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Presentation Tip 13b: Don’t try new material in an ambulance
By Darren | February 9, 2008
A NEW OUCH! = A NEW STORY 
I’m trying to smile. Just not so easy when you had food poisoning. If you sent me an e-mail in the past week, may be a while before you get a response. I ate dinner at 5:30 and by 10:30 I was constantly sick in between 20 minute “pauses.” After 6 hours, I finally “let go” of my self “guy” talk and called an ambulance. Why do we wait so long, guys?
I’d love to tell you how tough I was. Not the truth. Had some scary thoughts, along with some amusing ones. As humiliating as it was, I still found myself saying, “This is going to be a good story someday.” Now, I’m thinking, why wait, let’s blog about it!” Guess technology does change what we do and how we talk about it.
I did try to crack up the ambulance dude and dudette, but don’t remember if they thought I was funny or not. My coping mechanisms kicked in, but they were not running on all cylinders. After a couple hours on the IV and 2 doses of nausea medication they sent me home in a taxi cab to rest up and recover.
I learned some lessons about myself through this ordeal. Namely, I need to take better care of my health to be able to fight off disease. Think my “severe case” would not have been so bad if I was eating better and working out. Why did it take this to get me running again? What we’ll do to get a better story!
Inbetween the Stage Time,
P.S. On the upside, after getting sick for 6 hours straight, they gave me this neat white bracelet and now I’ve got great abs!
Topics: Public Speaking Skills, Speaking On the Road |
February 10th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
I get food poisoning in about one out of five cities when I travel. It really does feel like you’re dying, doesn’t it? I do know one woman, a medical doctor, Sandy Wellner, who actually did die of food poisoning and they brought her back to life. Because of a lack of oxygen to the brain while she was dead, she couldn’t be the surgeon she’d studied to be, so instead she started working with disabled women. She coached a disabled friend of mine on to having two kids when the doctors said she couldn’t, and she also invented an exam table that can be used for all women, not just disbled ones. It’s called the Wellner table in her honor, although she always called it the universal exam table. So, I hope your food-poisoning story is not as dramatic and just as useful.
February 24th, 2008 at 7:14 pm
Dude - lay off the sushi! I assume yer better now and off at the Vegas Cruise. C’mon back and blog s’more!
March 11th, 2008 at 6:31 am
Sorry to hear about your food poisoning. It gives stage time, stage time, stage time a whole new meaning. But seriously, sometimes it’s not really the food itself that was bad, it could simply be the improper handling or bacteria that was transfered from one item to another. An infected pepper or ketchup container. Maybe someone didn’t wash their hands or touched the door handle in the bathroom.
One day at a restaurant I noticed a tinge of smoke emanating from from my serviette. It was wrapped around my fork and knife with one of those pieces of blue sticky tape - like they use at the meat counter. Then I realized that someone has taken the time to wrap the napkin around them. I wondered - did they wash their hands?
Either way, it probably wasn’t funny, but Darren, I’m sure you’ll make sure that you get great mileage from it. All the Best. Greg D42 Toastmasters
March 11th, 2008 at 10:39 am
Sorry to hear about your food-poisoning episode!
Adds a new dimension to my Battle of the Bulge speech - try food-poisoning and lose weight dramatically! Just kidding…where I come from, there’s a saying which when translated literally means, “dirty eat, dirty strong”! Ingestion of a little bacteria daily only builds your resistance up against future food-poisoning!
Glad you were a hit at our District One’s Fall 2007 Conference from those I have enquired when I returned from Singapore.
All the Best in your recovery,
Choon Mah-Meggett, DTM
Speakers Bureau Co-Chair