You didn't really want to eat today, did you?

November 23, 2007 5:33 AM

Doctors remove a ten-pound hairball from an 18-year-old girl's stomach. It's still not the world's largest - that one came from a cow and weighed 20 pounds. And this homemade one doesn't count.
posted by jbickers (47 comments total)

Hair=not food. People never cease to amaze...
posted by The Salaryman at 5:37 AM on November 23, 2007

Trichotillomania = can't help oneself (some compulsive hair-pullers also feel compelled to eat their pulled hair). It's actually very sad. My brother compulsively pulled out all of his eyebrows and eyelashes and ended up looking like Bob Geldof in The Wall.
posted by scblackman at 5:49 AM on November 23, 2007

That is disgusting. Thanks.
posted by Elmore at 6:01 AM on November 23, 2007 [1 favorite]

It's gotta be the biggest one found in a human.

Let's all give thanks that this wasn't posted a day or two earlier.
posted by strangeguitars at 6:02 AM on November 23, 2007

blondes may have more fun, but brunettes have more fiber
posted by pyramid termite at 6:03 AM on November 23, 2007 [8 favorites]

You don't want to click on that link. You just don't. Take it from me; I have lived the horror for you.
posted by jokeefe at 6:10 AM on November 23, 2007 [1 favorite]

The worst part about this: it's pubic hair.
posted by ColdChef at 6:30 AM on November 23, 2007 [5 favorites]

Thank god I saw this before I had breakfast. Looks like a hairy cow tongue.
posted by freakinloon at 6:49 AM on November 23, 2007

I can hide my weed in it!

Seriously, some numbskull brought this up at the Thanksgiving table last night. I had seen the pic earlier in the day on CNN.com and was just starting to wipe that image from my memory bank. I couldn't touch the stuffing or sweet potatoes.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 6:59 AM on November 23, 2007

Bezoars~! I bet that's proof against LOTS of poison.
posted by jtron at 7:04 AM on November 23, 2007 [1 favorite]

Hair raising!
posted by gomichild at 7:25 AM on November 23, 2007

Oh good, there's a picture of it. Of course there's a picture of it. I knew there would be a picture of it, but I looked anyway.
posted by yhbc at 7:37 AM on November 23, 2007

Have they checked for life signs in the hair ball?
Did the girl have any contact with Robin Williams recently?
posted by hojoki at 7:41 AM on November 23, 2007

We found one in the service. Scrubbed a case with a 14-15 yo girl. Thinking went that she an an emergency appendectomy as her stomach was hard as a rock. When they opened her up they felt her stomach and said it was cancer. When they opened her up they started yelling "It's a bezaor, it's a bezaor, call the photographer!" it was if they had found treasure. Filled an emesis basin maybe 8-12" ; brown/black, and a perfect cast of the stomach. Saw a lot of shot glasses up the rectum that they had to fish out, or a coke bottle, but even scarier was a light bulb; WTF. Wedding bands around penises that had swollen so much they couldn't get it off and came to the ER to get cut off with a ring cutter. A lost tampex pulled would empty a room. Rugby player with a tooth in his shin, he was puzzled that the wound would not close. Another time saw an old man get his penis amputated because of cancer. At Yale saw a man doa with a carving knife dead in his chest that had been put there by a family member at the Thanksgiving table. Not so weird, except that some of the family came to see the body and as the pathologist hadn't done the autopsy the knife was still there. The family members had been there when it happened and still wanted to see him again. Worse was a rectal abscess I&D; I vomited and passed out on that one. Really exotic was a guy out past the wire in his LP, foxhole. He came in with a totally mauled shoulder. A tiger had snuck up and tried to pull him out of the hole. His buddy emptied his rifle and scared it off but was so freaked out that he was evaced back to Japan. That case made the journal. People are strange and when thing get strange, the strange turn pro. I hope this post isn't over the top, I tried to tone it down.
posted by Rancid Badger at 7:44 AM on November 23, 2007 [27 favorites]

Here is the hairball photo I took when I was on a tour of the Walter Reed Medical Museum in DC.
posted by jessamyn at 8:03 AM on November 23, 2007

From the barber link (my emphasis): "Years ago a customer asked barber Henry Coffer to save the hair he swept up from his shop floor. The man, a farmer, spread it around his watermelon patch to keep coyotes out."

How does that work?
posted by Anything at 8:17 AM on November 23, 2007

Huh. I wish I could unsee that.
posted by slimepuppy at 8:25 AM on November 23, 2007

I think these links pretty much disprove Intelligent Design. Or at least if there is a prime mover, he's not all knowing. I can't imagine any deity putting the Universe in motion with this as the end product in his master plan.
posted by cjorgensen at 8:31 AM on November 23, 2007

No. Just... no.
posted by psmealey at 8:32 AM on November 23, 2007

It just goes to show that its not the amount of fat in hair but the portion size that's slowly killing us. I was in McDonald's just the other day and they offered to supersize my order of hair for just 30 cents. Its just sickening.

BTW - Anything my aunt used to put barber hair in her garden to keep the critters out.
posted by phirleh at 8:51 AM on November 23, 2007 [2 favorites]

I want to somehow mark Rancid Badger's post, but 'favorite' doesn't seem to be the right word to use.
posted by empath at 8:56 AM on November 23, 2007 [2 favorites]

I hope this post isn't over the top, I tried to tone it down.

