I've tried to find the answer so please be patient with me if it's in here somewhere and I missed it. I'm wondering just where food gets stuck. As I understand it, when we have restriction the food will stay in the upper small pouch longer. When we chew well enough and eat slowly we don't get stuck. So does that mean the food is passing easily into the lower part of the stomach and not getting stuck in the passage way? It's not susposed to go into the lower part for awhile. So what happens when it's stuck and the person has a PB? I've had surgery, 1 fill and no restriction. I just got thinking about this and can't figure out the answer.

PB occurs at the esophagus, not the stomach. I politely soft butt some virtual heads over whether or not it is puking. To me, puking = vomitting, and vomitting = purging the contents of the stomach. When you PB, there are no stomach contents: acid, partially digested foods, etc. It's basically whatever got stuck, and whatever you've swallowed since.

I don't vomit much, seriously twice in the last 25+ years, but I don't remember much pain or misery associated with it. Some nausea, and then you have at it. When I PB, it hurts. I mean - I have a high pain tolerance, very high comapred to most, and there are times where I can't help but double over or cry out in pain. I don't even mean to do it, it just happens. Especially when the pain of an impending PB is accompanied by the hiccups. That's the worst. The PBs themselves are nothing. You wretch like you're puking, and if you're lucky some saliva and/or particles of stuck food come up. Maybe you need to repeat, maybe not. Either way, it ends the pain, and that makes you happy. :wink2:

my hubby has bad acid reflux (he's not banded). If he goes without his meds he will actually get a restriction in his throat from the acid scarring it. He will have food get stuck in his throat and he has to "PB" or he can't even breath sometimes. Weird how the body works.

Picture a funnel. If you put a bite of not-well-chewed-chicken over the opening of the funnel it is going to pretty much block anything else from going through and will just stay there. If you put a well chewed piece of chicken over the opening it will slowly start going through. The food does stay there -for a while- but is always slowly going through. (like a stream, not a puddle!) That was not a dumb question and it helped me to think about it to answer you! Thanks