>Spinach Scare
>One of the things I do when pregnant is eat spinach. Lots and lots of fresh spinach (You know where this is going, don’t you?). Bagged, possibly-e. coli-carrying shit spinach. Dammit!
On Friday, I listened to the news about bagged spinach with a growing fear in the pit of my stomach. I had eaten bagged organic spinach just the day before! I sauteed it, but still! Was that enough to kill the germs? Oh my Lord, what if I ate poop bacteria?! Gross! I was done for!
After suffering through the weekend, I realized there was only one way to calm my mounting hysteria, and that was to call my mom and pass my fears along to her.
“Mom!” I screeched into the phone this morning.
“What? What is it?”
“I might have eaten e. coli!”
“What?”
“I ate bagged spinach!”
“You ate tainted huh?”
“Bagged spinach!“
“Oh my Lord! You have ebola! Honey, go straight to the hospital!”
I snickered a bit at the ebola reference, then stopped abruptly. She wanted me to go the hospital? But they’d just want a sample of my… Um, no.
I spent the next 15 minutes convincing my mom that I might be okay before hanging up smugly, knowing that by noon, half of Atlanta would believe I had mysteriously contracted ebola. I could expect a bunch of Vanderbilt doctors in space suits to show up at my front door shortly afterward, followed by a gaggle of docudrama writers, all of whom would be clamoring for the rights to my story, tentatively titled, Pandemic: Girl vs. Spinach. Tori Spelling would play me, of course. I’d insist on it.
So please send e.coli and ebola-free thoughts my way today. In return, I think I may never eat spinach again.
>All I know about ebola is that you bleed from your eyeballs. Michael Crichton taught me that. So if you start tearing up and you wipe your eyes and your hands are BLOODY…run, don’t walk, to the hospital.E. Coli, on the other hand, is all about the diarrhea. The above sentences should never be left in someone’s comments EVER.
>Repeat after me: “I do NOT have ebola virus.”You know we had the West Nile strike out here a couple weeks ago. Yeah? So we’re already ahead of you on the African viral illnesses.Chin up, there’s always flesh-eating bacteria.
>Trust me, as someone who has HAD e. coli – if you had it, you would DEFINATELY and undoubtedly know by now.
>he. ebola. that’s funny :)i totally know how you feel…i had spinach last week too, and have been freaking out since then!
>Ebola! LOL. I guess you’ll just have to be like Popeye and get the canned (or frozen!) I heard on the news today that you get symptoms 2 – 4 days after eating the stuff, so I think you are probably out of the woods!
>Well, that is not good (understatement?). I will think of you and send bacteria-free thoughts your way STAT! Luckily, I don’t eat healthy and this is why. Ok, well it’s not really why…but I can use it as an excuse next time. 🙂 Now if the ebola, e. coli…whatever, breaks out in doughnuts, then, I’m in big trouble! Stay Healthy!
>i thought the most at risk category for any of these diseases are the elderly and kids under age 5??? stay healthy, stay strong and don’t be afraid to eat your spinach again.
>I ate tons of spinach salad when I was pregnant and nursing. I think I was craving iron.And now that it’s not safe to eat, i’m craving it like CRAZY.Sending healthy thoughts your way!
>I read this morning that there have been no cases of e.coli connected to the organic bagged spinach, just the non-organic. I’m craving me some spinach, myself.I think by now, it’s safe to say you’re safe.
>And you know what sucks most? Spinach is about the only fresh vegetable I liked to eat. Now I am doomed to plain lettuce. Or maybe I can just live on coffee and chocolate now, since I have an excuse with the e.coli and all.
>I would leave you a comment- but we’ve done enough damage from my piece of the world-We gave you something to get your mamma to say “Ebola”- now that must have been worth it!See, the tinted spinach-it’s from here…..well, not right from SLO-but our good neighbor monterry county farms.Sorry about that!
>Its funny. I really liked spinach before I got pregnant, but now that I am I can’t seem to choke it down. It literally makes me gag. Weird.
>Shoulda stuck with Jelly Beans!
