to go to a and e as I think I may have eaten some finely ground glass

[agentEgypt]

So last night when I was making my dinner I broke a glass. It was near to my grinder where I had some seasme seeds ready to grind. Thought it unlikely that any got in there and couldn't see / find any so cleared up the glass and then ground the seeds to sprinkle on my dinner. Was just me eating them. I felt I may have swallowed some glass in the finely ground seeds last night so didn't sleep to well and thought I felt something in my belly. I'm totally ocd about chemicals and traces of them and now I'm the same about broken glass.

I've just been eating my lunch with the seeds and also think my insides might be being ripped to shreads and about to die. No blood in my poo, I've got pains in my head, wrists and belly, although I'm 99% sure its all in my head.

I'm overreacting right?

Ground glass would do you absolutely no harm at all. It can't cut anything if it's ground and it would have cut your mouth had it not been ground. You are absolutely fine and the pains in your head, wrists and stomach are panic.
You'll be fine.

What has NHS direct said?

I'd be concerned too.

Yes, but telling you that won't help!

You will be fine. If the shards of glass were not visible to the eye when you ate the seeds then I very much doubt they are ripping your insides to shreds

I would probably ring 111, and see what they recommend.

Disclaimer - I am not a medic, but did do some research on this for a recent project.

The chances are you haven't eaten any - you would have noticed it when it was in the blender or when you were grinding up the seeds.
If you did swallow any and it was ground up small enough that you could have eaten it without noticing, then I doubt it would do you any damage as your gut would probably just process it as normal and pass it without any difficulty as it would with sand or similar should you accidentally eat that. Fragments that small probably wouldn't appear on an x-ray, so it's unlikely that a hospital would be able to do anything for you, HOWEVER, if you are worried and feel ill, then it's worth getting checked out even if it is just to alleviate the psychosomatic symptoms that are troubling you. Have you tried calling 111? They might be able to set your mind at ease.

Thanks so much dawn. I really ground them down so if there was any it won't be shards at all. I've tried crunching on the seeds and not gritty at all so don't even think there is any in there. Too many murder plots I'm getting paranoid about.

Thanks I might give NHS direct a call, although they do have a habit of panicking hypercondreacts like me.

NHS will probably tell you to go to A&E... You could always follow the advice for if you Swallow a pin-up eat a cotton wool sandwich! But really, if you didn't actively notice it when you were chewing then it's fine, the body deals with much worse stuff.

Yep they did just say go to a and e within 12 hours.

Tbh I did lie and said I had no symptoms, as I'm sure there wasn't any in it,

I ate the first lot 16 hours ago and no blood. Will see how I feel in a bit.

I would have thought that if the grinder had any glass in it, it would have made the most horrendous noise, and you would have had to stop it to see what was in there.

On the off chance it did manage to grind it up so small that you didn't even notice it when eating it (which would seem unlikely) if it didn't cause damage to your mouth or throat it's unlikely to cause damage to anything internal.

If it has caused scratches to your stomach or intestines (almost impossible) they will heal. If it had caused bad damage there you would know about it from the pain there. If your stomach gets damaged to the point of leaking, the pain is indescribable.

So overall, I think you are over reacting. But I can understand why you would feel this way, given your OCD. So after all that, if you are still worried, go to a&e.

Would it not just be like eating a mouthful of sand?

You'll be fine. The glass pieces would need to be relatively big to cut you, and you'd definitely noticed if you were chewing/swallowing pieces of the required size. Ground up glass is very unlikely to cause you any issues whatsoever.

There is a Snopes article on the use of ground glass as a weapon. Bottom line: it's not dangerous (i.e. useless).

Bit mystified that you ate the ground glass sesame seeds last night, then again for lunch today, then tried crunching more of the seeds to see if they had glass in! Leave them alone!

You'll be fine, by the way :)

What AyMamita said (though that reminds me of a school friend and her family who ate half a salami, froze the other half, got violent food poisoning, then a few weeks later defrosted the remainder, ate it and got violent food poisoning). You'll be fine if you ate it without noticing.

I would have thought the grinding process would have smoothed off any rough edges anyway so there wouldn't be any spiky bits to do any damage.

Think about how delicate the inside of your mouth is, if you managed to eat without any problems in your mouth your insides won't be shredded. It's unlikely there was any glass in there anyway. Anxiety is a bugger for causing physical symptoms which of course feels like confirmation of the imagined illness.

It's only like eating sand and all mine tried that as toddlers and survived.

Thanks again everyone, funnily enough my symptoms are going away as I worry less. That's exactly it snoz its such a bugger!

The reason I ate it twice is because I ground up a lot of seeds so didn't want to waste them all. I was 99% sure that no glass went in there so convinced myself it was fine and I really ground them up thinking it would become safe. At most a tiny fragment went in there and with the spoonfull of seeds hardly any glass could of got in there. Then I started googling as I remembered a story from hollyoaks a good 15 years ago.

Should I just bin the rest of the seeds?

Sadly I also ground up some herbs afterwards that I spent a lot of time picking and drying. I think my ocd will force me to bin these also.

In the nicest possible way... Nothing will 'make' you throw anything away. If you feel there's a danger of glass in there and you don't want to eat them then chuck them. If you don't and are happy to eat them then do.

Thanks iron, sadly I know they have to go.

Pretty annoyed at the wastage but hey ho my small intestine has not been ripped to shreads while I have a slow painful death lol

Are you getting help for your OCD? It does seem to be affecting your day to day life. If you are worrying yourself to the point of feeling symptoms and having to throw things away, life must be quite tiring. You know you have eaten items ground in the grinder without any ill effects, I assume you wiped out the grinder after grinding the seeds so the herbs went into a clean grinder and yet you are still worried.

This isn't really about glass, its about worry and anxiety. The fear of glass in your food is just a hook for your worry to hang on. If it wasn't that, it would be something else instead. I hope you are getting help to deal with the feelings that underpin your OCD.

Best of luck [flower]

oops

I smashed a glass inside a cupboard and thought I'd cleared it all up then when I got to the bottom of a cup of coffee I saw glimmering little pieces of glass!

My mind played tricks on my too however, a month or so later I'm (extremely) pleased to report that I'M ALIVE!

Hey, it's been 10 years since this thread, hopefully you're all alive and well still - I literally had the same scenario as OP and frantically googling. Also on the OCD side of things. Broke a glass on the counter while cooking dinner on the hob next to it. After reading your comments, I'm trying to be reassured that I won't die if I eat the dinner