Dumping or something else?

I'm 11 days out from surgery. 2 days after I got home I was quite constipated but since then, every night after supper I have just the opposite problem and thankfully it only seems to happen the one time per day. Whatever color the food was, its the color in the toilet (sorry about the TMI). I think I remember someone once telling me that if you have this problem right after surgery it may be an infection but I have no tempreture, but I did have a bout of extreme gas pains (like right after surgery) after eating some tomato soup last night.  I just dont want to cause my doctor any more problems as I threw a blood clot right after surgery in spite of my newly placed IVC filter and required an extra days stay and about 5 major medical tests to determine that.  Also I was diabetic and since surgery my sugars have been low (in the 70's).  Any ideas or suggestions?

First, this has nothing to do with dumping at all.

Second, it is completely normal.  Because of the intestinal bypass, diarrhea is common in the couple of weeks after surgery and the food often passes through so quickly that much of it is not "processed" (hence the coloring).  It is not a sign of infection.  Blood in it, however, would be somethign to contact your surgeon about immediately!

Lora

Tomato soup can be high in sugar.  Here's a little info I found on dumping syndrome -- BTW, I do dump on tomato soup.

• Early Dumping Syndrome occurs within 30 minutes of eating a meal.  Early symptoms include…
  • Bloating
  • Diarrhea
  • Dizziness
  • Heart palpitations
  • Nausea
  • Rapid heart rate
  • Sweating
  • Vomiting

• Late Dumping Syndrome is a form of hypoglycemia (low blood sugar). When you ingest too much sugar, your now smaller stomach does not digest it properly so your intestines absorb and deposit too much of it into your blood stream. Your body compensates by releasing more insulin which makes your blood sugar drop. Late symptoms include…
  • Anxiety
  • Diarrhea
  • Dizziness
  • Fainting
  • Fatigue
  • Heart palpitations
  • Mental changes such as problems concentrating or feeling confused
  • Rapid heart rate
  • Strong feelings of hunger (because your body craves more sugar to balance the increase of insulin in your system)
  • Sweating
  • Weakness

Diarrhea itself is not dumping though it is SOMETIMES a side effect (I've never had it, and I dump like a truck)

My surgeon didn't want us consuming tomato soup for the first few months as the acidity is high, and we have a newly healing pouch.

I also dump on tomato soup, but again, gas pains aren't dumping either.