Trouble Keeping Food Down

Hi All!

This Wednesday, November 16 will be my 1 month surgiversity.  I've lost a total of 58 pounds but am having SERIOUS issues keeping food down.  I've been back to my surgeon twice in the past two weeks and have also been re-hospitalized one time due to dehydration.  There was a time that I couldn't even keep water down...that's why I was re-hospitalized.  Water seems to be fine now...although I can't get anywhere near 64 oz in.

The doc said that he's very hesitant to scope my stomach at this early stage because he's afraid of ruptering my staple line.  I have another appointment for follow-up next Tuesday, the 22nd which will be 10 days from my last appointment with him.  He's asked me to try Ensure because it's thinner than protein shakes but will supposedly help with giving me some energy (which I have NONE of).  For the most part, I've been able to keep down the Ensure but have also thrown it up a few times.

This is demoralizing.  I was fully expecting lots of pain and discomfort once I had surgery.  However, I was NOT prepared for this nightmare of trying to keep food down.  Almost every time I try to eat anything, I produce this thick slimy saliva which just causes me to try to keep swallowing which then just causes me so much discomfort that I throw everything up.  I can't possibly eat any slower...I'm spreading 2 oz over the course of about 30 minutes.  I'm drinking poweraide and/or gatoraide just to try to replace some electrolytes and add energy...but it seems like it takes me an hour to even get about 4 oz of water down.

Any words of advice from anyone who's experienced this?  I'll take ANYTHING I can get at this point!

Thanks!

Paul

Maybe you can ask your doctor if you can go on TPN until you heal enough for them to scope you and see if you have a stricture. 

Um....HELLO Barium swallow?????

I had the same problem! Severe stricture. Was pretty evident on the x-ray screen, no scope needed.

Where are your results? Your tests? Go demand them!!!

The doc was considering this when I saw him last Thursday but then, ultimately, decided that it may be tough for me to keep the barium down and decided to ask me to just "hang in there" for 10 more days.  Not sure what he has planned on the 22nd!

Paul

Sorry, that's bulls##t. You can have a swallow contrast test the day after surgery, and should have (hello, leak test!).

Demand one, and fast. This isn't something to play with, I was in and out of the hospital for months before they fixed me.

This sounds an awful like what I went through with a stricture. Your doctor may have good reason to be reluctant about a scope, but this is what it took to find mine. Have you asked if he is willing to consider a contrast x-ray to look at how your stomach empties? That's no fun either given the tough time you are having with liquids, but if this goes on you need to find some answers so you can get on with your recovery.

I know this is rough right now, believe me. I vomited every day from the time I was two weeks out until I was a month out before my stricture was taken care of. Keep pushing for answers because if you are vomiting liquids after taking your time to drink them, that is absolutely not normal.

What did they do once they found out that you had a stricture?  Was it a one-time fix?

Well I thought I cleverly left that out so as not to worry you, but I see you are thorough! Let me be clear first that strictures are an unusual complication of the DS. In most cases when they occur, then can be resolved by endoscopy (ballooning). Sometimes that is a one-time procedure and other times it takes a series. And as I think your doctor is telling you, in some cases these resolve on their own.

In my case I needed a second surgery. Scar tissue/adhesions had constricted my intestine to the point that absolutely nothing would pass through, not even liquid, and so the scope also couldn't be passed through, even after repeated attempts.

Wait-and-see is a fine approach, for a time, as long as you are able to do reasonably well with getting in liquids and proteins. It sounds like you are reaching to get to that "reasonably well" stage. If I were you I would push at least for the contrast swallow. I believe it's called contrast exam with small bowel follow-through or something like that. I had to swallow only a very small amount (and yes, I vomited it soon after).

Thanks, Chad, for the honesty :)  Wish I could just click my heels together and jump to where you are now! ;)

I also needed a second surgery.

And if you can't swallow the barium and keep it down, that is just as helpful as actually swallowing and processing it. They will see on the x-ray exactly where the barium stops and reverses, thus, where your stricture is.

*edited to add: contrast doesn't have to be barium, I should have just said contrast. Barium is one type.