Picture == 1,000 words. More pictures, less words. :)
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 9:09 AM on November 23, 2007

Metafilter: I wish I could unsee that.
posted by jbickers at 9:34 AM on November 23, 2007

I'm showing this to my cat to give him something to shoot for.
posted by briank at 9:45 AM on November 23, 2007 [4 favorites]

She lost forty pounds in five months, and then she had the ten pound object removed.

Prepare yourselves for the latest diet craze among teenage girls. People already smoke and do coke and meth to help themselves lose weight. Why not eat some hair?
posted by flarbuse at 9:56 AM on November 23, 2007

eating hair for years, 5 months and 40 pounds until she complained enough to go to the doctor..

complaining for 5 months!!! 5 months, that's almost a birth.

From the barber link (my emphasis): "Years ago a customer asked barber Henry Coffer to save the hair he swept up from his shop floor. The man, a farmer, spread it around his watermelon patch to keep coyotes out."

How does that work?

coyotes, like other dogs, have a strong sense of smell. they avoid humans. the human smell in the hair keeps them away, or at least wary. this works for deer as well.

an alternative is to pee around your patch/garden regularly. as long as you are well-hydrated, the nitrogen shouldn't burn the plants and the smell will help keep the animals from being too brave.
posted by eustatic at 10:01 AM on November 23, 2007

I've always wondered if that pee thing actually worked or not.
posted by puke & cry at 11:14 AM on November 23, 2007

Wow. It looks like a decapitated amputee beaver. Wow.

*Slightly awed, very shamed*
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 11:15 AM on November 23, 2007

puke and cry, it seemed to have worked on some of my study plots. but it was a very uncontrolled and unquantified study.
posted by eustatic at 11:45 AM on November 23, 2007

Empath- That was funny, I really liked it and marked yours as a fav. I wonder if finger nails are the same problem as hair and wouldn't a good case of stomach flu throw it all up. My cat did the barf herky jerky until I started greasing the her with a malted hairball remedy...nothing is quite so disconcerting as stepping on a cold hair ball first thing in the morning.
posted by Rancid Badger at 12:06 PM on November 23, 2007

ColdChef: The worst part about this: it's pubic hair.

You know, I can't tell if you're kidding or not. I couldn't find any other sources, and not being an expert in visual classification of stomach-fluid soaked hair, I don't even know if the photo is detailed enough to make the difference, but with my limited understanding of the matter, I certainly cannot rule out the proposition that the hair in question is, indeed, of the pubic kind.

You leave me slightly disturbed.
posted by Anything at 12:12 PM on November 23, 2007

Rancid- the family didn't want the knife back, did they?
posted by squalor at 12:14 PM on November 23, 2007

puke & cry: I've always wondered if that pee thing actually worked or not.

Whether it works or not, there's no loss in running around your garden, peeing.
posted by Anything at 12:20 PM on November 23, 2007

By the way, if you put a pair of glass eyes and a set of chattering teeth on that thing, it would look very awesome.
posted by Anything at 12:26 PM on November 23, 2007 [1 favorite]

think these links pretty much disprove Intelligent Design. Or at least if there is a prime mover, he's not all knowing. I can't imagine any deity putting the Universe in motion with this as the end product in his master plan.

Wait, how? I mean, plenty of things disprove Intelligent Design, but this one could be easily explained away by declaring hair-eating a sin.

I do love me some wacky medical story posts though...
posted by fermezporte at 12:26 PM on November 23, 2007

Rancid B., it wasn't until the first penis reference that I figured out the "shot glasses up the rectum," etc., didn't refer to the same poor 15-year-old girl. (I blame the tryptophan. And the leftover stuffing and gravy. And the pie.)
posted by dogrose at 12:28 PM on November 23, 2007

By the way, a similar thing happened to my great-great-great-grandfather in the early years of the Finnish prohibition laws; only it didn't happen over a long period of time: he had passed out on his clandestine hooch, and swallowed and bitten of his beard, whole.
posted by Anything at 12:32 PM on November 23, 2007

Thank God he had such a large belly, or it wouldn't have fit. He'd have had to shit rope for the next week.
posted by Anything at 12:36 PM on November 23, 2007

Nasty as bezoars are, I'll bet she could make some scratch off hers if she found the right (eccentric) buyer.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 12:41 PM on November 23, 2007

That's gross, but it's still not as bad as the world's largest tumor, as seen in 1998 on the network television series Guinness World Records, which remains the single most disgusting thing I have ever seen, including everything on the Internet.
(Sadly, no clips have yet been found
posted by Down10 at 12:59 PM on November 23, 2007

NSFL (lunch) tag next time, please.
posted by special-k at 1:17 PM on November 23, 2007

World's largest tumor video
posted by Bort at 4:13 PM on November 23, 2007 [1 favorite]

What about the video of the tumor that had a hair ball in it?
posted by furtive at 6:04 PM on November 23, 2007

... tumor with hair ball and teeth.
posted by Pink Fuzzy Bunny at 8:07 PM on November 23, 2007

Why as a society do we consider this story news worthy. It's actually pretty gross and in no way shape or form enhanced my knowledge of the world.
posted by pure_ecommerce at 4:32 AM on November 24, 2007

It's totally enhanced my knowledge of the world.
posted by agregoli at 7:34 AM on November 26, 2007

Well, damn. I thought humans getting hairballs was something akin to the little girl from a nearby city putting her eye out while running with a stick, or the kid who cracked their skull leaning back in their chair. Now I have to determine what else my mother told me was true.
posted by Marquise at 10:33 AM on November 26, 2007