Toilets? Well, I guess, but it’d probably rip up the washer something fierce.
puked in the sink many a time. Especially in a public place like the work bathroom, I would much prefer to toss my cookies in the sink. Do you really want to drive the bus in a public restroom?
The only time I’ve ever puked in the sink was with morning sickness, and my husband could not understand why, with the toilet only a few feet away, I chose the sink. He kept thinking that the sink would get stopped up (This happened less than 10 times, probably), but it never did. My thing was that, even though our toilet was clean, with that wonderful early pregnancy enhanced sense of smell I thought it smelled horrible, and just made me puke even more. At the sink, there was a chance that I could splash some cold water on my face and think about not puking, and it might not come up, but with the toilet, I didn’t have a chance.
Then, once, I couldn’t make it to the bathroom in time and ended up puking on the living room floor, and he suddenly quit bitching about the sink. =)
(And no, I didn’t make him clean it up, he wasn’t even home at the time, but I’m sure he weighed the benefits of a sink with a drain over a floor with carpet, and the fact that if he was home next time, he might end up cleaning it, and decided that the sink was infinitely preferable.)
Staring down the toilet makes me feel sick, that’s the trouble
I have to admit, when I’m pinwheeling I use the bathtub. The sink’s just a little too far away.
The worst bit is when the chunks catch in the drain, so you have to stick your finger in and start stirring quickly in order to get the bigger bits to go past the grille.
The “It’s morning and I’m brushing my teeth” vomit is some of the worst. I hate the texture of most toothpastes, which causes me to gag and heave. It’s to the point where I don’t eat before I brush my teeth. Just means I get a dry heave or at worst a bit of bile. If I do eat and then brush my teeth, its just nasty. And Cocoa-Krispies in reverse hurt.
I agree with all of these.
Just had this experience Saturday night. Drank way too much, tried to quell urge to puke by ramming lots of food down my throat, only to regret that poor choice at about 3:00 AM. Staying at friends house, not familiar with layout, not familiar with planet, tried to find bathroom but found the saving graces of the kitchen sink instead. Complete with warm water and a handy kitchen towel located nearby hanging from the stove.
All turned out well, in fact the sink was the only option. Found the toilet mysteriously clogged the next morning. I could not have dealt with that in my condition at 3:00 AM.
Well, after all that now I want to read “Vomiting in the Sink as written by someone else”…
toilet puking… comes with a mean splashback
who says you cant wash the sink out after?
I say I could. I’d scrub the hell out of it with Comet. But, there is the issue of the U-bend in the drain. Who says all of the chunks would pass through completely? And what about a particularly expressive vomiting session? Combine this with the traditional stopper (which inserts into the drain with a lever in the way), and you are looking at a very disgusting situation in the event of a clog, which is not impossible (a cite for this phenomenon can be found in this very thread). I mean, do you pee in your sink because you couldn’t reach the toilet? Certainly you don’t crap in it (and spare me if you do). Now, if you’ve just a bit of reflux or you’re brushing your teeth, that’s one thing. But for full-on vomiting (barring any mental anguish from sickness), I know for sure that I’m going for the toilet.
I’ve only used the sink when the toilet’s been inaccessible. Of course, I have used the floor on a couple of inebriated occasions.
I puked a fair amount when I was a little kid. I’d wake up in the middle of the night with a “tummy-ache” and go to the bathroom.
I always puked in the sink then. It wasn’t until I was grown up that I realized that the toilet was better for puking.
I tend to get nauseated pretty easily. I HATE feeling nauseated. I’d rather just throw up and get it over with. One plus about puking in the toilet is that the normal toilet kind of smell makes it easier to throw up and get rid of that sick feeling.
(and yes, I use “nauseated” (feeling nausea) instead of “nauseous” (causing nausea) to describe that sick feeling in the tum-tum. Archergal’s Pet Peeve #42)
Once I puked in the sick during very a bad cramp-a-thon. My reasons:
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The stuff was rising like piping hot lava and I didn’t have a whole lot of time to park myself in front of the toilet.
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The thought of my face being misted with icky toilet water back-splash made me even more nauseous.
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The thought of seeing tossed stomach contents swimming in toilet water added nausea on top of my nausea. I could just see myself getting trapped in a vicious positive feedback loop of vomiting. Help, I can’t stop vomiting because the vomit is making me vomit!
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I didn’t feel like getting on my knees.
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At least at the sink, I could let the water run, not only letting me hear something other than my own self barfing, but also nicely rinsing away the vomit as it filled the basin.
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I was too sick to care about any silly elbow pipe!
An acquaintance of mine once felt the urge whilst dining at Taco Bell. He calmly reached for the plastic tray, filled it to the rim, carried it over and set it on top of the garbages and got the hell out of there.
There should be some kind of a reward for that.
I was just reminded of two scenes on a couple of TV movies that depicted vomiting in the sink. Public restroom sinks, at that. I just remembered, as well, seeing the handicapped sink in my high school restroom that had –yechh– evidence of such an occurence. The drain was one of the kind with ten or so holes in it, so there was no chance of easy clean-up.
Unfortunately, I guess this practice is more common than I thought.
I’m glad that I don’t eat off of those trays.
I would assume that a good dose of Liquid-Plumr or other such drain unclogger would do the trick. After all, as we know all too well, it’s organic matter.
Believe it or not, and I’m sure you will, this being the SDMB, and all, my ex-roommate and I actually had a debate about whether it is better to vomit in the sink or the toilet.
He maintained that the toilet was a disgusting bacteria ridden environment and would rather not go near there.
He had a lot of other points too, but this was his main one.
I tried to tell him that if he puts his butt on the toilet, why not his hands? And that a sink has just as much potential to be bacteria-ridden as a toilet.
I also gained some ground by pointing out that the water in the toilet dilutes the vomit, making it somewhat less difficult to look at (between the tears that often accompany vomitting). He tried to play the “wash the puke down the tap” card, but I simply reminded him of the last time he puked his birthday cake (red and blue icing from the Superman cake on his 25th birthday) in the bathroom sink and ran the water, the water only washed down what was right over the drain.
Oh, and yes…splash back occurs in a sink. I swear I was cleaning blue out of that bathroom for weeks. sigh
So yes, sink-vomitting, as it were, is practiced, and quite widely it appears. HOWEVER, that doesn’t make it right.
You have a point there. It would be a pain in the ass, however, for me at least. So would scrubbing the hell out of the sink with Comet, though. And, I’d like the freedom to put my head in the sink or use it as a wash-basin (if I so needed to) without having to worry about anything too, er, biological happening there.
[hijack]
Oh, Harli, I read that thing about your cat and the harmonica. 
I feel your pain, though. My cat used to get a little close to the practice pad, I just remembered. It wasn’t very good for my technique, having to avoid his snout.
[/hijack]
I’ve ralphed into the sink a time or two, but out of necessity not choice. With both ends busy one is not normally concerned where, or into what, one is chucking.