stretching pouch?
My surgeon said your pouch is supposed to stretch. It is meant to. Mine started out the size of a golf ball and will eventually become about four times that. It is a muscle. Using it stretches it. It is not meant to stay as small as it started out. But it will be much smaller than your stomach ever was. Stretching the outlet to the pouch is another matter. That can be done by consistently eating way too much. It is not that easy to do as your pouch was made from the least stretchy part of the stomach. Most of the time when people blame slowed weightloss or regain on a stretched pouch they are wrong. It probably has to do more with the diet overall, calories in vs. calories burned.
(Roux-en-y 07/05/2012) Heighest Weight/Surgery Day Weight 240lbs
well, it is supposed to stretch some. But if you mean how do you know if it's stretching more than it should, the only way to know that is to have an EGD, where a doctor puts a tiny camera down your throat and looks at your pouch. However, it's very rare for the pouch to stretch more than it should. the pouch is made from the least stretchy part of the stomach. To stretch it, you'd have to overeat by a good bit on a regular basis.
Kelly
Please note: I AM NOT A DOCTOR. If you want medical advice, talk to your doctor. Whatever I post, there is probably some surgeon or other health care provider somewhere that disagrees with me. If you want to know what your surgeon thinks, then ask him or her. Check out my blog.
If it helps at all, I often am afraid I stretched my pouch or, as I say to my husband "broke my surgery". As time progresses and I am able to tolerate more and different foods I find myself thinking something must be wrong because I used to only be able to have a tiny bite. It's made worse by those days I decide to have a drink with my meal and I wash some of it through my stomach and am able to eat more.
Let me tell you what. It's probably not stretched. Trust me, I've risked foamies to prove to myself mine is not. lol. An extra couple of bites, no drink, not chewing *quite* as well as I usually do and BAM, "oh THERES my surgery!" :)
