About vomiting in public

[Beingsickoutside]

If you are unwell and need to be sick and this comes on you quite suddenly, what’s the equitette? Is there one?

It seems really horrible to leave a puddle of vomit on a road or car park but what else can you do, realistically?

I've only ever done it once. I was pregnant and in the middle of bank station waiting for a tube at 8am - I grabbed a copy of The Metro and threw up in that

As I can be sick sometimes I carry a special sick bag which has a pad in it to absorb and draw string. My mum doesn’t have any sickness problems but after her friend vomited into her handbag during a theatre show my mum now carries one of the sick bags too incase anyone around her needs it!

A drain, the gutter?

Anyone who thinks there’s anything gross or tmi about this thread needs to start one about being caught short with eruptions at the other end. When you’ve had that happen on the way to work, anything regarding a vaguely lady-like puke into a footpath drain seems very small stuff.

I do recall pulling over a car I was driving to hurl into a rubbish bin in my early 20’s. A business man walking past said ‘Neatly done’ with an impressed tone. I was quite chuffed with his approval, I must say!

Ever since I always travel with one of those ‘emesis bags’. In a pinch I think there’s no horrid digestive issue it wouldn’t solve, it you get my drift.

Always keep a plastic bag and wipes in my handbag! After DS once threw up in a supermarket and I had nothing with me, I try to be somewhat prepared now.

I work as part of the street cleansing team in my area. We would much prefer people to throw up on the path than in a bush/grass. It's so much easier to clean off the path, we have machines that clean it up quickly and can properly wash the pavement after. Grass/bushes/bins are much harder to clean!

My friend threw up on the big wheel at a fair many moons ago. There were people down below shaking their fists at the sky and we had to run off pretty sharpish when the ride stopped...

Urrrrgh... nightmare. I'm emetophobic - haven't thrown up for 40 years now. I'm terrified that I wouldn't know what was about to happen and would panic.

@NewlyGranny

If you are a person who never vomits, the symptoms can go unrecognised. DD2 was at work one Monday morning at the photocopier with a queue of teachers behind her when she suddenly felt faint and ghastly, grabbed the machine for support and vommed over it. 🤦🏼‍♀️

It was the sole photocopier in the place. They didn't even replace it, just had it cleaned...

Why on earth would they replace a photocopier just because of some vomit?

I carry a sick bag with me or some kind of plastic bag at all times, and for car journeys there is a basin in the car, for planes a traveljohn which has absorbent gel (haven't needed to use it thankfully but it sounds like the thing someone mentioned being given by the hospital when they had HG).

If you're prone to vomiting I think it's only fair to have some kind of receptacle. I was a regular vommer when I was younger and can do it really quietly. Touch wood it seems to be improving with age.

I became very ill at the end of my shift once & just knew I wouldn't get home unscathed. I'd been on the bus less than 5min and had to throw up in my hat twice. I had to cradle that bennie for another 30min until I got off the bus.

Embarrassingly have done this before. Heavily pregnant and in the middle of a heatwave. I managed to do it at the side of the road by a drain a lovely woman gave me a bottle of water, I used the rest to try and wash it away. I would always try to aim for a drain etc. It is one of them things (unless drink/drug induced) that cant be helped tbh.

I’ve ruined a handbag throwing up in it before. Better than all over my shoes and all over the floor, I suppose...

I think do what you can but also sometimes it comes without warning and there’s nothing you can do! I remember I once had awful morning sickness on the train to work and felt horribly nauseated. In the end I jumped off the train two stops early and threw up all over the platform. I was so embarrassed and apologised to the member of staff who witnessed it and radioed the office.

I think most people understand that sometimes it happens with the best intentions in the world. I suppose it’s better happening outside than inside!

@Silvercatowner

Urrrrgh... nightmare. I'm emetophobic - haven't thrown up for 40 years now. I'm terrified that I wouldn't know what was about to happen and would panic.

