what is the difference between pb (burping up a portion of one's food) and all out vomitting?

It's all about the SLIME!

The difference is basically that a PB has no stomach acid in it. You are bringing up the food that was above the band, not what's below it. And then of course vomiting is what it always was.

Hope this helps!

Oh, and SLIMING is something different altogether, lol. It kind of happens when your food is stuck, but you don't PB the food up, just all of the extra saliva that built up trying to 'lube' the stuck item down. Someone once likened it to barfing up a jelly fish, lol. It's not too far off the mark!

does it help to drink something when a slime occurs?

I suggest you DON'T drink anything as this makes things worse....

by all means, do not drink anything. Leatha made a wonderful point to me regarding drinking with a PB. http://www.lapbandtalk.com/showthread.php?t=18343&highlight=what%27s+the+deal+with+chicken

Water makes it way worse! I did this once and PBed all the way to church one evening. Pull over open car door spit slime, pull over open car door spit slime with tuna, pull over open car door spit slime with tuna, pull over open car door spit slime with tuna...not a pretty sight!

I also have to say that drinking will make it worse. The slime is there because the body is creating extra saliva to try and push whatever it is down... and it's not going down. Drinking on top of that only adds to what's already there, and backs it up into your throat, and then your body decides it has to be rid of it RIGHT NOW!!

I highly don't recommend trying this. It *does* feel like you could "wash it down", but you really can't.

Maryb, I can so relate to your incident. Last night I ordered a jr burger at Sonic which is usually not a problem for me, but I was hungry and ate it too fast. After eating about 1/3 of the thing, I got a BAD case of slime. I was driving and pulled over......multiple times. Got rid of an unbelievable amount of slime. Thought I was done, drove a little farther, took a sip of tea to help clear my throat. WRONG THING TO DO. I nearly ran into an 18-wheeler before I could pull over. Without going into any further gross detail, let's just say I had to pull in to the next fast food place and clean up. Whew, I've had a hard time holding anything down today, so I guess I really made my band mad! I'm going to take it easy for the next couple of days.

As a newbie, I too wondered what was this "PB" and "slime" everyone talked about. I guess you have to experience it (unfortunately) before you fully understand it. It's one of those things you don't wish on your worst enemy........or maybe you do.