Gas and Pain In Sleeve When Eating

Hi Everyone,

 

I just joined the community today and have a question:  I am five days out from my surgery and eating is tough.  Even drinking water is tough.  When I swallow I trap gas into my sleeve and it hurts to swallow.  The gas then hurts me again as it makes it's way out of the sleeve.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to prevent this from happening or making the process a little less paintul?  I do try to take small sips and swallows and it helps, but if I take bites too close to each other more gas builds up causing more pain.  Please help or at least tell me it subsides?

 

The first few weeks I had to consciously breath out as I drank. Found I gulped down too much air otherwise and it caused problems.

Ohhhh nooo, weeks you say?  I don't know how I am going to get by, but thank you!  Just tried some mash potato and it went down like lead and is bouncing around now.  This is torture.

Try some Gas X strips they always work for me or try walking for a bit to get things moving.

I had my surgery on the 16th and it does get better. Just take it nice and slow. i can't believe you are eating potatos already! For the first 8 days i could only have liquids. Hope it gets better fast!

Hi all,

Thanks for the great responses.  I had been trying all of your suggestions, but today I seem to have a bit of a breakthrough!  I pureed some instant oatmeal which I made with milk, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla and a little maple syrup.  I was only able to eat about 4 oz of it, but I ate it without the pain! The gas still gurgled and I still burped, but it went down without pain!  I am so overjoyed!  I tried it first with Irish Oatmeal but that didn't tasted like straw and hurt I remade it w/ regular old Quaker oats w/ better success.

Debpaul --> On my plan, they started adding in pureed food the 4th day after surgery.  Day 6 (today for me) is when it said to to try 2 0oz of mashed potato w/ an ounce of plain yogurt.  I just tried it a day early.

I mean it didn't matter what I ate.  Even the protein shakes caused me pain.  I pureed the potatoes and made it a cream of potato soup w/ a bit of cottage cheese and some chicken broth w/ onion powder and salt to taste.  It tasted great, but my stomach just couldn't do it.

I'm hoping to get back to it today w/ greater success.  Wish me luck. :-)

 

Welcome to the board, and congrats on your surgery.  It does get better, I promise.

Gas is one of the effects of too much stomach acid, for me anyway, especially when ANYTHING is in my tummy.  Are you on a PPI?  If not, ask your surgeon about it.  If you are, you may need to up your dosage or change to another one.  I cycled thru four different PPIs before I found the one that works for me, Protonix.

Hey KathyA,

Yeah they've got me on a PPI, but I haven't really taken it because it doesn't feel like there is extra acid in my stomach.  It just feels that specifically when I stat to ingest something I also trap in gas when I swallow.  Then the gas needs to come back out.  I don't have any burning or feeling anywhere in the GI tract. 

Things did go down better today.  I pureed some Quaker Instant oatmeal (after trying Irish oatmeal first, w/ no success) and that went down w/ some gas but no pain.  Then I went back to some pureed potato soup I made the day before for lunck and it did well.  However, I hit a roadblock again when I tried a shake for dinner. 

I tried some acidophilus and lo and behold, it seemed to calm down tremendously.  I will try that again tomorrow and see if I've really found some salvation.  I'll def share if it does.

Some stomach pain after bariatric surgery can be normal and commonplace

The bubbly nature of carbonated drinks, such as soda, can cause gas pain. Just because the clock says it is time for a meal, doesn't mean you should eat one.

Thanks 1wweightloss.  I have not done any carbonated drinks whatsoever.  According to my nutritionists VSGers are not supposed to becaus it will stretch the pouch.  I definitely wouldn't even think of doing, especially not now when I don't even have my basic nutrition together.  I know there is some inherent pain after the surgery as your pouch heals, but I would like to get something down without pain after 2 or 3 bites.