# Throwing up feces?



## Guest (Oct 20, 2000)

Well, I've got your attention, haven't I!?I have a friend who I think is exaggerating her IBS symptoms. She claims that she sometimes gets so constipated she throws up her own feces! Is this possible? Because I don't really believe her when she says this. I can't see how the bowel contents could possibly back up into the stomach to this extent. Also, if your poop were really backing up into your stomach, wouldn't that kill you??Any opinions on this...anyone?Lisa


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## enja (Jun 1, 2000)

whoaaa... my opinion is you've got a very bizarre and disturbed friend.


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## Guest (Oct 20, 2000)

Dear Lisa, if in fact your friend is throwing up feces, really needs to get checked out, could be an obstruction in her colon. Very important to have her get tested as soon as possible, something needs to be done right away.------------------Love to all.


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## Batty (May 20, 2000)

IS IT FECES? OR IS IT BLOOD?THEY SAY THAT THROWING UP COFFEE LOOKING GROUNDS IS A SIGN OF BLOOD IN THE VOMIT. MAYBE THIS IS WHAT SHE IS SEEING?OTHER THAN THAT I WOULD SAY SHE NEEDS TO SEE A DOCTOR NO MATTER WHAT!WEATHER THIS IS REAL OR MENTAL.I HOPE YOU CAN HELP HER!


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## Guest (Oct 20, 2000)

Yes! It is very possible to vomit your feces. This is a classic sign of an obstruction. Your friends needs to get medical attention immediately. There is probably a narrowing somewhere and she could be looking at surgery.


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## enja (Jun 1, 2000)

ok, i didn't mean for my post to be insensitive- but is this REALLY possible? i've never heard of anything even remotely like that and i've read about obstructions, etc. i guess it never hurts to get checked though, obviously something's going on...


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## BloatedLady (Aug 8, 2000)

I happen to know for sure that it is possible, it usually is a sign for a bowel obstruction. Your friend should see a doc urgently.


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## wanderingstar (Dec 1, 1999)

What a horrible thing to experience, I didn't realise it was possible. Sounds awful.


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## LALA (Oct 11, 1999)

I would have thought if you were throwing up poop there would really be a pain in your tummy. If she claims her only symptom is vomiting up feces, then it probably isnt. A bowel obstruction is very painful, and she would probably be in the ER before she got to the point of throwing up feces.


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## Auroraheart (Aug 8, 2000)

Does it look like black coffee grounds? If it does get her to the doctor...that is your stomach lining!


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## Guest (Oct 21, 2000)

Wow, I wasn't sure if that was possible. I remember doing that myself when I was in grade school, but it was so long ago and so bizarre that I thought it was just my imagination. The way I remember it, I had a bad stomach flu when it happened. Now I'm thinking it was a sign of what was to come. I've always had digestive problems since childhood. But ibs didn't really show itself 'till high school. Maybe I'm still imagining it, 'cause I can't believe I would experieced something so serious so casually. Weird. I agree with the rest, get it checked out.Brian


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## tezbear (Aug 11, 2000)

I think if she were actually throwing up feces, she would be very ill and in the hospital! That is what can happen to people w/ bowel obstructions and you are very ill if you have that. Maybe it just looks like feces to her or she's giving you a hard time.


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## Guest (Oct 21, 2000)

Thanks everyone, for your responses.My friend (actually she is more of a work acquaintance) is under a doctor's care, in fact she has several doctors and has had exploratory surgery, and no obstruction was found. The doctor's can't figure out why she is so constipated. I have to say she is the type of person who constantly complains, but I can't tell if she's just a pill or she's really having problems. She claims she has vomited her own feces MANY times over the past two years. I find this very hard to believe. She has told her doctors about this and they have run tests but have found nothing wrong with her bowel or her stomach. They think her problems are psychological at this point, and I'm beginning to wonder myself... It just seems really hard to believe GI tract contents could be continually backing up into her stomach! Also, she's overweight. I think if one were really that sick they'd be losing weight. My IBS C keeps me very thin, and I've never been so bad I've thrown up.Lisa


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## Mike NoLomotil (Jun 6, 2000)

