Weird health problem puzzle

[Moontanman]

My wife and i just spent two days experiencing some really weird health problems. We cannot figure out what happened, here are the symptoms...

 

Heart palpitations

 

extreme shakiness/weakness/agitation/inability to think clearly

 

Waking night mares/total inability to sleep

 

Ringing in our ears

 

Tremors/dizziness

 

Elevated blood pressure

 

Extreme sweating/hot and cold flashes

 

We were both too weak and disorientated to drive

 

Intestinal problems

 

The nightmares were as real as hallucinations can be and long lasting, some of them lasted an hour or more

 

it lasted two days, the only thing we shared besides living together was eating a pizza from a commercial pizza place just before the symptoms started, no drugs were involved, prescribed or other wise.

 

The symptoms occurred at the same time almost to the minute and ended very closely as well. By the time we were capable of going to a doctor the symptoms had begun to abate and they dissipated fast.

 

The nightmares/hallucinations were very disturbing.

 

This was so weird I have been puzzling on it for days now and i can't come up with any reasonable explanation.

 

I have searched the net extensively and cannot make a connection to these symptoms with anything...

 

anyone have any ideas I can follow?

 

 

[pears]

Yikes that sounds freaky. Could it have been some kind of 48 hour virus? The extremely close synchronization of symptoms starting and stopping makes it almost sound like you ingested a poison or something at the same time but I guess a virus *could* have infected you at the same time. Did the doctor have any ideas?

[tar]

Moontanman,

 

I am no doctor, but it sounds like there could have been someing "bad" on or in the pizza.

 

Was it a mushroom pizza?

 

Wild guess type of specuation, but there are mushrooms around that are very toxic to people and can cause illness or death.

There are also mushrooms around that contain halucinagins.

 

Considering a mushroom is already a fungus, I don't know what would be entailed in a mushroom "going bad".

Nor am I familiar with the growing and harvesting of mushrooms, commercially, enough to know if it is possible for an undesirable strain of mushroom to accidently find its way into a delivered batch. But it sounds like you were poisoned or drugged and I somehow hope it was an accidental contact with a naturally occuring substance that reached you trough mistake or oversight or correctable faulty process, rather than a purposeful, willfull criminal prank, or act of some sort. (Like an actor at the pizza place sprinkling the pizza with a substance).

 

But I do remember having a fever one time when I was young were there were "items" (toasters or whatever) all over my bed, wheighing down the blanket. You didn't mention fever. Did you ever take your tempuratures?

 

 

Just some speculations.

 

Regards, TAR2

[Moontanman]

One anomaly was that three workers had walked off the job that night leaving only three people to run the Pizza Hut restaurant, I would like to think one disgruntled employee wouldn't do such a thing.

 

Pears, by the time we were capable to going to the emergency room the symptoms had gone down to a dull roar...

 

I'm not sure Pizza Hut will be getting our business in the future...

[EdEarl]

It seems unlikely that a worker in a fast food restaurant, making minimum wage or little more, would spike a customer pizza with drugs that they must buy. And, I think few drugs would cause symptoms for two days. I know that morphine and hydrocodone have a short effect, only a few hours. The other medicines I take have one day effects.

 

If it was something about the pizza, I believe food poisoning would be more likely.

[Moontanman]

It seems unlikely that a worker in a fast food restaurant, making minimum wage or little more, would spike a customer pizza with drugs that they must buy. And, I think few drugs would cause symptoms for two days. I know that morphine and hydrocodone have a short effect, only a few hours. The other medicines I take have one day effects.

 

If it was something about the pizza, I believe food poisoning would be more likely.

Well it's over now but it was one of the oddest experiences i have ever had, the fact it happened to both of us at the same time does suggest food poisoning of some type but what would fit the parameters of the symptoms?

BTW, we ate some of the pizza later and no such symptoms appeared...

[John Cuthber]

I'm not a doctor but you might want to look at this

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scombroid_food_poisoning

It wasn't a tuna pizza by any chance?

[Moontanman]

Just ground beef mushroom and onion...

