Back in late December 2003, you may recall that a batch of beef, contaminated with mad cow disease, was brought in from Canada and ended up on the shelves of grocery markets in the United States. My boyfriend and I were spending Christmas with his parents when the news story broke. I remember hearing about it and thinking it was a bit frightening, but was able to go on with the visit normally. Thank goodness for small favors. (I recall even feeling a little proud of myself at the time for having such self control and success managing my OCD’s.)
When we returned home (West Coast at the time), more details about the story began to emerge. First we learned that the beef ended up in California. Then, that the sale of the beef occurred in two counties only – the county I lived in and the county I worked in. Somehow, in spite of this, the fear of MC disease didn’t consume me...yet. The stores that sold the beef were Asian groceries I hadn’t visited in ages.
THEN, one night in January 2004, I was hanging out watching “Castaway” on TV. (I didn’t find the movie particularly compelling nor do I watch that much television at all.) I don’t know why I continued to watch that night. At one of the commercial breaks, I saw footage of a story that was going to be featured on the 11pm news. “Local Restaurants Serve Contaminated Beef!” Before I could say anything, my boyfriend called in from the other room, “Hey, isn’t that the owner of our favorite Pho place?”
It was.
I watched the news in terror. Yes indeed, there on TV was the owner of the restaurant I used to go to! And of course I ate there in December 2003. The amazing thing is that many restaurants served the contaminated beef but were NOT required by the Department of Health to disclose this to the public. Why this one particular restaurant owner chose to do so is bewildering (he has since shut down).
I was horrified.
The next day, I closed the door to my office at work and screwed up the nerve to call the restaurant. I called and asked for the possible dates the meat could have been served. I found out that I had eaten there about a week before the contaminated meat was supposed to have been cooked. This did not convince me however…the proximity of the dates was just too close for comfort. With room for error…God only knows when that meat was served.
During the worst of that bout of obsession and panic, I discovered the link between MC and tonsil infections. Too much information for Barbora! I knew immediately that from that moment, the game was on…any time I had a sore throat (or any throat sensation whatsoever), my mind would go directly to the worst-case scenario.
And so it has been.
On a good day, I can reassure myself that I wasn’t in the right place at the right time to have been infected, and actually believe it. Other times, I’m not so lucky.
I am very fortunate that I rarely get sore throats…but I have no shortage of, bumps, tingling/burning sensations and bitter tastes in my mouth and on my tongue (This is the reason for the two, afore-mentioned, “unnecessary” biopsies). I had been able to dismiss the tongue symptoms as irrelevant…until last October. I was listening to late-night, AM talk radio, when some nut came on talking about how MC disease was directly related to cattle mutilations and was brought to Earth by aliens…I had twinge of fear and though maybe I should turn the radio off…But NO! I was feeling brave and thought; this crap can’t scare me. That’s where I was WRONG. This guy uttered the words that now haunt me…”Everyone knows, the tonsils, tongue and anus are a repository for prions.” All I can say is I’m darned grateful my butt’s not burning.
On a much, much lighter note…we are indeed snowed in today. This was our dog’s first experience with more that an inch or two of snow since we moved back here. This morning when I took him out for first-walks, he seemed delighted by the snow, snuffling and pulling me all around the back yard. This afternoon, when the snow was almost as tall as him, he wasn’t so happy about it. Now he has to go potty, but doesn’t want to go off the porch. I think one of us is going to have to go out there and shovel.
When we returned home (West Coast at the time), more details about the story began to emerge. First we learned that the beef ended up in California. Then, that the sale of the beef occurred in two counties only – the county I lived in and the county I worked in. Somehow, in spite of this, the fear of MC disease didn’t consume me...yet. The stores that sold the beef were Asian groceries I hadn’t visited in ages.
THEN, one night in January 2004, I was hanging out watching “Castaway” on TV. (I didn’t find the movie particularly compelling nor do I watch that much television at all.) I don’t know why I continued to watch that night. At one of the commercial breaks, I saw footage of a story that was going to be featured on the 11pm news. “Local Restaurants Serve Contaminated Beef!” Before I could say anything, my boyfriend called in from the other room, “Hey, isn’t that the owner of our favorite Pho place?”
It was.
I watched the news in terror. Yes indeed, there on TV was the owner of the restaurant I used to go to! And of course I ate there in December 2003. The amazing thing is that many restaurants served the contaminated beef but were NOT required by the Department of Health to disclose this to the public. Why this one particular restaurant owner chose to do so is bewildering (he has since shut down).
I was horrified.
The next day, I closed the door to my office at work and screwed up the nerve to call the restaurant. I called and asked for the possible dates the meat could have been served. I found out that I had eaten there about a week before the contaminated meat was supposed to have been cooked. This did not convince me however…the proximity of the dates was just too close for comfort. With room for error…God only knows when that meat was served.
During the worst of that bout of obsession and panic, I discovered the link between MC and tonsil infections. Too much information for Barbora! I knew immediately that from that moment, the game was on…any time I had a sore throat (or any throat sensation whatsoever), my mind would go directly to the worst-case scenario.
And so it has been.
On a good day, I can reassure myself that I wasn’t in the right place at the right time to have been infected, and actually believe it. Other times, I’m not so lucky.
I am very fortunate that I rarely get sore throats…but I have no shortage of, bumps, tingling/burning sensations and bitter tastes in my mouth and on my tongue (This is the reason for the two, afore-mentioned, “unnecessary” biopsies). I had been able to dismiss the tongue symptoms as irrelevant…until last October. I was listening to late-night, AM talk radio, when some nut came on talking about how MC disease was directly related to cattle mutilations and was brought to Earth by aliens…I had twinge of fear and though maybe I should turn the radio off…But NO! I was feeling brave and thought; this crap can’t scare me. That’s where I was WRONG. This guy uttered the words that now haunt me…”Everyone knows, the tonsils, tongue and anus are a repository for prions.” All I can say is I’m darned grateful my butt’s not burning.
On a much, much lighter note…we are indeed snowed in today. This was our dog’s first experience with more that an inch or two of snow since we moved back here. This morning when I took him out for first-walks, he seemed delighted by the snow, snuffling and pulling me all around the back yard. This afternoon, when the snow was almost as tall as him, he wasn’t so happy about it. Now he has to go potty, but doesn’t want to go off the porch. I think one of us is going to have to go out there and shovel.
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