Thursday, December 29, 2011

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?

9 comments:

A.J. said...

I think PB remedies are as unique to the individual as everything else band related. My hubs can drink liquids when stuck and it usually clears through for him. However, for me, liquids are a no go for me when stuck ( they just sit there a percolate, very uncomfortably, I might add ) Sometimes standing up helps and sometimes bending over helps ( learned that one when I accidentally PB'd after I had taken a bite off food then bent over quickly to pick something up -- wasn't even really stuck either.) I think that hot liquids were a wise choice but they tend to be more effective after the first wave of progress. Oh and I almost forgot--- congrats on making it this far without a PB.

greenie said...

Wow. You made it a long time w no pb... Good for you. Sounds awful. That's my biggest fear. Do you think you just didn't chew it well enough or was it just too doughy?

adorkbl said...

The only thing that relieves me... is to make it come up. I have tried hot tea... walking around... pinwheeling my arms... anything and everything. Honestly, I just make it happen now. I just go to the bathroom and bend over and it usually comes up on it's own.

I rarely get stuck. I am pretty careful. But once and awhile something doesn't get chewed enough and it will absolutely NOT move. It is a miserable experience.

My first true PB was on a hot dog and I said the same thing... I will never eat a hot dog again. Well... like any pain... you soon forget. ;)

Sorry you had a bad experience on Christmas.

Lap Band Gal said...

Yikes! :-(

vickyd said...

I rarely get stuck but I have had one episode like yours with steak and after trying everything I could think of (hot tea, pineapple juice, papaya enzyme) with no relief I finally got to a place where I wasn't in pain but was still stuck and I quit trying to get the steak to come up (with the plan that if I was still stuck in the morning I would call the doctor). Luckily, I felt better in the morning so for that episode the only thing that helped was time.

Theresa said...

It always takes me 3 times to get the offending particle unstuck. I have found that if it's not coming up, I drink a glass of water, it hurts like hell and then when it comes up, so does the offender. Gross, but it works.

Rahshell said...

I totally agree with AJ, the unique experience is so true! when I get stuck and walking doesn't work, I drink. I know nothing else is going down so it's just enough to put me over the edge and gets everything out.

Andrea said...

I feel your pain! I got stuck on a dumping before and it was awful! Sorry you had to experience that!

Rhonda said...

Ugh. I JUST got stuck on pizza. I didn't actually barf it up... yet. But it needs to either come or go. Maybe warm tea will be the trick for me.

Yep, warmed up pizza at 8:30 am. What's wrong with me?!

Happy New Year!! :)