Barfing WTH!?

April 7, 2013 5:38 PM

For the second time in less than a month I've had to go home sick from work because I was barfing uncontrollably--and then felt fine enough by evening to go for a run and eat a normal dinner. Is it something I ate? Food poisoning or allergy? The flu? WTH!? (Gross descriptions lurk within.)

The first incident came on last month, about two hours after I'd eaten a lunch of canned tuna, bbq sauce, and a large fruit cup. I felt fine, even energetic after my meal, until about an hour later when I felt gurpy, and then HELLO. I barely made it home in time to get to the bathroom. Felt wobbly for a short while afterwards and loafed around...but by the evening (approximately four hours after the onset of the gurps) I was totally fine.

Today I had an egg and some parm for breakfast, a lunch of more parm and a banana/peanut butter smoothie plus two teaspoons of Carlson's calamari oil (the "sustainable" alternative to fish oil). I don't think the oil agrees with me per se, but have been taking it almost daily with no side effects other than brief, mild nausea. Less than an hour later I arrive at work and have half of a homemade cracker from a tray brought in by a coworker. I wasn't even finished chewing when that same feeling of dire nausea I'd felt the month before came over me. Sure enough, within ten minutes I was in the staff bathroom tossing my cookies, and then, ugh, got sick all over myself while driving home. I felt awful for about an hour after I got home, and slept for much of it. But now it's been about eight hours since the start of this mess and I feel totally fine. I even got hungry and ate spicy tomato soup for dinner with no gastrointestinal side effects whatsoever.

So, what is going on? Does anything in my menu sound like it might be the cause of a common food allergy? Does food poisoning come and go this quickly? Is there a flu bug that does this? I'm trying to think through today's menu to figure out what could have caused such a violent reaction. I don't want to miss any more work (plus the barfing really sucks)!

posted by silly me to Health & Fitness (26 answers total)

Response by poster: Hi jamaro, that's a good thought, but I am most definitely not pregnant.
posted by silly me at 5:42 PM on April 7, 2013

Sounds like it's the Calimari oil. Try another bottle of it?
posted by carsonb at 5:42 PM on April 7, 2013

This happens to me when I eat oysters, and it happened suddenly; I used to be able to stomach them just fine. Maybe you've developed some similar sort of sensitivity to...um, tuna and/or squid? Or some sort of chemical component that these two share?
posted by smirkette at 5:51 PM on April 7, 2013 [3 favorites]

1) Try a different oil or avoid fishy things
2) Keep a detailed food journal if that doesn't work
3) Could it coincide with a certain point in your menstrual cycle? You said it happened last month, then this month but you aren't pregnant. (Did you take a pregnancy test or is there just no way there would be a bun in the oven?)

One of my friends used to get really sick with her PMS, including vomiting, and I get really awful stomach aches and it irritates my GERD and IBS.

Hope you feel better!
posted by Crystalinne at 5:56 PM on April 7, 2013 [1 favorite]

I've had things like this happen to me on and off for years. Doctors have yet to really explain it, but they have chalked at least part of the nausea and randomness to having vertigo caused by odd pressures on my inner ear due to swelling in a jaw joint. Whenever I get an attack like this - severe nausea, sweating, feeling like death warmed over - I take a dose of Promethazine. It is an antihistamine, but it also acts as a very mild antipsychotic - don't be alarmed by this - however, it is AWESOME at treating nausea.

Go see a doctor, explain what happens, and if nothing else ask for something to treat the nausea.

PS - I HATE that the first thing anyone asks with this sort of thing is "Are you pregnant?" *Grumbles*
posted by strixus at 5:57 PM on April 7, 2013

This has happened to me with shrimp, several times but spread out & not every time so it took me a while to figure it out. Never happened again once I stopped eating shrimp.
posted by headnsouth at 6:07 PM on April 7, 2013

The common element seems to be fish. My grandmother developed a seafood allergy in her early sixties, after a lifetime of eating fish. The first time it happened was at my uncle's wedding, she ended up in the ER with uncontrolled vomiting several hours after eating a shrimp appetizer. They chalked it up to stress and nerves (her oldest son had died a week earlier) but then a couple months later she had the same reaction to some cod and the doctor that time said it sounded like an allergy. She never ate seafood again, and never had a repeat of the violent vomiting, but as far as I know she was never officially tested or diagnosed. She was just willing to go on those two experiences.