Same, this thread alone fills me with anxiety, if I feel the slightest bit unwell I wouldn’t be out walking around town. I think it’s pretty rare for people to puke whilst in a public place unless drunk or unless they are a child. If it did ever happen to me then I would be heading towards a bush or a bin, can’t think of anything worse than being sick in a pavement or town centre. For quite a while I was unable to go to certain places due to my phobia and drunk people puking in public places.

We would much prefer people to throw up on the path

I can see it's easier to clean up, but surely it is not of a slip hazard, hygiene hazard etc on the path?

More of

Also been sick indoors and disgustingly tried to catch it. Dunno wtf I was thinking.

Never usually sick but once when walking across Victoria coach station, three year old daughter in tow, I suddenly and unexpectedly vomited. I just carried on walking to our coach and of course had to look out of the window at where it had happened once we were off.

I needn't have worried - there was a small but happy group of feral pigeons busy clearing things away.

I think I must have kept passing out during that journey because at the end a lady leant forward from the seat behind me and said kindly 'I've been looking after your little girl for you because you've obviously been unwell'. I never did find out what had been wrong with me but haven't forgotten that woman's kindness.

When my dd was about 6 we were at McDonald's when she started to feel sick. Took her into toilets which were very crowded. We waited as close to the loo door as possible but there were a large group of people in the way. When a loo became available there was another little girl standing between my dd and the loo it was clear that she didn't need the loo but thought it was funny to block my dd's way, she could see my dd was pretty desperate but she just stuck her nose up and turned her back on my dd and deliberately stood in her way. My dd threw up all over her hair. I felt terrible but there was nothing i could do. Someone in the group went and got her mum who came in and said that they were going to the Theater. In the end i just left so I don't know what they did about it. I bet she wasn't so unkind to anyone else again.

@Silvercatowner

Urrrrgh... nightmare. I'm emetophobic - haven't thrown up for 40 years now. I'm terrified that I wouldn't know what was about to happen and would panic.

Same here *@Silvercatowner* The associated anxiety is just awful.

I was thinking I've never been sick outside in public, but reading this thread reminded me that I actually have. Outside a chinese restaurant in Scarborough. It came over me so fast I just leaned over some roadwork barriers and threw up down a very deep hole.

Am a champion chucker... in my childhood it was car sickness (and still would be but no one fights me for the front seat these days!), in my teens it was alchol related and now its disability/drug related.

My top tips... if you don't know what to watch for... extra salivation and then the 'stomach drop' that means I am going to spew for sure, within seconds to maybe a minute. Feeling sick, I can do that for hours and be sure I won't be sick but the salivation plus stomach drop is a guarantee! Unfortunately for me that can happen when I don't actually feel sick!

Lean forward, ideally over a toilet bowl but over a fence, wall, bin... it all comes out far easier if you do.

Don't fight it, thats how it comes out of your nose, and its all over much faster if you don't fight it.

Carry puke bags if you do it a lot or worry about it, they aren't very big and fit in a handbag or big coat pocket when empty.

In very sicky times I have been known to seriously consider what i eat in terms of how bad it will be coming back up!

DH and his mate were driving to footy with his mate's 7 years son who vomited in the car and covered himself in it. Fortunately they had a change of clothes as he was known for it.

What people driving past thought of two burly blokes tending to a young boy just in his pants on the hard shoulder, I can only imagine...

Happened me once during my university days. Was walking down the street in the middle of the day with a friend when I absolutely had to throw up. I aimed for a drain. An old lady walking by muttered "disgraceful" and I'm pretty sure she thought I was drunk, but I definitely wasn't. I had some kind of 24 hour bug. Was mortified though.

My top tips... if you don't know what to watch for... extra salivation and then the 'stomach drop' that means I am going to spew for sure, within seconds to maybe a minute. Feeling sick, I can do that for hours and be sure I won't be sick but the salivation plus stomach drop is a guarantee! Unfortunately for me that can happen when I don't actually feel sick!

Also a sudden cold sweat.