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

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

jbickers — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 05:33:10 -0800

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.

By: The Salaryman

The Salaryman — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 05:37:19 -0800

Hair=not food. People never cease to amaze...

By: scblackman

scblackman — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 05:49:01 -0800

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.

By: Elmore

Elmore — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 06:01:19 -0800

That is disgusting. Thanks.

By: strangeguitars

strangeguitars — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 06:02:52 -0800

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.

By: pyramid termite

pyramid termite — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 06:03:23 -0800

blondes may have more fun, but brunettes have more fiber

By: jokeefe

jokeefe — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 06:10:02 -0800

You don't want to click on that link. You just don't. Take it from me; I have lived the horror for you.

By: ColdChef

ColdChef — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 06:30:24 -0800

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

By: freakinloon

freakinloon — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 06:49:33 -0800

Thank god I saw this before I had breakfast. Looks like a hairy cow tongue.

By: KevinSkomsvold

KevinSkomsvold — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 06:59:57 -0800

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.

By: jtron

jtron — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 07:04:05 -0800

Bezoars~! I bet that's proof against LOTS of poison.

By: gomichild

gomichild — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 07:25:16 -0800

Hair raising!

By: yhbc

yhbc — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 07:37:12 -0800

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.

By: hojoki

hojoki — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 07:41:52 -0800

Have they checked for life signs in the hair ball? Did the girl have any contact with Robin Williams recently?

By: Rancid Badger

Rancid Badger — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 07:44:43 -0800

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.

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 08:03:12 -0800

Here is the hairball photo I took when I was on a tour of the Walter Reed Medical Museum in DC.

By: Anything

Anything — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 08:17:13 -0800

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?

By: slimepuppy

slimepuppy — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 08:25:39 -0800

Huh. I wish I could unsee that.

By: cjorgensen

cjorgensen — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 08:31:26 -0800

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.

By: psmealey

psmealey — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 08:32:10 -0800

No. Just... no.

By: phirleh

phirleh — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 08:51:08 -0800

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.

By: empath

empath — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 08:56:17 -0800

I want to somehow mark Rancid Badger's post, but 'favorite' doesn't seem to be the right word to use.

By: Civil_Disobedient

Civil_Disobedient — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 09:09:26 -0800

I hope this post isn't over the top, I tried to tone it down. Picture == 1,000 words. More pictures, less words. :)

By: jbickers

jbickers — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 09:34:41 -0800

Metafilter: I wish I could unsee that.

By: briank

briank — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 09:45:20 -0800

I'm showing this to my cat to give him something to shoot for.

By: flarbuse

flarbuse — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 09:56:52 -0800

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?

By: eustatic

eustatic — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 10:01:22 -0800

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.

By: puke & cry

puke & cry — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 11:14:26 -0800

I've always wondered if that pee thing actually worked or not.

By: Alvy Ampersand

Alvy Ampersand — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 11:15:51 -0800

Wow. It looks like a decapitated amputee beaver. Wow. *Slightly awed, very shamed*

By: eustatic

eustatic — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 11:45:34 -0800

puke and cry, it seemed to have worked on some of my study plots. but it was a very uncontrolled and unquantified study.

By: Rancid Badger

Rancid Badger — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 12:06:38 -0800

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.

By: Anything

Anything — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 12:12:08 -0800

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.

By: squalor

squalor — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 12:14:57 -0800

Rancid- the family didn't want the knife back, did they?

By: Anything

Anything — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 12:20:47 -0800

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.

By: Anything

Anything — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 12:26:19 -0800

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.

By: fermezporte

fermezporte — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 12:26:42 -0800

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...

By: dogrose

dogrose — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 12:28:29 -0800

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.)

By: Anything

Anything — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 12:32:54 -0800

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.

By: Anything

Anything — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 12:36:12 -0800

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.

By: kittens for breakfast

kittens for breakfast — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 12:41:43 -0800

Nasty as bezoars are, I'll bet she could make some scratch off hers if she found the right (eccentric) buyer.

By: Down10

Down10 — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 12:59:41 -0800

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

By: special-k

special-k — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 13:17:48 -0800

NSFL (lunch) tag next time, please.

By: Bort

Bort — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 16:13:50 -0800

World's largest tumor video

By: furtive

furtive — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 18:04:44 -0800

What about the video of the tumor that had a hair ball in it?

By: Pink Fuzzy Bunny

Pink Fuzzy Bunny — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 20:07:58 -0800

... tumor with hair ball and teeth.

By: pure_ecommerce

pure_ecommerce — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 04:32:38 -0800

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.

By: agregoli

agregoli — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 07:34:49 -0800

It's totally enhanced my knowledge of the world.

By: Marquise

Marquise — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 10:33:43 -0800

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.