Does PBing hurt?

[katie78 0]

I've just been banded so I have no idea, but does it hurt? Will it come up right away? I thought I"ve read that someone said it took like two hours of feeling like crap for it to pass or come up? What if this happens at work or something? Can some of you give me your experiences?

[snowbird 2]

It hurts when something gets stuck. The actual pb itself is like a very mild vomiting for me. In fact, I can bring up the stuck food pretty much at will by bending over and pressing on my stomach. I try to avoid that, if possible, by going for a brisk walk, which often moves the stuck food along and relieves the problem..

I have never had anything stuck for more than a few minutes. My worst episode was when I was on a trip with relatives and ate something I should have known would give me problems. We were riding in a car and it was 30 minutes before I could do anything to relieve the stuck food.

[Wheetsin 714]

I've just been banded so I have no idea, but does it hurt? Will it come up right away? I thought I"ve read that someone said it took like two hours of feeling like crap for it to pass or come up? What if this happens at work or something? Can some of you give me your experiences?

I'm going to get technical on you, to make sure you understand what I'm talking about.

PBs themselves do not hurt. I count the "PB" as the actual act of the food being forcefully removed. The "yakking" - in other words. This doesn't hurt a bit, it's just bending over the sink while the stoma is cleared.

The process leading up to a PB hurts me very much. It begins with the pressure, pressure will intensify into discomfort. I will get a referred pain radiating around my bellybutton and eventually into my hips. Then I will begin to have what I'm guessing is the esophageal spasming, very painful, and I have a high pain tolerance. The pain will also radiate down the shoulderblade area of my spine. This and the spasming (they're probably one in the same) is the part that can double me over. Soon after comes the excess salivating ("sliming"), and a weird sensation at the back of my throat, and difficulty swallowing, like I have to force my body to do it. This is when I know it's time to clear the sink.

Timewise, the entire process can take... maybe an hour on average? Not sure. From when I know it's time to head to the kitchen, until I'm done, usually about 20 minutes. So I would break it into a few stages, let's say 2 to make it easy. 1) A mild to moderate discomfort until I get the spasm pain and sliming, and then 2) sliming, spasms that radiate to my spine, lots of sensation that I need to burp but can't, etc. -- complete discomfort/pain until I yak.

Sometimes I can speed this up by spitting the slime into the sink, which will trigger my gag reflex and from there I can do this deep/fast breathing kind of thing that seems to speed things up, but I get the best "clearing the stoma" results when I let things run their own course.

It has happened to me at work. In a car service en route to the airport. Restaurants. Shopping malls. Near miss on an airplane. You name it.

When it happens at work, for part 1) I will stay in my office and work as much as I can, or if it's a little more intense I will get up and walk around. When it's 2) and I know a yak is not only imminent but coming soon I will head to the bathroom and yak in a stall. We have 4 bathrooms to choose from so I can normally find an empty one. Once I couldn't, so I picked the one that's least crowded and yakked... then heard a mother tell her daughter "we have to go right now wash your hands later." She probably thought I was puking.

Edited April 28, 2008 by Wheetsin

[aubrie 6]

This is good information. I'm 5 months out and have not PBd yet. I have been stuck a few times and slimed a couple times but nothing ever came up. I walked around with my arms in the air. It took about 20 minutes to dislodge whatever was stuck, and I could acutually feel it pass on through. WEIRD sensation.

[TulipStar 2]

It's different for everyone, but I will share my personal experience with this.

The "PB" does not cause me any pain. The pain for me comes with the pressure in my chest when I realize that something is stuck. The only way to relieve the pain/pressure is to PB or wait it out, hoping it will go down.

PB is easy for me to do if I have to. Basically, I just bend over from the waist and it just comes up. I don't have to force it...it's ready.

For me the PB usually happens within 30 minutes of eating, but I have had 1 rare occurrence of it happening 1 hour after eating.

[Jachut 487]

Its uncomfortable but no, it doesnt hurt really.

I get stuck, start sliming, and it feels like you swallowed a golf ball. You have an urge to shift the mass stuck in your chest. For me, thats as far as it usually goes, I get up, walk around, jump up and down, spit in the toilet (lots of saliva) trying to shift it, and it can either clear at once, or take 20 minutes.

When I'm going to PB, I suddenly get a sharper pain in my actual stomach (but not a horrendous one) and my legs start to shake and I see black spots, lol. I know to leg it to the loo then becuase its going to come up. If my legs dont go weak, I can stand there for ever trying to make it come up and it wont.

[Teachlady 3]

It's different for everyone, but I will share my personal experience with this.

The "PB" does not cause me any pain. The pain for me comes with the pressure in my chest when I realize that something is stuck. The only way to relieve the pain/pressure is to PB or wait it out, hoping it will go down.

PB is easy for me to do if I have to. Basically, I just bend over from the waist and it just comes up. I don't have to force it...it's ready.

For me the PB usually happens within 30 minutes of eating, but I have had 1 rare occurrence of it happening 1 hour after eating.

Ditto for me to the letter. Last time I pb'd was just a few minutes ago. I decided to drink just after having a few bites of pork that became uncomfortable and up it all came just by bending over in the bathroom.

[Wheetsin 714]

Yeah, it's important to understand that our experiences are very individual. I PB once every few months (Feb was my last, and it was 2007 before that), some people PB weekly. It depends on restriction, eating behaviors, probably some luck, etc. So varied too are the ways we experience PBs.

E.g., some people have luck with clearing a stick by drinking pineapple juice, eating papaya enzyme, meat tenderizer, certain body positions, etc. I've tried the papaya and all it did was turn my PB orange. I've tried the pineapple juice and all it did was intensify the pain and maybe slightly speed up the process.

When a close call stick clears, for me it's usually a hiccup followed immediately by a burp. A hiccurp, if you will, and instant relief. On a few rarer occasions I've felt the stick clear, felt the "plop" as it moved through. Just a few times tho.

[ktygrr 0]

Just banded on 4/25, don't know this term. What is PBing?

[Wheetsin 714]

See, PBs spurred by drinking too soon are totally different for me. As I'm drinking, before any feelings have truly registered, I get this sort of wave over my body, it's an "oh shit" feeling, where I know something is wrong and I know something is going to hurt. Like when you stub your toe, but just feel weird for a split second before the pain kicks in. Then when it registers, it hurts. Much more than a PB from food. Usually happens much faster, too. *shrug* So basically, we can't tell you what yours will be like. We can only give you some suggestions as to what you might experience.

[Wheetsin 714]

Just banded on 4/25, don't know this term. What is PBing?

Getting rid of stuck food. Please see our FAQ section, you will find a thread called "abbreviations and what they mean" - that will answer this question in more detail, and most questions on our special lingo.

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