hayyyWhat's the longest time you've gone without food and/or water and how was it?
Mister NeonWent two days without food. It was pretty horrible and I slept more to cope.
I was on vacation in a foreign country and my wallet and phone were pickpocketed.
redparadiseSounds like a lovely vacation, how did you get yourself back up?
BellI had terrible stomach cramps one night. I was so sore that I didn’t eat after that for 4 days. It’s actually way easier than I would have thought, no real consequences.
Without food, just shy of 24 hours. Slept around 12 hours after almost pulling an all-nighter, then never got hungry enough to get out of my room until late in the night. Was groggy all day, didn’t feel hungry for several hours, then it nagged for another few hours until it gnawed at me and I couldn’t do anything without thinking about food. So I ate, surprisingly only took a normal-sized meal to satisfy the hunger.
I’ve gone without water or food for about 9 hours at a time on several occasions. Mostly just makes me lethargic at the end. But the most memorable time was when I went hiking with a friend for about 4 hours. It was the middle of summer on a trail in an arid climate and I realized I forgot to bring water about an hour in. Was very parched and heart racing by the end, but didn’t bother me too much. Then chugged about 3x 500 mL bottles as soon as I got back in the car.
Had ulcerative colitis. Went about a month on Gatorade and clear vegetable broth. Another month or two on TPN after surgery with very little to no veggie broth.
Went from 175 to 115. 0/10 would not recommend.
I hope you don’t. In my case nothing helped so I had my lower intestine removed. The made a facsimile with a section of small intestine and re-plumbed me. It was during that recovery period that I went on TPN to effectively reduce the usage of my digestive system.
TPN is Total Parenteral Nutrition. Basically it’s a large bag of glucose, lipids, vitamins and minerals that is fed through a PICC line (in you upper arm) directly above your heart for thorough dilution and distribution through your bloodstream. An external peristaltic pump doses it into you throughout the day. It’s a trip, albeit cumbersome. Oh, and it does spikeTF out of your blood sugars so you have to take insulin during the process, which sucks.
The surgery did, but it was a long recovery period. I think it was three months with a temporary colostomy bag while my intestine healed and then at least a year for my body to get used to the new setup. After about 5 years I noticed that I was closer to normal, or as normal as you can be after getting a j-pouch. But it’s better than going through continued episodes. I don’t think I would have survived more than a couple additional bouts. Plus living with UC really increases your risk of colorectal cancer. Fun stuff
I have UC too and was put in the hospital for 5 days on a broth diet. It was weird seeing how skinny my legs became.
Ha, oh man. When I finally got unplugged from everything, about two weeks later, I sorta sprinted up a small flight of stairs and felt every muscle in my legs tearing. It was a very strange and uncomfortable feeling. It probably hurt a lot but they had me on some gnarly painkillers. I did feel it the next day though when I got home. That was about 13 years ago. I hope they have better treatments for it now than surgery. It seemed like a better option than Remicade at the time. Oh well, what’s done is done. Basically back to normal after all this time.
Gordon CalhounGeez that’s insane. I knew UC was bad, but had no idea it could be that bad.
I have the other infamous IBD, but it’s not been anywhere near as bad as yours, and I still consider it quite bad.
Yeah, this was the fourth recurrence of it and by the time I went into the hospital I had lost nearly half of my blood or something. I think I needed four pints of blood iirc. I don’t remember exactly, I was near dead. Kinda sucked. After surgery and a year of healing I was able to regain the weight it and get back in shape. Haven’t had another issue with it since. Plus I don’t have a lower intestine, so no colon cancer! Silver lining and all.
Sounds like the J-pouch is also working out well, thank goodness. I’m sorry you went through that. Makes my own recent ordeal look like easy street in comparison.
TropicalDingdongThere was a period where I would fast every thursday into friday, 24 hours, but I allowed myself water. No real issues. Less impactful than a single beer or smoking some pot.
That being said I have huge respect for those keeping Ramadan.
84 hours without food (that’s 3 full days plus the extra night after). Didn’t feel too bad since after 24 hours my body gave up asking for food so I felt kind of lethargic but not hungry. I did it as a kind of personal challenge, probably ill-advised, but it wasn’t too bad for me. I still drank plenty of water throughout that time. I wasn’t even that hungry when I broke the fast, I just had a light salad, then I felt really hungry in the hours afterwards…
spittingimageFive days without food. I had a bout of gastritus (damage to the stomach lining) and never once felt hungry during that time. I was going about my normal routine and felt completely normal otherwise. Kinda surprised by that.
