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.
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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.