Campylobactor

I came back from my parenting course this afternoon and saw that someone had left me a voice message. It was from the paediatrician who saw Lavigne at the hospital on Friday. He said he was calling with regard to the lab test result of the sample stool. Now it didn't sound good to me. Dr Raj had told me that I would only get a call if the result is positive (ie a bacterial infection). I began to get worried, wondering if it could be something sinister.

The nice doctor patiently explained to me last week that Lavigne's diarrhoea could be a bacterial (more serious, but could be treated with a course of antibiotics) or a viral infection. Even though the diarrhoea has stopped since yesterday, I couldn't help but feel paranoid. When I finally spoke to him on the phone, he told me my worst fear - it was a bacterial infection and the name of the bacteria is 'campylobactor'. Since I told him that Lavigne no longer has green or watery stools, he felt that she has managed to get the bug out of the system and does not need the antibiotics. He added that the main causes of this infection are the ingestion of the bacteria through contaminated food or water or if she had travelled to a tropical country recently (which we didn't) , she could have picked it up from there. Also, should any of us in the family starts developing the same symptoms, we should head straight to the A&E and ask to be given a course of antibiotics since this infection is contagious. This is worrying as we're going away next week. And! I'll be getting a call from the health people who will ask me questions and try to trace the source in order to prevent an outbreak.

I made a search on the internet to look for information regarding this nasty bacteria. To my surprise, it is said that most people who get infected with this bacteria develop symptoms such as fever, vomitting, abdominal pain and diarrhoea within 2-5 days after exposure to the organisms. I have always thought one gets a diarrhoea very quickly after consuming contaminated food. Thus I began to think back what she had eaten over the past few days. As my father-in-law was here, we ate out alot. Campylobacteriosis is usually associated with poultry and being a chicken-meat lover, Lavigne ate quite a lot of it. The only place I could think of was Wetherspoon Restaurant at the airport where we had lunch on Sunday. The food looked dodgy. My father-in-law's fish was over-fried and Louisa's shepherd's pie looked so horrid and unpalattable I'd wanted to send it back to the kitchen. The mashed potato was haphazardly thrown on top of the barely there mince. I don't expect it to look exactly the same as the photograph in the menu but hey! any novice cook can do a better job than that.

Anyway, I couldn't pinpoint where she might have ingested the contaminated food....was it the turkey at Tobey Carvery on Saturday, the grilled chicken at Wetherspoon on Sunday or my roast chicken on Monday? I guess I'll never know.