Halloween Candy from Hell

Evil Image © Ramon Dirge (I think....it's too small to read)

Okay....consider this post a public service announcement from me to you! By YOU....I mean anyone who consumes candy or plans to give candy out this Hallowe'en!

You may recall that I blogged about going to see 3 movies last weekend. Well, since we were planning to see so many movies, and movies are SO stinking expensive nowadays, and we have to multiply that expense x 4.......I thought we should try to save some money on food and drinks while there. So I, in all my infinite wisdom or lack thereof....thought we should buy some candy at the Dollar Store and take our drinks in a cooler in the car. Then when it was time to go into the movie, my daughter and I would sneak our stash into the movie theater in big purses.

So far, so good....the plan worked beautifully up until the third and final movie of the weekend. That is when things went drastically wrong. However the scope of the wrongness would not be fully realized until several days later. So here's where things took a wrong turn....
For my choice of candy for the last movie I selected 'Sour Skittles'. I love Skittles, but I had only tasted a couple of the 'Sour' variety out of my kids bag in the past. But I liked them, so I figured they were a good choice in lieu of the fact that there were no regular Skittles to be had in the dollar bin. So the movie begins and I embark on my life altering consumption of said 'Sour Skittles'.
Now I am of the 'suck and savor' variety myself....that means that I like to suck the outside of the candy first, be it candy coating, chocolate coating, or sour powder....then I commence to eating the innards. So that is exactly how I consumed each and every 'sour skittle' that I ate....one at a time....slow....methodically....with patience and exact precision. The 'sour' would make my mouth water and pucker, then I would eat the gooey sweet inside as a reward for making it through the 'sour' part.

However, I did notice after a while, that the skittles always seemed to land in the same spot in my mouth when I was sucking the sour coating off. They would tuck up into the top left side of the roof of my mouth. This routine continued for awhile, interrupted only by the occasional swallow of my drink. But then something started happening...I noticed my mouth was starting to feel a little sore. Not sure exactly what the sensation was, I noted it, yet kept on eating my Skittles.

It was almost like I couldn't stop, even though something was telling me I should stop....yet I ate on. Eventually, I discovered a need to actually suck on the ice cubes from my drink in order to soothe my irritated mouth. And FINALLY, I did quit eating them although I had only finished about 3/4 of the bag. So the movie ends, mouth stills feels a little funny and slightly sore, but other than that all seems well.

But I am here to tell you that all was NOT well! When I got home and was brushing my teeth before bed, I opened my mouth because my tongue hurt, and lo and behold, the whole center of my tongue was swollen and red, almost as if it were scalded. I didn't think much about it, and by the next day it seemed to have gone away.But then about 2 days later, I noticed that the roof of my mouth was getting really sore in one spot....the same spot where I'd tucked those skittles into, to strip them of their sour coating. I tried to look at the roof of my mouth in the mirror, but it was impossible to see the spot. So I pressed on it with my finger and it literally felt like it was bruised. So I asked my husband to look at it and he said yes, there was a dark red/purple area that looked like it was bruised and peeling.

By Wednesday of this week, the spot was getting even more sore, and when I went to drink some coffee, the pain was excruciating. This pain got continually worse and made eating pretty much anything; a miserable experience. The spot felt like it had been burned badly. Then the more I thought about it, the more I felt like it was some sort of chemical burn from the acidic coating on the 'sour skittles'. Because the pain originated while I was eating them, I just didn't really heed the warning signs at the time because I'd never eaten a bag of the sour ones before.So I go on-line and search for the term 'chemical burn in mouth from sour skittles', and go figure....there were MANY entries about that very thing?!!! You've got to be kidding me! There they were, account after account of people suffering burns, peeling skin, bleeding tongues, loss of taste....you name it! REALLY?!!! These things happen and yet they continue to produce a candy that mutilates the inside of your mouth?!

Well this is Saturday....tomorrow will be one full week since I ate just 3/4 of a bag of 'sour skittles' and I can still hardly eat anything, even soft stuff and drinks, without being in total pain. My daughter took my iPhone and took a picture of it so that I could see what it looks like, and it was UGLY! No wonder it friggin' hurts so bad! It's chemically burnt and bruised from where I held those tiny 'pellets from hell' in the same exact place each time.

What evil is this that has been unleashed upon me from the Candy Gods? Why do 'Sour Skittles from Hell' have NO warnings of physical damage, or at least a 'Eat At Your Own Risk' with a skull and crossbones symbol? And if this can happen to me from just eating 3/4 of an individual size bag....what atrocities could befall young unsuspecting Trick-or-Treaters from the consumption of these 'toxic poison pellets'?

So I am sharing my nightmarish story here as a public service announcement to those who may be thinking of consuming or gifting this particular candy. As I contemplated my ability to sue the Skittle company for damages incurred, I decided it would likewise be prudent to consider that the same thing could be done to us, should some parent's kid come down with chemical burns from the candy we gave them on Hallowe'en! So tis' probably best that you leave this one off your grocery list this coming season.
Alas, always being one to try and find the positive aspects of even the worse situations....I can happily relay the news that I have lost several pounds from being unable to eat or drink for a week. But chemically burning the roof of your mouth with 'Sour Skittles' should not be considered a safe and effective diet plan, so please don't try this at home! I'm curious if anyone else has ever had this experience? Or if you know of any other deadly candies that I should avoid?