables they joined together for us and all pretty much ordered the exact same thing as every other trip. My nephew and I both had the Burrito Deluxe, an intriguing blend of 1 chicken burrito and 1 beef burrito, a little lettuce on the top, 1 slice of tomato, and some sour cream. Everything was delicious. It always is.
24 hours later I wasn’t feeling right. My stomach was a little upset. I took a few Tums and waited for them to take affect. After a couple hours we decided to just head home. It was a *long* drive as my stomach kept trying to sing along with the radio. I’ve never heard it make such noises. You know you are bad when all you can think about for 120 miles is where a good place to pull over would be in case you need to. Once we got home I immediately headed for bed. Then the bathroom. Then the bed. Then the bathroom. Then…you get the idea. The next 48 hours can only be described as how Mel Gibson’s character must have felt in the final scene of Braveheart right after he screams “freedom!” and they start pulling his innards out one by one. Not pleasant at all. I am still a little tender today from all the hurling I did Sunday and Monday.
I missed work Monday. I missed work Tuesday. Well, I didn’t really *miss* it but I wasn’t able to go. Wednesday I went in and left at 2:30pm. I missed Thursday. Made it back to work pretty much OK today. Feeling much, much better. Thursday I went to the doctor and they told me nothing has been going around. It was some kind of gastro viral thing and I should just ride it out. That’ll be 10 bucks please. I did find out that my nephew has been sick as well though. Aha! We’re on to something. We both ate the same thing. We’re both sick. Nothing is going around. The 10 dollar doctor told me so. The evidence is pretty clear – my favorite mexican restaurant tried to kill me through food poisoning. I never saw it coming. We always had such a good relationship too. Had to have been an inside job. My nephew was probably just an unfortunate innocent bystander who happened to order the wrong thing at the wrong time. Poor sap.
But at work today I find out that someone else I work with has the same symptoms now. He’s out sick. Someone else I work with has a wife and kid that have both been home all week with “flu like” symptoms and their doctor (that must cost more than 10 bucks) told them that they were the 4th and 5th patients that they have seen with this new stomach virus. There’s a chance that we could just be in on the fun so early that the doctors, even the 10 dollar ones, are just starting to see people with the symptoms.
Hmmm. Stomach virus. Other people that have never eaten at el Coli have the same symptoms. Can’t be. This would put a kink in my food poisoning scenario. Could it be that my nephew and I just happened to be some of the first to experience this new strain of stomach virus? Naaa. Had to be the food poisoning.
el Coli – banned!