Without food, I think 2.5 days (somewhere around 2.5 days). Wasn’t bad, although I sometimes get dizzy when standing and it exacerbated to the point I was worried I might actually pass out (but I didn’t; just felt like a had a very low-grade fever for a couple minutes after?)
colonoscopy. I mistimed things I think and got home really late on the last day I was supposed to be able to eat and by that time it was too late. And I might not have eaten before work…
RebekahWSDTwo days without solid food because my stomach is stupid. I was hydrated the entire time though and drinking ginger ale occasionally.
I’ve gone three weeks and change without a single calorie of food. Not by choice - medical thing. Lost about 30 lbs give or take. Was hard to start eating again once I did. Lost additional weight beyond the 30. Went from fat to skinny. Took years to eat properly again. Now I’m fat again :)
Was interesting for many reasons.
No idea. I didn’t drink for three weeks either but I had an IV feed of saline. I think you die of thirst in a few short days.
Johnny_Arson [they/them]Yeah the general rule is about 3 weeks without food, roughly 3 days without water.
AzzuAbout 4 days without food or water*. I was pretty hungry on the 4th day.
*Had a vacuum tube in my stomach, so swallowed ice chips didn’t get to stay for the full ride. Hydration occurred via IV.
m0ntI fasted about 48 hours to experience a semi ascetic acid trip. Was a good time; had some incredible break throughs. Dived into a pool, and it felt like I was diving into a kaleidoscope of colors. Can’t recommend anyone experience it that way, nor would I say I’d do it that way again, but taking your mind and body through moderated extremes can be pretty profound; assuming you have people around you to make sure you’re not doing anything particularly stupid to hurt yourself or others.
MarmiteLover123 [comrade/them, any]Around a day and a half without any source of food, limited water and building my own shelter in the middle of nowhere. Would not recommend. I ended up eating a little bit of my flavoured chapstick, I was quite hungry and thirsty.
Kefla [she/her, they/them]I’ve done just shy of 2 weeks without food. I’ve never gone more than like 10 hours without water though.
BlueÆtheron the day to day I regularly do 12h during the day without food (almost every work day)
I’ve done a few 2 and 3 day fasts for various reasons
I’ve done 3 or so day stints when sick with rotavirus and when I fucked up my shoulder and waiting for surgery
All in all going with out food for 3 days is not too hard
About 15 years ago I got my first colonoscopy and back than the prep was just horrible.
You basically went without food the entire day before, while at the same time take these prep meds that made you shit every hour or so. Good lord it was horrible as hell. If memories serves I was allowed to drink the day before but nothing the day off.
You get dehydrated so fast and it wild how terrible that makes you feel. Add to that, the taking a shit contstantly and almost immediately you are not shitting, it is more like pissing out of your ass.
The prep you have to do now is not that intense and really isnt that big of a deal, comparatively,.
15 years ago is 2011 but you made it sound like 1911.
Besides all that, how would a doctor let you be dehydrated? If oral fluid is off the table, what stopped you from an intravenous one?
How much the process has changed in the last 15 years it may as well have been 1911.
Have you ever been put under a general anesthesia as part of an outpatient procedure?
You are always dehydrated when that starts.
I don’t think I’ve ever been fully anesthetic but I accompanied my relative for a stomach-scope a few years ago. It only involved emptying the stomach the day before and drinking a lot of water. I know the colon is a different organ but just wondering what is wrong with IV.
Having done that a year ago I can confirm the process is the same, essentially you bowels are emptied out with an extreme laxative then you are asked to not drink anything but small amounts of water.
In my case I was still running to the toilet a half hour before the procedure any time I drank anything.
Had to get a general anasthetic because I’d tried it while awakepreviously and the pain was to much and I couldn’t take it.
I do at least one 30-day juice fast and one 10-day water fast each year. As well as 3-5 day fasts every month I am not doing those.
Joanie Parker72 hours for food. It was a keto fast it was miserable.
I have ADHD, I forget to eat and drink on a regular basis. However I have no clue what my longest record is. LOL
I Cast FistWithout food, ~2 days, give or take.
