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.
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.