Feeling lousy at the moment...loving it...

...and no, I'm not a masochist.

It seems that I ate a little too fast and am just now experiencing the slightly overfull feeling...I know that it will subside within about 30 minutes or so but the reason I'm loving this is that it happened with such a small amount of food....maybe half of what I prepared...lately, I've been afraid that my pouch has become too big...overstretched even though I'm sticking to the amounts specified in my dietary guidlines...this just confirms that I am wrong...again...(God, I love that!)....

 my doctor told me that the most you can stretch out your pouch is 2% and that it's very hard to do.

...and that is rockin' good news!

Thank you, isabelsjewelry!!

Now, I am given to understand that it is possible to stretch out the pouch to where it no longer provides the advantage it once did and that's why there are some, who, having had the surgery, years later are as big as they were before they had it...(see Charlie Weiss, former head football coach at Notre Dame)...

 I'm sure it has to be possible, but when I asked about stretching out my pouch my doctor most of the time the people who have gained weight back, is b/c they stopped following the lifestyle that goes along with the surgery. Like Carnie Wilson.

I am going to clarify that it is stretching out the stoma, that holds the food in the pouch, more than stretching out the pouch itself. So that all foods just slide on through.

Chew it up small and don't use liquid to push your food through.

Bettisima;

Thank you for the clarification...yes, it is the stoma about which I am concerned in this thread...

For everyone else:

There have been two other instances when I felt just slightly overfull...this one was more acute, I believe, because I just ate too damn fast. It is not a regualr occurrance by any means.

I am extremely careful to adhere to the dietary guidelines laid out for me by my surgical team...I often wait 45 minutes to 1 hour between eating and drinking (and vice versa) just to be safe. I'm curious, though, is this enough to permanently enlarge the stoma and put my entire RNY surgery at risk?

This morning (5:00 am, Central time) it took me my usual 20 minutes or so to take my protein shake and at this writing (6:27 am, Central time) I'm still not even close to being hungry enough to eat breakfast (which, this morning, will be 1 cup of soy yogurt).

For any given meal, I am still feeling quite full on 2 to 3 oz. (total) of food...on the rare occasions when I finish and don't necessarily feel full, I wait approx 20 minutes and then I realize that I may not be full, but I am satisfied and feel no desire to take in any more nourishment.

let me try to explain - our pouch is expected to stretch - if it didnt you wouldnt be able to eat more than 1 ounce of food for the rest of your life.  It starts out the size of the tip of your thumb and will eventually end up the size of an egg.  the problem people have post op that caused weight gain is when the stoma stretches - the connection that was made at the top of the pouch from the esophagus that allows a certain amount of food in at one time.  People that stretch there stoma, no longer feel any restriction and will eat more and more. 

the way our pouch works and any stomach works - it is an organ and it naturally stretches when food goes in like a balloon and then when the food goes through, it goes back down.  I am sure that if someone consistantly ate 1 cup per day at the beginning and 2 cups or more later on, then the pouch might stretch just from putting too much pressure - it can only stretch so much - our pouch is tiny and during the first month, you can only fit in 1 ounce at a time, then at 2 months - 2 ounces, I couldnt increase to 3 ounces until about 4 months and I stayed there for along time until I could increase to 4 ounces and that was probably at about 7 or 8 months out.  Now I am 3 1/2 years out and some days I still cant eat more than 4 ounces and other days I can eat a cup.  It all depends but I find I can eat more at night than during the day - during the day including breakfast, I can only eat very small amounts but at night, I can eat much more.

I just looked at your profile and you only 3 weeks out.  How much are you trying to eat and what type of foods?  Most of us are still on pureeds at that point - I had just started pureeds after 3 weeks of liquids and only one ounce or 2 tablespoons.    At 3 weeks you should only be eating 1 ounce of food, maybe 2.   You will need to be careful if you are eating large amounts and large amounts of solid foods, things are still healing.  Most of us do start solids at around 1 months - some actually have to wait 2 months  = that is along time for me but that is what some surgeons order.  When we started solids at 5 weeks, we were allowed 2 ounces if we could tolerate it.

if you are getting the pain when you eat, you need to be careful  to slow down.  If you are eating any solid foods, make sure you are chewing really good - we were told to chew, chew and chew some more basically until it was either mush or gone completely - practically nothing to swallow.

As per the guidelines provided, I am on soft mushy foods...no longer pureed, but soups, eggs, shredded chicken or turkey breast, cottage cheese, yogurt, cheese, refried beans, etc. (all low fat and sugar-free)...for example, what I prepared (and what I couldn't finish) was the equivalent of:

- one (1) scrambled egg with a slice of cheese  
- two (2) oz. of refried beans...

of which I actually ate about half...even after the discomfort was gone, there was no hunger nor desire to eat any more...generally there never is...

once I've finished that which I've prepared (which at this point, as per the guidelines, is never more than 2 oz. of any given food), I'm done...if I've eaten it all, great...if not, it goes in the trash and I'll not eat again for another 4-5 hours....in between, I'm taking in my 64 oz. of fluid...I am adhering to the guidelines provided me...

What happened, I believe, is as much to do with adjusting to a schedule of being back at work and learning to better time my meals and snacks...still getting a handle on that...and I am usually much better at sensing when my body is telling me that it is time to stop eating...

This is really the first time I've felt this way when eating and I'm pretty sure that it is largely a function of not having eaten anything in approx 6 hours and eating too fast...

I concur that I need to slow down and chew more thoroughly...I never meant to imply that I don't...your response seems to assume that I'm not following the instructions of my medical team without knowing what they are...