I fast (no food) yearly, sometimes multiple times a year. I just finished a 6 day fast a couple weeks ago. It was amazing, one of the easiest fasts I’ve done, and I hiked every day, read a couple books and taught my book group about fasting and all of its benefits. I highly recommend EVERYONE fast for at least 5 days. It will change your life.
Three days, no food, no water. Nothing by mouth. Was in hospital, so I had an IV bag at least. And tons of dilaudid the whole time… it was quite the experience. They fixed me, though! Was in there for almost a week and a half tho. Getting to eat again was as awesome as the Dilaudid was.
I don’t wanna doxx myself for hospital reason, but let’s just say it was very uncommon and serious and I was apparently in significantly more pain than I thought I was. I’m never birthing a child, but multiple doctors told me it was worse than childbirth. Yayyyyy! Luckily I’m 99% better and it is not likely to happen again.
Dilaudid is morphene but MOREphene. Like, extra mega strong morphene. They gave me morphene at first and decided I could use something stronger. I did not complain!
Damn sounds scary. I hope I don’t get that whatever it is.
Any tips on how to avoid that?
Totally random! I wouldn’t worry about it—it’s very very rare, it’s not commonly terminal, and it generally never comes back. I’ve never met or heard of anyone else having it (which is why I don’t wanna go into detail, I’m sorry!) so there’s likely no chance you’ll ever have to worry.
But damn, was it hurty @w@ if my mind wasn’t already solidified about not birthing kids, it would be now hahaha
dandelionI kinda hate how quickly dilaudid fades, tho - but I have never had morphine to compare against, so 🤷♀️
but yeah, it’s annoying having to ask the nurse to administer another dose of dilaudid so frequently, I think I had to do it three times when waiting in post-op to be discharged, and even then it was only moderately helpful - maybe my doses were too low (I should go check the paperwork and see if I can figure out how much I took).
EDIT: I was given 0.5 mg each time, and I had to request another dose roughly once an hour (it was administered by IV) - so, I don’t know how that compares to your dose / experience … I think the max amount they would allow was 2 mg.
Ahh mine was every couple hours. I’m not sure the dosage but it was two tubes most times. They gave me one tube occasionally and then asked a bit later if I wanted the other. I think I only declined once, it hurt quiiiite a lot. There weren’t any times where it wore off before I could have another, so that’s nice! Also the hospital my partner drove me to, I got fucking LUCKY. They got my vitals immediately when I got there, I was in a room within 10 minutes, a CT scan in maybe a half hour, and the were like “yeah you’re gonna have to stay for… some time. We’ll get you a room upstairs as soon as we can, but that’s gonna be the tricky part.”
My partner and I start watching stuff together on my phone while we wait (thank you headphone audio mirroring!) and we get a HALF HOUR IN and they’re like “corner room opened, we’re gonna get you in there NOW before anything happens to it”
Big ol giant room for us both to be in, nice tables I can move around without getting up. Bathe room mega close, and almost every time I paged a nurse for pain meds they were there INSTANTLY. It was honestly the best hospital experience I could have hoped for. After a few days on Dilaudid they asked if I wanted to switch to oral oxy when I could eat more, and that lasted much longer (but the whole IV thing was so neat… I’ve done almost every drug but never touched opiates and I refuse to touch needles, so that was prolly (hopefully) a once in a lifetime experience for me)
By the time I got home, I didn’t even need the extra Oxys they gave me, but I had a lil fun with them after as a reward for my experience. I’ll for sure go to that hospital if I ever need to again.
I find opiates kinda boring tbh, and while they can be euphoric (sorta mixed for me) they can also make me feel sorta ill, so I don’t really like to take them.
When I was depressed, though, that was a dangerous drug because I had so little “happiness” and it felt like a special treat - so I could see it being very dangerous if I didn’t have other sources of happiness / mental well-being.
So glad you got that corner room and you had a good experience, that is such great luck and so heart-warming.
Also probably worth mentioning that recreational drug use of heroin is probably dosing more than the hospital is giving, if I had to guess - so stronger euphoria, but also stronger depressant effects, etc., so I’m not sure how accurate your hospital experience was to what recreational users are experiencing.
Ehhh I took a recreational dose of oxy and it felt sorta cool, but mostly weird and extremely itchy. I tried once more dialing down the dose, but that, too wasn’t super exciting. Not the chem for me, but it was interesting trying it. I didn’t get euphoric or ill, it just felt… different. Maybe if I had never rolled my tits off on X, I’d have considered it euphoria, but naaaaah.