I definitely ate raw chicken and am on a downward spiral

[whatanabsoluteidiot]

Hi, I have name changed for this post - I have to post because I’m going absolutely insane and need to talk to someone about this.
we have had a hectic home life lately - lots of work in the evening, ill children off nursery, etc etc. on Saturday I ate a chicken stir fry out of the bowl I’d defrosted the raw chicken in. This is so unlike me - I’m an emetophobe and I am absolutely crazy about hygiene and chicken. As the dinner was ready I just saw the bowl and thought I’d already got myself a serving bowl. I only realised straight after finishing dinner when I was stacking the dishwasher and realised I was missing the raw chicken bowl. I went absolutely cold. I even remember that the bottom of the bowl was wet 😭 why didn’t I realise??

i ate about 9.30pm on Saturday. Yesterday I thought I was going to throw up in Costa, left, drove home, lay down. Nothing more. This morning I had one short bout of diarrhea. It didn’t happen again. This is frankly not usual for me as I suspect I have mild IBS.

i have hardly eaten since Saturday night and I’m starting to feel quite weird and not knowing whether I am ill or hungry. About an hour ago I had a bit of soup and bread and a malt bar to get some sugar into me.

what is going to happen to me?? My brain is exhausted thinking about incubation times and what I need to cancel for the rest of the week. I think salmonella is now less likely but campylobacter is typically days 2-5. I am going out of my mind. I can’t believe I did this and am terrified I’ll give it to my young children (I’m hand washing crazily). I haven’t told my husband as he’s in the worst week of his work at the moment with a million commitments and meetings - and he ate a bite.

uggggghhhh please please quiet my mind one way or another … or just something calming. This is like a nightmare to me and I can’t even think about the horror.

I got campylobacter from uncooked chicken. I was hospitalised within 24 hours.
Seriously, you would know about it. I passed out from vomiting and was on a drip for 5 days.
It's Tuesday afternoon, I'm inclined to think that you just ingested a small amount. Have plenty of fluids and gentle food stuffs.

@EmpressOfTheThread that sounds horrendous and puts things into perspective. Thank you

You'd have been unwell already if it was going to happen.

You would have been sick within 24 hours.

Chicken is not your issue, anxiety is.

Whatever it was if there was anything dodgy will work it's way through you over next couple days.

It was only a trace of it, you didn't actually eat any raw chicken. You may get a bit more nausea and diarrhea but don't panic.

Obviously if you start to feel unbearable pain or are so unwell you can't move then call an ambulance.

But otherwise take some charcoal tablets and some dioralyte and just rest and relax. Stop thinking about it.

I very much doubt that you'll have a critical illness at this point. You're 3 days on and these things tend to be rapid.
As I said, mild foods, plenty of fluids and I'm sure you'll be fine.

You’ll be fine regarding the chicken but you sound very unwell in terms of the anxiety, have you seen anyone about that?

I’ve had campylobacter before OP. Mine wasn’t as bad as the previous poster, but there was no doubt I was ill!! You’d know about it, so if you’re feeling ok and food is moving alright (IBS aside) you’re ok. Try and eat as it will be your biggest indicator.

you'll likely be fine after this time.

Not all raw chicken carries food poisoning bacteria, it's actually eaten quite a lot in Japan

It’s Tuesday actually

You'd have been ill by now. Forgot about it. Youll be fine.

ive had food poisoning from chicken before and I was ill by the next day

Just because the chicken was raw does not necessarily mean it was loaded with bacteria. I agree with others - if you were going to get an upset stomach it would have shown itself already.

My cats have helped themselves to raw chicken when my back has been turned without any ill effects.

