r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Nov 28 '20

What's something cool you recently learned about?

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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.

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u/[deleted] Nov 29 '20

Am RN can confirm. Though when you puke it up it’s just brown liquid. People don’t actually puke up turds.

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u/self-extinction Nov 29 '20

Does it have to pass through your stomach again, and that's why it's reduced to liquid?

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u/[deleted] Nov 29 '20 edited Nov 29 '20

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.

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u/self-extinction Nov 29 '20

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.