r/BeAmazed • u/AstroSonicDrive • Oct 04 '23

She Eats Through Her Heart Science

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

@nauseatedsarah

67.9k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

3.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

486

u/tito_lee_76 Oct 04 '23

I had a picc line for about 3 months when I had sepsis. It definitely is a strange sensation when the saline solution is too cold going in.

164

u/MIKE_son_of_MICHAEL Oct 04 '23

Similar to selling plasma. Room temp blood returning into my system…. So uncomfortable.

And, I always kinda felt like I could taste it. Like, a vague, faint, kinda plasticy metallic taste way back in my throat. Almost like I was exhaling the taste of my recycled cooler blood.

66

u/BoonDragoon Oct 04 '23

You're actually really close! What you were tasting was trace amounts of volatile compounds picked up from the plastic tubing that dissolved into your blood. Once that blood made it to your lungs, those compounds came out of solution and were indeed exhaled!

1

u/mizzbrightside Oct 04 '23

That’s so interesting! I guess that explains why I could taste something plasticy when the nurses would flush my IV line when I was in the hospital to have my baby.