I ate one piece of dried toast.
By Monday I was wrung out, nauseous and spent most of the day between the bed and the toilet. I forced myself to drink water or health drinks.
Tuesday morning I went to my local doctor. He conducted a few tests, observed a dangerous level of dehydration, made me lie down in a treatment room, and his nurse hooked me up to an intravenous drip where I stayed for an hour.
He then told me I could go home to bed but he would prefer me to go to hospital. I presented myself to Wakefield Hospital and, after some preliminary tests, spent 10 hours under observation - in emergency - on a drip.
That night I was admitted to Calvary Hospital, placed in isolation and again hooked up to a drip.
A red "Stop" sign on the door said anyone entering the room first had to report to the nursing station.
Doctors, nurses and other staff had to wear protective gowns, gloves and masks to enter my darkened room. I was so sick I didn't care. My case was examined with forensic thoroughness. An infectious diseases expert questioned me about where I had eaten on Saturday night.
A smiling doctor questioned me about dinner and then asked: "What did you have for lunch on Saturday?" When I told him I had a chicken sandwich he said: "Aha. Chicken. That's the culprit. How long had it been in the fridge?"
I guessed four days and he said: "That's it. Chicken". The Saturday night restaurant was not to blame.
The doctor explained that leftover chicken stored for too long, even in a modern refrigerator, could quickly become the host to a variety of dangerous bacteria including salmonella and campylobacter.
I remained on the drip until Thursday afternoon, eating clear soup and picking at sandwiches.
I even picked at the keys of my laptop. By Friday I was free to go with a cheerful warning about the dangers of eating chicken that had been stored for more than a day or two in the fridge.
It's a lesson well learnt. I wonder how someone as sick as I had apparently been would have survived, let's say, 100 or even 50 years ago. There would have been a high casualty rate.
I was saved by the awareness, preparation and personal dedication of contemporary medical science. But be warned. If it can happen to me it can happen to you.
Not only with chicken but a variety of foods, including dairy foods, which are probably stored in your refrigerator at the moment.
Eating cooked chicken that has been stored for too long is as toxic as drinking water from a New Delhi gutter. Mild cases of E. coli, salmonella and campylobacter are treated daily by doctors across the state, particularly in warm weather.
Some people battle on without seeing a doctor.
Not all of them are as severe or debilitating as the dose I apparently caught. But it should be a sobering lesson for us all.
Go and check your fridge.