I have a co-worker who has developed the same problem with with fish, had been fine all her life, then had a bad trip to a sushi restaurant that she chalked up to food poisoning until a staff lunch at a sushi restaurant six months later left her puking in the staff washroom all afternoon while the rest of us were totally fine.
posted by looli at 6:18 PM on April 7, 2013 [2 favorites]

I'm going to go with the calamari oil. This sometimes happens to me with hard-boiled eggs. Usually there are no repercussions but every once in a while I will get terribly sick from them. This only started recently.
Also, what is parm? parmesan cheese?
posted by bahama mama at 6:22 PM on April 7, 2013

This happens to me with bananas. Some other fruit too but bananas are the only ones I like and keep trying to eat.
posted by fshgrl at 7:05 PM on April 7, 2013

I had a similar reaction after eating oysters and again aftter shellfish. Never had an issue before. Also think it might well be the calamari oil. I also was ill very suddenly and fine after a few hours.
posted by Lescha at 7:14 PM on April 7, 2013

I'm getting nauseous just thinking about calamari oil. If it makes you regularly nauseous, you can bet it's what is making you regurgitate.
posted by gjc at 7:48 PM on April 7, 2013

Gastroenteritis from staph aureus can start suddenly a few hours after eating the contaminated food and go away by a few hours later. Did you have diarrhea?
posted by treehorn+bunny at 8:37 PM on April 7, 2013

My friend's wife became allergic to seafood briefly after being pregnant, but a few years later it went away.
posted by jbenben at 8:39 PM on April 7, 2013

Also, interestingly...

This one of my symptoms before I was (finally!) diagnosed with endometriosis (basically, ovarian cysts) back when I was 22. I never had the symptoms again after surgery.

Specifically, needing to throw up, and only experiencing relief after vomiting, was never an issue post-surgery.
posted by jbenben at 8:41 PM on April 7, 2013

Have you had your gallbladder out? It took me (sadly) about 20 years to see the correlation between losing my gallbladder and being unable to process oily/greasy foods. I feel your pain.
posted by _Mona_ at 9:19 PM on April 7, 2013 [1 favorite]

This happens to me when I eat any type of seafood. Its not officially an allergy but 20+ years of puking up tuna and such have left me with a true aversion to seafood. Even the smell of someone at my table eating lobster or something fishy smelling can be enough to set me off. It started in my late childhood for no reason that I can tell. I remember tuna noodle casserole fondly. Then one day, puke town.
posted by saradarlin at 10:00 PM on April 7, 2013

I'm like Bahama Mama - used to be able to eat eggs and now, well, I can still eat eggs, I just dong get to digest them. Not sure what is going on, but I've learned to avoid eggs. My symptoms are exactly like yours.

Not sure what food, exactly, is your problem and I kind of suspect this isn't a true IgE mediated allergy (at lest in my case - IANAD, IANYD so don't go giving yourself anaphylaxis on my say so).
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 10:06 PM on April 7, 2013

Well, aside from the fact that your meal combinations sounds pretty mismatched and disgusting, I would stop with that oil. Oils derived from fish can have a lot of mercury in them that are bad to ingest regularly. Can't you just try flax seed oil? Or better yet, ground flax seed? Tuna has a lot of mercury in it too. I'm not saying you are giving yourself mercury poisoning, but maybe stuff derived from fish can cause you problems and given that there are probably safer sources for omega-3s, like flax and avocado and nuts, try those if that's what you're concerned about. If the nausea continues, I'd definitely see a doctor and a food allergist.
posted by AppleTurnover at 10:37 PM on April 7, 2013

> I don't think the oil agrees with me per se, but have been taking it almost daily with no side effects other than brief, mild nausea.

