My First Real PB

Do NOT read this if you are easily grossed out. Or if you are eating. Seriously. This will be very graphic. You have been warned.

So. In the midst of my wonderful trip to Boston to meet my adorable new nephew, something bad happened. It is politely referred to as a PB or "productive burp" but the ugly reality is...

I barfed. For the first time since surgery.

I previously had what I THOUGHT was a PB. Oh no, my friends. That was nothing. I just slimed a bit.

In some small way, I doubted my band doing its job as far as providing restriction. I knew I had gotten a bit "stuck-ish" before. Some food took a few minutes to go all the way down and it hurt a little. But nothing terrible or traumatic.

Not this time.

We were at my sister's house for dinner on Christmas night. We ordered Chinese food. I had a few bites of spicy chicken, some broccoli, nothing deep fried or out of the ordinary. I then took one bite of a vegetarian steamed dumpling. Uh oh. It wasn't going down. I put my fork down and
waited a few minutes. It wasn't going anywhere. The pain in my chest started coming in waves. I stood up and walked around. Didn't help.

All of a sudden, my mouth started watering and filling with slime, just like last time. I went into the bathroom and started spitting. And spitting. And spitting. My mouth kept filling with saliva.

Then the foam started. WTF was that?

I just wanted the pain in my chest to go away. As much as I hate vomiting, I was willing for it to go up or down at that point. I was coughing and trying desperately to get it to come up.

That motherfucking dumpling would not go in either direction.

I was practically in tears at that point and various people kept knocking on the bathroom door to see if I was ok. Scott even asked my sister if she had any syringes around (she is a doctor) in case I needed some fluid removed. (I would not have allowed that, of course.)

Then, all of a sudden, I hiccuped a few times and then barfed up a bunch of goop. Right after that, Scott knocked again to see how I was doing. I was better, but still feeling a little bad. My throat was hurting. I left the bathroom and rejoined the party, still feeling pretty miserable and
sore. I wouldn't hold the baby because I didn't want to puke on him if anything else came up.

After about 10 minutes, I thought I'd drink a little hot tea since I had heard that hot beverages can relax things if you're stuck. I took a few sips and then I ran to the bathroom and barfed again. The tiny, evil dumpling chunk came up and SWEET RELIEF, I felt immediately better, other than the sore throat.

A little while later I s-l-o-w-l-y sipped my tea and felt a ton better. I stuck with just warm liquids for the rest of the night. I was super hungry a few hours later and sipped the broth only from a cup of chicken noodle soup at the hotel.

I have been fine ever since. However, I will never, ever eat another steamed dumpling again.

Is there anything that can be done to get things moving if (goodness forbid) this ever happens again?