>Oh gosh, I SO can not eat spinach when I’m pregnant. I heard about it and was all “Whew, good thing I’m pregnant, ’cause I haven’t touched that stuff in MONTHS!”I’m sure you’re fine.
>heh.ebola.;)
>You can get a soap that’s designed for your produce from pretty much any natural foods store. SO then you can wash your organic spinach with soap and then rinse it, and then eat it, and stay happy with your salad, which I”m suddenly craving. And I”m going to eat it, ebola be damned.
>Yeah, except, one time I had e coli and I didn’t even know it until I was tested for a UTI.I had both. The antibiotic cleared them both up. E coli is like SARS, most people that get it live, the media just went ape shit because they are sick of talking about the middle east.
>Your Mom must surely have a useful email stored away that she can forward to you? 😉
>There’s been no tainted cases in TN yet! Don’t eat anymore spinach please. Or I shall worry myself sick. Not nice to do that to an old woman!
>I always thought there was something unnatural about salad in a bag. I’m terrified to even get near spinach right now. But my fear is just making me crave the stuff more. grrrr….Hope you are safe and sound!
>You know how to kill e-coli, right? Fry it in bacon grease.I’m just sayin….
>Another blogging pal ate bagged spinach and felt sick within a few hours. It took her 10 days to get over it and she’s pretty sure she was sick from e-coli. She’s calling her doc to report it, but she’s fine now. If you were going to get sick, you would have by now.Ebola, e-coli. What’s the difference? And today’s blog post is brought to you by the letter “E”.
>So it’s not funny, but the way you tell the story – it’s hysterical!!May you be poop free…LBC
>Ha – I freaked out last week too, since I ate HALF A BAG of the stuff on Tuesday (same brand that they found it in too!).I’ve decided that our kids have had it right all along. VEGETABLES ARE BAD FOR YOU!!! LOL!
>I hope you are OK but damn you made me laugh. And only you could do that by writing about possibly shit tainted spinach!
>oh, man, you mom and my mom could cause some small hysteria together. 🙂
>(that’s YOUR mom.. from a typo specialist)
>Hahaha!! Gotta love the fear-mongering power of the mom. 🙂 And I eat lots of bagged spinach,too. So scary.
>I think you’re safe, nobody in the South or Midwest has gotten it. I thought they all just didn’t eat spinach, corn and collard greens instead. Maybe that company just doesn’t ship to those areas.
>There are a lot of Kentuckians who’ve gotten sick, which makes me nervous because they’re not far from here. But I read that the produce companies are claiming that organic spinach wasn’t in the bad batch and thank God, that’s what I’ve been eating since I got pregnant. Still, though, now everything’s making me nervous- strawberries, pears, everything! Gah!
>The day this happened, I had my mouth all set for a nice home-made spinach/hot bacon dressing salad. Went to the grocery store after work, and got skunked real good–not a leaf of the stuff in the store; they had thrown it all away. You can’t buy a leaf of spinach in Michigan. Then I learned why. Michigan, btw, IS in the Midwest, and if i heard properly, we have had several deaths and many more sick folks. Meanwhile, i’m still craving that salad…
>Oh, L., you don’t have to worry about bacteria on strawberries — they’re just full of pesticides. You’re welcome. ;^)
>When I was pregnant there was a huge Listeria scare. I was very very paranoid because I had eaten many foods that were possibly tainted. I was never stricken and I hope you aren’t either. 🙂
>I’m guessing by now you are positive you are fine. What I didn’t even think about is that I had bought (and for dinner tonight I ate) these frozen spinach puff things. I hope those are safe! I know they said just the bags of spinach, but where do they get the spinach for inside the puff things???? I hope all is well with you but have to say that my neighbors had ecoli from Chili’s (is that resteraunt everywhere, or just here?) when she was pregnant and they ended up fine and healthy at the end with a HUGE settlement. I don’t wish that for you though (the disease, not the settlement) Ugh, I reread what I wrote, and what I meant was I hope you don’t get sick! In a seperate thought, lots of money would be great, but not if you have to get sick first!
>I am pregnant too, and I want spinach. Lots of it. But oh crap. What terrible timing for THIS particular shit storm.Does frozen spinach work?