What exactly is dry heaves?

What exactly is dry heaves as opposed to retching? I had open distal RNY on 5/21/01 and starting around 2 weeks out, I have been suffering from SEVERE nausea. I started to make these motions as if I were throwing up, so I just assumed that those were the dry heaves. However, more recently, these dry heaves have been getting more violent. I would make the motions of throwing up PLUS I had the stomach pumping feeling you get when you're actually vomiting. Before, I didn't have the stomach pumping feeling. I looked in the Merck Manual and they mentioned the word retching. I didn't vomit with either of these episodes. It usually begins with excessive salivation and swallowing it makes it worse. The most that comes out of me is a small amount of clear, foamy mucous. Is dry heaves just another word for retching? Or is one worse than the other?

We greatly appreciate your interest in helping us build our Q&A database. To discourage vandals from posting garbage, however, we require people to register before posting.

You must be logged in to post an answer. Click here to log in.