BOTULISM: A KISS OF DEATH

I sat on my reading table slumbering...I knew I was just deceiving myself. I had a major exams the next day and I really wanted to burn the night studying...but sleep wouldn't let me.

   I decided to take a cup ofcoffee so the caffeine could keep me awake. I went to the kitchen,took the can of coffee from the top shelf and brewed for myself a steaming cup of coffee and took it without cream or sugar. I didn't like my coffee black but I wanted an effective result.

     After taking coffee I went back to my table feeling less sleepy but still sleepy anyway.

 I raised my head from my table to see it was already 2am...I didn't remember if I had been reading or i had actually slept off but all I knew was that there was a banging pain in my head...I started feeling light headed...it was difficult to breath too.
    
     Luckily for me,my elder sister who was a medical doctor was home...I told her how I felt and she asked me to take a lot of water and go back to bed but I had a major exams and going back to bed wasn't an option so after taking a whole lot of water I went back to my reading table to try studying

     But the symptoms became worse. I was already running out of breath I felt my whole muscles contracting I couldn't take it anymore. I just heard a loud scream...I didn't realise I was the one screaming until my sister came running to my room...I was immediately bed ridden and an antitoxin was administered to me. I still felt  restless...I threw up a couple times...water and the rest room had become my best friends. 

      Finally I didn't know wen I slept off. I woke up by 8am feeling lightheaded. I realised I was going to miss the same exams I almost killed myself trying to study for. I couldn't get out of bed,my muscles felt like they were being  electrocuted. I couldn't keep down my breakfast of scrambled eggs and bread my sister had put together which was my favourite breakfast of course.

         Then I couldn't take the pain anymore I started screaming,my sister managed to carry me to her car so I could be taken to the hospital...there in the car I started convulsing...my whole arms and legs went dead cold...I couldn't scream anymore as the muscles in my mouth had gone dead,I could  only hear myself screaming in my head...my thorax and abdomen were contracting...I could feel life slowly kissing me good bye..my sister had started praying,calling on God to save me,then I remembered I hadn't talked to who I believed most in so I made a silent prayer to God. 

  When I got to the hospital,i was rushed immediately to the emergency room,series of test were carried out,my vision became blurry,I really felt like sleeping,people rushed around me i didnt know if this was real or just a figment of my own imagination.

       wen I felt life slowly seeping out of me something came to my nose immediately  to revive me. I was given a nebulizer and oxygen,my contracted legs and arms were slowly getting relaxed but my sister didn't let me sleep cause of fear I'd die in my sleep.

      After the whole episode. I slept off and felt better wen I woke up,my mum was already blaming for almost killing  myself with excess caffeine cause of studies,but my sister told her it was not entirely fault,what had happened to me was called BOTULISM and not just an adverse reaction to coffee or caffeine.

      I was struck by a poisonous toxin produced by a bacteria called CLOSTRIDIUM BOTULINUM...which is a rod shaped,Gram-positive, spore-forming,motile bacteria that grows under anaerobic conditions and releases neurotoxin that is very harmful,It produces heat resistant endospores that survive adverse conditions. 

    Mine was an almost fatal case of foodborne botulism which is commonly associated with canned foods or low-acid food that was not processed using correct preservation times,pressure and method.

     C.botulinum also cause infant and wound botulinum as well. It's effect start with paralysis on the lower limbs which has the largest muscle in the body. Symptoms are different for the different types of botulism with paralysis being an identical symptom for all the types.

    Cases of botulism are rare but are very lethal and can cause high mortality rate unless immediate and proper treatment is administered.

    Keep food at safe temperatures,cook raw foods properly,greatly reduce intake of canned foods and treat immediately and properly.