Possibility of swallowed glass yet again

**CrystalChord** · 07-08-2010 01:05 PM

Please, guys, I need some help on this one!

I was working on mosaics with a friend, and felt this sharp pain in my throat around 1:15-1:45 (I don't remember exactly). As we were working with mosaics, and sometimes little sand-grain sized bits (or even smaller) had a tendency to chip off the glass while we were working with it, I fear I may have swallowed glass.

I have a cold, so I have been coughing a lot, but shortly after I felt the pain, I tasted something metallic in my throat and spat. I didn't see blood, and after a while the taste faded. I went into the bathroom around 2:00 and forced myself to cough up (but not vomit) and saw very faintly pinkish traces of what I believe was blood. Again, that was around 2:00, and it is now 3:04. I have eaten two servings of three prunes and a slice of bread, along with two cups of water since then, but here is where it gets tricky.

I have abdominal pain because I am also on my period. But there is also some sort of minor stinging pain near my navel, that feels like a needle being poked through my skin from the inside. I have not felt this before on my periods.

I have thought I've swallowed glass before and did not have any problems then, and I'm wondering if the needle pains are just my mind playing tricks on me. I also want to know if maybe "force coughing" as my boyfriend put it is what caused the traces of blood, or if something DID get into my throat.

I don't have a metallic taste in my mouth currently, nor any BRIGHT red blood traces (I honestly am wondering if the pink is from the cotton candy I ate last night at a baseball game).

Do I have any risk of the glass somehow cutting my insides and getting into my bloodstream?
Should I be worried about internal bleeding?

I cannot go to my GP because no one else is home at this moment, and my parents would both freak out on me and yell at me for even suggesting. But I am very scared that I may have something serious going on.

I think next time, I'll wear a filter mask!!

**WildChild** · 07-08-2010 01:23 PM

Very unlikely that you have swallowed glass and less likely to be a big enough piece to cause a problem.
Look up bad fads about glass eating as a fad. You will find that people have eaten beer mugs and light bulbs and lived to tell about it and do it again.

**CrystalChord** · 07-08-2010 01:27 PM

You serious?! People have eaten glass as a hobby!? So gross. I'm just going to have to wait it out I suppose, correct?

Still, it's very frightening, especially when you have abdominal pain from cramps and a cold that makes you cough in the first place.

**ItsASecret** · 07-08-2010 03:31 PM

The answer is no. A cold produces an itchy scratchy dry throat resulting in a cough. Periods can be all over the place from no pain to immense fetal position on the couch cramp pain. Take an Ibuprofen or put a hot rice bag or hot water bottle on your belly to ease the cramping. Your mind is unfortunately creating a problem out of nothing each time. Gotta tell it to stop thinking like that! lol.

**CrystalChord** · 07-08-2010 05:30 PM

I just want to be 100% positive that it hasn't cut and escaped my GI tract and is floating around anywhere, or got into my blood somehow.

I keep getting these little needle like pains in my left arm now, like little bug nips, but I see nothing, and they're very sharp. It's like someone's putting pins against my skin, like in my left arm near my elbow and the heel of my right palm.

I think I'm just driving myself crazy, but it's hard to actually get out of the "horridly frightened" mindset.

**Mes T** · 07-08-2010 06:38 PM

Go to the ER if you're that frightened, but like the others have said, this is likely just your mind freaking you out.

Nothing we say on a forum can make you 100% positive about anything, so off to the doc it is!

**CrystalChord** · 07-08-2010 10:46 PM

Well there is a new development that I am now concerned about.

Around 8pm I started getting a pins and needles sensation in my arms, and then around 9pm, my hands were completely pins and needles. My hands kept going from a mottled color (reddish pink and a paler splotchy pink), back to full reddish pink. They were cold, and when I got home with my boyfriend around 10:00ish, I had a panic attack because I was so worried about it. After my boyfriend calmed me down, he gave me a backrub, in which he found that my neck on both sides was extremely tense and knotted from me hunching over my mosaic work for about two hours.

It is now around 12:45, the pins and needles feeling is still there, and my skin itself is very sensitive to touch sensations. I am also getting the same sensation of pins and needles/tickling on my jawline on both sides. I also have a massive headache from crying so much.

Should I be worried about these pins and needles sensations? Or is it nothing to worry about? I am not dizzy, no blurred or double vision, and I have all of my capacities (motor functions, etc.)

**Mes T** · 07-08-2010 11:06 PM

Girl you are going to be getting new "developments" pretty much every day now, since you are SO psyching yourself out about this. If we all said NO don't worry, would you honestly stop worrying? Probably not. So what can we do? Go to a doctor.

**ItsASecret** · 07-08-2010 11:40 PM

There is nothing wrong with you. If you had glass embedded into your arterial lines, your veins, your heart, your brain, your GI tract, your muscles...anything....you would have been dead. Even then it would take more than particulate glass to do any sort of damage. Simple hard truth girl. These "pins and needles" sensations are the result of anxiety which can cause goosebumps. You can get chills and shivers through the body that result in the same feeling and it does not mean anything will happen. You need to calm down with a nice cup of tea and have a sit down with yourself to get this hypochondriasis under control.

**CrystalChord** · 07-09-2010 11:11 AM

Well, it's 1:09 pm a day later, and I'm still getting the pins and needles feeling in my arms and face. As of right now I'm trying very hard not to worry about it.

I've chalked it up with extreme anxiety and having something to do with the heat. After all, I was in my family garage with no air conditioning or fans for about two hours in 95 degree weather and high humidity. If it doesn't go away by Monday, I think I will talk to my parents about seeing my GP about it.

I'm just surprised that if it's all just anxiety, that the pins and needles came after one of my major panic attacks. Is it possible to have symptoms of anxiety even after the worst of it has passed?