Question for vets?
I am one month out today and have been having a really hard time with food getting stuck and then throwing up, i have been really conscious about chewing everything to a paste so it doesnt happen again. My question is someone on the board said when your further out your pouch can hold more and you dont get stuck or at least not very much. why does that happen,? does your pouch stretch a bit? are you more healed? can someone help me. im so discouraged right now. thank you
The further out you get, the better you can tolerate food, and the more you can eat. I think the more it heals the less swollen it is, and it does stretch a little. I can remember being even 6 months post op thinking, will I ever be able to eat anything thicker then apple sauce again! I would read on here what people were eating, and thinking I can only wish to do so well with food! I don't know if I just took longer to adjust or if the fear of swallowing and thinking I might have pain or vomit prevented me from being more adventurous but with each passing month, it gets better and better and you just get better at chewing without having to think so much about it. You'll just automatically take small bite and chew like a rock star out of habit .
RNY 01/23/12, HW 265, CW 115, Height 5'6"
I can drink water fine and eat yogurt and soft foods as long as i chew good it s alot but as soon as I dont that when it gets stuck. Im on a February support group on Fb and it seems very common, I called my surgeon and she does not think a stricture would come on that quick and things are moving through as well , i was just wondering when and how it gets better. thanks
I tried chewing a little food the other day, that baked Riccota, and I got real bad pains and only took two bites. I chewed them until they were about purée. It was the worst pain. I am now afraid to move to the next stage. Maybe just purée your foods for now. How can I join the support group on Facebook?
Hope everything starts getting better for you!!!
God Bless!!
Edie
on 3/12/13 2:47 pm
Imagine a two liter bottle of soda and that is the size of your old stomach. It took a lot to get that big stomach full and you are used to eating a lot. Now imagine the bottlecap on that soda bottle and that is your new pouch size. How much food could you fit in that bottlecap at one time? That is the amount to eat. If you overfill it, you will feel awful and then throw up the amount that is more than the volume of the bottlecap.
Even though you have been cleared to eat solid foods, about a teaspoon or so is enough at one time. Things like applesauce and yogurt flow out of the pouch and you can eat more, but even well chewed solids will get stuck. The easy way to do this is to go back to mostly liquids and very soft foods for another month or so until your pouch heals up and stretches out.
By one year out your pouch will be the size of an egg and hold about eight to 12 ounces of food. Then you will be able to eat most foods without them getting stuck and coming back up. Doctors start you on solids very quickly now. I had my first somewhat solid meal at three and a half months and that was vegetable soup. By six months I could eat about three or four ounces of steak or pork. At eighteen months I could eat a six inch subway sandwich. I can still handle about that much food.
You have new born baby pouch and you need to baby it. Take you time and let your pouch heal and grow. One day you might look back on this time of not being able to eat and wi**** would come back again.
