Thinning Out Your Physical Library?
If you have books or periodicals about drugs, contribute them to Erowid!
Your old books will find a good home in our library or for a supporter. [details]
Yellow Vomit
Caffeine
Citation:   Close to Modern. "Yellow Vomit: An Experience with Caffeine (exp39169)". Erowid.org. May 10, 2007. erowid.org/exp/39169

 
DOSE:
T+ 0:00
400 mg oral Caffeine (pill / tablet)
  T+ 1:00 400 mg oral Caffeine (pill / tablet)
  T+ 4:00 1000 mg oral Caffeine (pill / tablet)
BODY WEIGHT: 135 lb
Ironically my worst drug experience ever came from something perfectly legal that nearly everyone takes for granted. I work in a coffee shop, and though I don't usually drink coffee at all, I guess I was so used to being around it that the caffeine had ceased to seem like a drug at all to me.

So one weekend, a good friend and I, being all out of pot, which has always been pretty benevolent in all me experiences, were bored and looking for a buzz. We found this in a box of Vivarin caffeine tablets. Two bored teenegers on the weekend, we decided to start small with just a couple pills hoping it would add an amusing glow to our boredom. Wrong move. It all started when I called him up to see if he wanted to drive into Hollywood and look for something to do. I went to go pick him up, after downing two of the pills from a 16-pill box of 200mg caffeine tablets.

Driving to his place, I felt a sort of optimism about the day ahead, most likely just a placebo effect. When I got to his house, he took two as well and we drove to Hollywood which is about ten minutes from his house. I think at this point I also had two more as it had been a good hour since I took mine and I wasn't feeling anything. He drove around aimlessly for probabably about a couple of hours, I think we were looking for somewhere to shop for clothes but we were just bored and restless. Somewhere in that time, I remember my friend taking a couple more, and an hour later he said he was feeling a pretty strong buzz. I wasn't, so I figured the pills were weak or I had some weird tolerance, so I took five of the pills and my friend finished the remaining three.

We eventually ended up at Jet Rag, a store I like to buy clothes at and while we were walkind around there, the buzz hit my real hard. I felt slightly tingly, and very amped up and slightly agitated but it was a positive feeling. I started to get a little light headed and my thoughts were racing so I figured I was peaking out, with a pretty disappointing buzz. My was beating pretty fast and I felt kind of uneasy, so I decided we should get some food to help us absorb the shit. We got in my car and as I was pulling into the street I almost hit a car and felt extremely jittery. My friend asked me if I was okay, and I said I was fine, thinking I was just overly excited.

We ended up at Cafe 101 which was nearby. I had to urinate very badly so we went to bathroom and as I was urinated my legs starting tingling as if they were fallign asleep and I began to shake a good deal. It's funny, right now as I am reliving this experience I am actually feeling kind of uneasy and nervous. This was nothing compared the night was about to endure.

We went to a table and ordered a couple sodas while we browed the menu. I confided in my friend that I felt really weird and that it wasn't a good thing, and that I needed to eat, since I had only eated a small scone in the morning. Suddenly as I sat there, I felt vomit surged up but I was fortunate enough to suppress it and didn't puke all over the table. I ran to the bathroom and hurled yellow, the color of the tablets. I stayed in the bathroom for about 30 minutes hyperventilating, sweating and feeling very sick, and throwing up a couple more times. Finally, I regained some sense of composure and went outside to find my friend, with two other friends of ours who we had planned on meeting. They said they felt bad for me and I needed to eat.

Shortly after I sat down, I had to pay another visit to the bathroom. I could tell things had gone too far but I figured I was getting rid of the excess caffeine and I would be fine after not too long. I think I was in the bathroom for another 30 minutes. I then told my friends I would go wait in the car. I was feeling a little better and actually started to drift off to sleep when they knocked on my window and suggested we go chill by the pool of some hotel. I asked that we wait so another 30 minutes transpired and at that point I felt okay enough to go over to the hotel which was 5 minutes away. During the drive I started to feel like I was going to vomit again and got very shaky and uncomfortable. So I parked and waited in my car for a couple hours while the went to the hotel pool.

I rolled back my seat and drank some water but I threw up out of my car door several times while I was waiting for them. I didn't even care that a lot of people were watching me do it, I had never felt so sick in my life except maybe when I had a bad flu. I called my friends and told them I had to go, and I called my girlfriend. She said I could go to her house since my parents weren't home and someone needed to be with me in case anything really bad happened. At this point I was getting pretty scared. I barely made it to her house which was 30 minutes from where I was parked and traffic made it worse. I had to pull over and vomit very painfully on the side of the street twice on my way there.

I finally arrived and apologized to her right when I got there for 'fucking up and being stupid.' I called my parents too, who don't mind that I smoke pot and are pretty open minded so I didn't feel that bad telling them. They were at a park and basically said 'You're stupid but call us if you need to go the hospital.' This was just a month after my 18th birthday. I had to stay at my girlfriend's house in the guest room over night because I was violently ill and could not drive. Her dad told me he 'Did the same thing when I was your age, I feel your pain.' But only ate two pills. I had 9.

I threw up all night long. I sweated bullets and had awful diarrhea. I had to vomit every hour for a while and then it got to every 20 minutes. I did not sleep at all. I wasn't sure what was going to happen to me but I had hope that I would be okay but morning. I tried eating toast, water and juice and I couldn't hold any of them down. I remember laying with my head on that dirty bathroom tile sweating uncontrollably, feeling like I was going to die and being in more excruciating pain than I had ever been in. I wished so badly that I had pot to stop the naseua. I was dry heaving almost constantly by 10 in the morning and I finally had my parents come and get me and take me to the hospital where they pumped charcoal and fluids into my body via an IV in my wrist.

I was just so happy to be alive and being taken care of by someone who knew what they were doing. I have never been in so much pain in all my life, and since caffiene is a stimulant, I was painfully aware of every moment of that night. I felt so horrible for doing it because of worrying my girlfriend and my parents so much, and for doing something so dumb. It took my a couple days to fully recover from being up for so long and vomitting so intensely. My abdomen and throat were sore as all hell and I felt so completely exhausted. By some miraculous stroke, I did not have work the morning I had to go to emergency room, even though I always do so I didn't have to call in sick or anything.

But I learned a fucking hard lesson and had the worst experience of my life from something people put in their bodies every day. I will never eat caffeine pills again and I will definetly not be so reckless with putting shit like that in my body anymore.

Oh and the real kicker is my insurance almost didn't pay for the $1300 hospital visit. We weren't sure why but we thought it was because it was self-inflicted. Luckily they ended up paying but that in itself was an equally big scare. If you're gonna do drugs make sure you have good medical insurance, just in case.

Exp Year: 2004ExpID: 39169
Gender: Male 
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: May 10, 2007Views: 27,551
[ View PDF (to print) ] [ View LaTeX (for geeks) ] [ Swap Dark/Light ]
Caffeine (11) : Difficult Experiences (5), Health Problems (27), Train Wrecks & Trip Disasters (7), Overdose (29), Bad Trips (6), Various (28)

COPYRIGHTS: All reports copyright Erowid.
No AI Training use allowed without written permission.
TERMS OF USE: By accessing this page, you agree not to download, analyze, distill, reuse, digest, or feed into any AI-type system the report data without first contacting Erowid Center and receiving written permission.

Experience Reports are the writings and opinions of the authors who submit them. Some of the activities described are dangerous and/or illegal and none are recommended by Erowid Center.


Experience Vaults Index Full List of Substances Search Submit Report User Settings About Main Psychoactive Vaults