Comment:In large bowel obstruction of any kind the ileaocaecal valve prevents colon contents from backing-up into the small intestine. This can only happen if the valve is dysfunctional. If it does occur with a non-patent valve, specific reflexes cause vomiting to occur, but it will be upper gastric contents and will not be fecal material. You would have to back it up about 20 feet, then the pyloric sphincter would have to be dysfunctional as well. I kind of think its unlikely and am glad to hear your friend is under close care to rule out other organic diseases which might be confusing her. After that...well...not my line of work.Have a CFDMNL______________ www.leapallergy.com


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## Guest (Oct 22, 2000)

Thanks for your response Mike. I think the doctors are justified in being skeptical of her claims, and probably for the reasons you laid out. She claims to have been throwing up this way for two years, and insists that it's feces and not anything else. And yet she shows no signs of appetite loss and has gained weight over the past two years, not lost weight. It's just so difficult when someone claims they are ill and you suspect they may just be seeking attention. I really didn't want to be unsympathetic, but I just felt very skeptical of what she was telling me. I think it's a very unconscionable thing when people exaggerate their illness. There are people who really have GI tract problems and legitimate complaints, and it makes it more difficult for those to be taken seriously.Lisa


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## Mike NoLomotil (Jun 6, 2000)

LISA:Yeah, unfortunately there can be those who cannot help themselves but to behave or delude in that fashion. On the other hand there could be an organic problem of vomiting which was (as said above) coffee-ground appearing when bleeding is involved but he docs would see that.Many years ago, before tha days that medicine became so litigious, and based upon how things were practiced (the 70's and 80's are not that far back) I would not be surprised if, for the good of the patient, the patient was put on a dietary-logging regimen to keep track of the reported vomiting times and freqeuncies. When the doc could point to it and say "Ok...here is when it is happening by your report...every day 3 hours after breakfast...". Then when the patient acknowledges the pattern then tell the patient "Good. So I am admitting you to the hospital now, and tomorrow 30 minutes before the cyclic vomiting is due we are going to put a nasogastric tube down and extract your stomach contents and get to the bottom of this". This is how some docs would "flush-out" a 'Munchie' (Munchausen Syndrome).We had a patient once who coughed-up blood at home all the time. She would bring in sputum samples for cyto with blood in them. NO cells, NO pathology, no infection, just blood in normal sputum. So they admitted her. Told her they needed to get a sputum sample in the morning. Tech came in at 9 am and the lady coughed up blood.Took her for bronchoscopy (patient made no objection) and slipped the scope in. I was there on the "Bronch Team" as the Respiratory Therapist. She had fresh blood in the carina and mainstem bronchi. Nothing lower down and no lesion.We looked at each other (me and the Pulmonary doc) and both thought the same thing at the same moment: A "Munchie"!Sent her to a Recovery Room to keep her out of her room. We went there with the nurses (at this point everybody was all excited to find out how this Munchie was doing it") and found hidden around the room (under mattress, in pillow case, etc)various supplies whereby she was obtaining the blood...from herself (plastic syringes and 25g needles like you could get at the drugstore if you were an insulin-dependent diabetic). She would stick herself (we found later she was very good at getting blood from obscure locaton you would never notice...like the politeals behind the knee) and then ASPIRATE IT (inhale deeply and shoot the blood down her throat while she inhaled)an COUGH IT BACK UP. She had amazing control of her carinal reflexes, apparently, and could shoot it down and hold it for w alittle while without coughing it right up!Also saw a "Munchausen-By-Proxy" once who acted out through her daughter. The poor kid had at least a DOZEN operations before they figured out mom was makeng her kid look sick to get the medical care. Kid went to foster home mom went to psych hospital.Sometimes people are sick and sometimes they are sick enought to fake sick. Neither one can help it.There is also a syndrome called Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome as well, and a person could (rarely) have that...it is usually kids...but it would not look like fecal material. Its closely associated with migraine. Anyway...Have a DFDMNL_____________ www.leapallergy.com [This message has been edited by Mike NoLomotil (edited 10-22-2000).]


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## Stef (May 2, 2000)

Throwing up feces is very improbable, but throwing up bile, is common with obstructions, strangulated or twisted intestines, or impaction.


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## Guest (Oct 23, 2000)

Mike, your posting about the patient who was deliberately making herself vomit blood was hair raising- Unreal!!!- How could anyone do that to themselves- really, really sick, what a shame-I will have to share this story with my sister who is a trauma nurse- she sees lots of things like this too- donnamaria


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