This sounds like you're not really tolerating this stuff. I mean, brief mild nausea for a day or three as you get used to it is one thing, but if it's been a month or so and it's still not sitting right, then...you're maybe hanging out all borderline barfy just waiting for a little extra trigger.
posted by desuetude at 11:14 PM on April 7, 2013

Fish allergy?
My father in law was sensitive to fish and it caused him exactly this problem.
posted by SLC Mom at 11:15 PM on April 7, 2013

AppleTurnover: you're right about most fish oils, but calamari oil is made of squid. Squid is on the low-risk list for mercury contamination, probably because squid have short lifespans (about a year and a half) so they don't have a lot of time to sequester heavy metals.

Staphylococcus aureus food poisoning can have an onset of as little as half an hour and can resolve in a very short timeframe, if you, uh, eject the material quickly. The organism is quite tolerant of salty environments - it does fine on cheese and deli meats.
posted by gingerest at 11:20 PM on April 7, 2013

Something else on the "allergy thing" typically, in a true allergy, you respond to a large molecule, like a protein, and some of these are conserved enough across related species that you can have a problem with both. But a tuna fish is more closely related to me than it is to a squid, so unless your calamari oil is lying to you about where it comes from, it's unlikely that it's that and tuna unless they have some other ingredient in common.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 12:03 AM on April 8, 2013

Are you taking any other supplements? I have this exact reaction to iron tablets and multivitamins that contain iron.
posted by lollusc at 1:37 AM on April 8, 2013

Is it something I ate?

Yes, absolutely!

Now, you could have a seafood allergy, but I am picking up on the foods you are mixing together. You really need to start paying more attention to what you are putting into your body all at once!

You are mixing what I'd call very rich foods--high fats, greasy or oily, high acid--together all in one meal, and your system, not surprisingly, is NOT liking that.

To me this fits clearly into the, "If it hurts when you do that, don't do that," territory.

So, simple rules would be not to mix fruit with seafood (which you did both times you became sick). No calamari with bananas, no tuna with fruit cups (and bbq sauce added in? Honestly, that sounds disgusting!).

Hormones play a role in your system's sensitivity, too, which explains the pregnancy and "where are you in your cycle" comments. Keeping track of these episodes is a good suggestion. Could be more of an issue when you're pre-menstrual.

Also, since it seems like you are bringing in your lunches, why not just aim for more complementary pairings all the time?

If you have to take calamari oil (not sure why), do it with bland food, like bread or rice. Don't pair it with a high protein, high fat smoothie.

If you are going canned tuna--well, I hate canned tuna so I probably wouldn't pair it with amything, but saltine crackers are pretty safe, maybe? Carrot sticks?

If you find you often want to finish off a meal with something sweet and you are going with fruit as a healthier option, avoid seafood (including calamari oil) on those days.

Also, what are your portion sizes like? I feel like you are trying to eat until you are "filled up" in one sitting. Cut that out and try for smaller portions, more frequently, even if you are planning to run off the calories later.

You don't have to be full when you are done; you know another meal is coming around soon. It's better for your digestion to graze than to just shovel down too much all at once (something we tend to do at work, when we are multi-tasking, etc.). Aim for a lighter lunch, and have a healthy snack set aside for the afternoon (again, carrot sticks, maybe, or celery--your diet seems light on veggies anyway. I know I have to remind myself to eat more of them!).

Be kind to your stomach. You don't want colonoscopies and gall bladder surgery in your future.
posted by misha at 9:00 AM on April 8, 2013

Just another option- it could be a migraine; especially the part about feeling like you could get up & run later. If you cut out the oil and you're still occasionally getting really sick to your stomach, especially if you also get headaches, you might want to talk to a migraine specialist.


Most of the time when I get a migraine I have horrific head pain with the nausea, but I've had several that were nausea & puking only. My neurologists told me that they're rare but do happen. You can treat them with triptans, although you would likely want one of the injectable ones rather than a pill that you'd just puke up.
posted by lyra4 at 1:02 PM on April 8, 2013

Response by poster: Thanks all! Whoops, should have clarified that "parm" is, indeed, my colloquialism for parmesan cheese. Sorry if I grossed anyone out with my descriptions of my meals--I'd call them more "snacks eaten over an hour or more" than discrete meals.

I'm still not sure what it could have been, but will definitely be avoiding the calamari oil in the future, if only because the thought of it now makes me sick (I'd been taking it as a nutritional supplement, not as a flavoring).
posted by silly me at 1:50 PM on April 8, 2013