It's obviously not a sensible thing to do OP but we all make mistakes. I suspect most of us have eaten something undercooked or made some other food hygiene error at some point and lived to tell the tale. I was furious with my DH recently when he sliced bread on the chopping board that I'd just used for chopping raw pork on. Nothing bad happened though.
I agree with the majority.Not all raw chicken contains harmful bacteria and if you were going to get ill you almost certainly would have done by now. I'd hazard a guess that a combination of anxiety and your IBS is causing you some minor symptoms but what you are describing doesn't sound like significant food poisoning to me. I had campylobacter once when I was abroad and believe me, I was in absolutely no doubt that I was ill! I'd try and put this behind me and just be a bit more careful in future I I were you, though it might be worth thinking about getting some help with your anxiety if worries like this happen often.

You’ll likely be just fine. Food poisoning can take a few days to appear, but it’s pretty unlikely and it’s much more common to be ill sooner rather than later.

Hope you’re getting help with your anxiety.

This happened to someone I know with chicken and they felt ill about an hour or 2 after consuming and for about a day they had stomach ache quite bad. No runs surprisingly. They had a slightly watery mouth but weren’t sick.

You do need to be a bit more stoic about vomit though, I’ve seen these posts on MN about emetophobia and it is ridiculous for a grown women, most people really hate and avoid it but to label it as a debilitating phobia, not necessarily you but in posts I have seen is OTT. it’s a bodily function for you and your children sometimes and is mainly there to protect you.

You'll be fine. I've done this on more than one occasion and never fallen ill. Your fears and worries are contributing more to your digestive troubles than the homeopathetically minute amount of raw chicken you may have ingested.

Oh poor you OP, you sound so worried. It's been long enough, I'm sure you'll be fine. x

You have significant health anxiety. Please get help.

My understanding is you only get sick from raw chicken if it has bacteria. If it doesn’t you won’t get sick.

we use a homeopathic remedy for these situations which boots used to sell but you can get from Amazon called Nelson’s Arsen alba. I once ate raw pork on holiday was developing at temp but two doses of this I was better very quickly

Keeping my fingers crossed for you, OP

Theres a man online who ate a raw chicken breast every day for 100 days and he didnt get ill, I'm sure it's fine (you can google it if it will help)

OP you are way stronger than you think. You're fine, you would have felt terrible the day after at the latest.
Why is everyone's life so hectic?! Just slow down a bit and enjoy your food without rushing around like a mad chicken then you'll avoid worrying so much. You don't need any additional stress.

I have suffered from OCD and health anxiety OP, so I get how destabilising this can be.

My advice is firstly to break the cycle of anxious thoughts. If you possibly can, get out for a bit, for a walk or a wander around the supermarket and take some deep lungfuls of air. Watch other people going about their days and remind yourself that all is well, you're strong and healthy (I assume?) and resilient and just get a bit of perspective by looking at the bigger picture.

If (when!) the intrusive thoughts return, notice that they're there and call them out. ('I'm worrying about whether I'm going to be ill again, which is really unhelpful. I'm going to firmly set that thought aside and focus on something else.') For me, intrusive thoughts are essentially fears about not being in control, so I always find it helpful to find something constructive to do. In your case, you could use this as a message from the universe that things have been so crazy recently and you need to find some ways to slow down a bit, cut yourself some slack and feel more on top of things. (Making lists always helps me feel more in control!) Also be kind to yourself. You've got so much on and you're doing your best. This sounds like your subconscious stepping in to beat you up when you're already down about dropping your guard for a moment.

FWIW, I'm sure you'll be fine. The weird feelings you're having are VERY LIKELY anxiety (my stomach is the first thing that reacts to anxiety, and I usually have the constitution of a steel tanker.) But this is your mind saying 'enough is enough' and asking for calm. Give yourself a mental hug and listen to it, just don't believe its panicky catastrophising.

BTW, I agree with the poster recommending ChatGPT for this. I'm as sceptical about AI as the next woman but I've found it very helpful for OCD intrusive thoughts and restoring some balance. It's very affirmative, which can be a problem generally, but with something like this it's a positive!

My husband accidentally served me raw chicken once - I never vomited if that helps I just needed some of those diarohlight salts.