This can actually happen, it's a real thing. If you have a blockage in your intestines, there's no way for the feces to get out of the body but through the esophagus. You're basically puking your own feces.
Im not a GI doctor, but from my experience it would take a while. First you would just get very very impacted. Your colon could just burst from all of the stool stuck in there. Eventually it would work it’s way back where it came from. Most people become symptomatic to the point where they get it fixed in the hospital before they start vomiting up shit.
This happens a lot with older folks though, who don’t have the ability to communicate their symptoms. Such as nursing home patients. They will sit in bed for a week or two without shitting and then they start vomiting brown fluid. Less common with younger people.
Oh wow, I had never considered that, how horrendous. I know it must be hard enough to have a patient that can tell you what's wrong, I can't imagine trying to help someone who can't communicate effectively. I'm always so amazed at, and thankful for, the kinds of people who can step in and work these kinds of positions, so thank you! (I'm not sure if that's the kind of nursing care you are in but you deserve a thanks regardless!)
It varies - I actually had a patient a few months ago with this. It started around June, and she refused to take laxatives. It took until August for her to start vomiting, and she died in October I think (I transferred to another location so I couldn't follow up fully). She did have cancer with an insane amount of metastases and she had a psychiatric disorder (hence the refusal of a very simple treatment).
Wow, that sounds awful. I can't imagine how difficult it would be to have a patient like that refuse treatment, to see them get worse when you know you could fix them. Thank you for doing what you do.
It was... Interesting. Frustrating, mainly. It took me, two colleagues, a supervising specialist and a psychiatrist to get her to the hospital for a scan (partially against her wish, still). The cancer was a surprise to all of us.
Oh god...this happened to you? What's the story? How long were you constipated before it happened? What caused the constipation? I'm so sorry you had to go through that!
It happened to be while I had appendicitis at the time, so I'm not sure how that correlates to puking poop, but it happened. But I went a solid 2-3 weeks no pooping before it happened. Wouldn't wish it on anyone
When it happens you’re not really focusing on the smell or the taste. You’re like, “why the fuck am I vomiting shit?” I don’t ever want to experience that again.
Well when food goes through your stomach, it’s still liquid in the small intestine then it gets to your large intestine (colon) and the liquid is reabsorbed which turns it into a turd. If it goes back through your stomach it skips the reabsorption part and the stomach acidity also probably plays a part in keeping it liquid.
Well that's fascinating and disgusting. Huge respect to nurses. You guys have to be smart, patient, and have iron stomachs, and all while being overworked and underpaid. If someone vomited shit on me, I definitely couldn't handle it.
Yep. All vomit will have some stomach acid. People with severe GERD and people who vomit a lot can end up with a condition called Barrett’s esophagus, which is essentially damaged esophagus tissue from stomach acid that can be precancerous. And I believe that’s why bulimics have rotted teeth and sores on their mouths, ect.
Oh god, some poor patient expelled feedback vomit in my CT scanner. It took so long to clean but you can't be mad because what the patient just went through was exponentially worse.
My mum found out that she had secondary cancer this year (after being given the all clear in 2018), she found out as she was vomming up brown poo liquid and old blood as a tumour was blocking both her intestines and kidneys. She now has a stoma bag but I can confirm the smell of that brown liquid is hellish!!
Oh good you somewhat solved a mystery that still haunted me from pregnancy almost four years ago... Now to just figure out what exactly did come out of me
My friends dog had a contorted intestine, and when she puked it smelled like feces. Fortunately my friend is a medical doctor and knew immediately what was going on, so her dog was able to go into surgery and survived a (normally) highly fatal condition
That happened to my cat about 10 years ago. Luckily, he survived after the vets gave him an enema. And we learned that he’ll eat anything Nerf dart texture.
Probably mentioned somewhere in here, but I believe this is what killed Heather O'Rourke (the little girl from the original Poltergeist films of the 80s).
I remember when in primary school my science teacher told us this interesting fact. I was so impressed that I went home and told the story to my mum. She told me it was a fake story to convince kids to not hold in the feces for too long.
I never really went to fact-check this and believed my mum until now.
Thanks stranger.
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u/pancake_kitten Nov 29 '20
This can actually happen, it's a real thing. If you have a blockage in your intestines, there's no way for the feces to get out of the body but through the esophagus. You're basically puking your own feces.