[tar]

Moontanman,

 

Well if you had some leftovers later, without the same reactions, how about drinks? Do you get anything else there, that you both consumed that night, that could have been spiked by a disgruntled employee?

 

Regards, TAR2

 

I was looking at the physical reactions to psilocybin and some seemed consistent with you symptoms.

I am not up on the current drugs being taken in various neighborhoods and amoungst various segments of the society these days, but there might be some substance currently in use, that would cause the health reactions you two had. Especially disturbing and weird to experience if you did not know you were drugged or thusly poisoned.

Edited October 6, 2013 by tar

[imatfaal]

How are you and Mrs Moon feeling now? All back to normal I hope?

 

Like most above I would bet on a dose of some form of food poisoning - I might pass the next time someone suggests that particular pizza parlour. I might even consider a friendly and non-accusatory note to local food hygiene officers "Dear Sir, I don't know if my recent bout of ... had anything to do with Sloppy Joe's Pizza Palace but I felt I should mention ... just in case you have received any other..." etc. Seems mean and petty - but people die and are disabled by food establishments' bad practice and lack of hygiene

[John Cuthber]

It's kind of difficult to distinguish a drug from a poison, ask Paracelsus.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paracelsus#Contributions_to_toxicology

 

In any event, i'd go somewhere else for pizza next time.

 

A letter to the local paper (not naming the pizza joint) asking if anyone had experienced similar problems recently might be informative.

[tar]

I have a tendency to overthink things and take things down a long complicated road, based on incorrect assumptions. But here is my convoluted reasoning. If you have a paper cup from the scene that might have logically contained the foriegn substance that poisoned you two, you might take it to authorities and ask them to test it for foriegn substances based on your suspicions. Perhaps finger prints, linked to the presence of some intentionally deposited substance, would point to the particular purpetrator, and guide the wheels of justice in the proper direction, to hold the bad actor responsible for their crime. This course of action would perhaps be preferrable than condemning the establishment for your misfortune, which would after all, be the reaction that the perpetrator, in this fiction of mine, would have intended to occur by commiting the crime in the first place.

 

But with the lack of any evidence to prove such a fantasy, one would have to use the shotgun, public questioning approach, and see if any others in the community have ever had such unexplained symptoms. The results of this questioning might bring other facts to light, that reasonable people will put together to determine if the cause is due to bad hygiene at an establishment, or due to the actions of a particular bad actor, or due to some accident of some sort, or due to whatever probable cause the collective evidence would point to. In anycase it would be good to isolate the cause, for your own peace of mind, and perhaps for the wellfare of others, as well.

Edited October 6, 2013 by tar

[EdEarl]

The drugs alcohol, morphine and hydrocodone have two phases of effect, initial and hangover. The initial effect of alcohol and morphine/hydrocodone are different and of short duration (hours), with the hangover being similar for all three. Initially one feels OK or perhaps high (although, I've only had prescription doses of morphine and hydrocodone that did not make me high). However, the hangover makes one feel rotten in all three cases.

 

Some drugs have those two phases, including antihistamines, barbiturates, narcotics, and cocaine. The psychedelic drugs LSD and mushrooms do not make one feel ill. My source is a drug addict relative.

[Moontanman]

The drugs alcohol, morphine and hydrocodone have two phases of effect, initial and hangover. The initial effect of alcohol and morphine/hydrocodone are different and of short duration (hours), with the hangover being similar for all three. Initially one feels OK or perhaps high (although, I've only had prescription doses of morphine and hydrocodone that did not make me high). However, the hangover makes one feel rotten in all three cases.

 

Some drugs have those two phases, including antihistamines, barbiturates, narcotics, and cocaine. The psychedelic drugs LSD and mushrooms do not make one feel ill. My source is a drug addict relative.

AFAIK no drugs were involved...

[Daedalus]

AFAIK no drugs were involved...

 

The only way to know for sure Moontanman, would be to conduct a drug test on yourself and your wife to see if any drugs are in your system. Something like this test that you can buy at CVS:

 

http://www.cvs.com/shop/product-detail/First-Check-Home-12-Drug-Test?skuId=346468

Edited October 7, 2013 by Daedalus