Is this what dumping syndrome is?

Thinking I know it all I come to the realization I know nothing even though I keep reading about how this and that will affect me now that I have RNY. When I had my band and sleeve I never experienced what I do now and I think it is dumping.

I noticed that when I have food containing a lot of tomato, I get cramps and gas. I also get gas when I consume something sweet but I do not get diarrhea. For some reason I though dumping syndrome was severe diarrhea.

So my question is: "What gives you dumping syndrome and what actually happens when you do? What do you do to get rid of the gas if you get that?"

Gas is most often a result of either too many simple carbs, or sugar alcohols. Sugar alcohols affect everyone, WLS or not.

Lots of other things can cause gas (surgery or not).

Simple carbs can also cause reactive hypoglycemia, which is not the same as dumping. RH is very common a year or 2 after RNY, much more so than actual dumping.

If you arent curled up on the floor, praying for death, then you aren't having an actual dumping episode. That's how severe it is. You'll sweat like mad, get the shakes, your heart feels like it will race out of your chest, and you'll get heaving convulsions. You might get diarrhea or vomit, but likely not.

Protein or fat can't cause dumping. Only simple carbs, and really just sugar. My surgeon insists that we all dump, but the amount of sugar necessary to induce dumping is much more in some than in others. Because many never eat that much sugar, they never dump.

Most figures I see state that about 30 percent dump after RNY, but I don't know how scientific that is.

I love you Grim, but I disagree with one thing you said. I dump off of fats, and it's been diagnosed as Dumping Syndrome. So while it's not likely and I'm definitely odd, I don't think you can say that fats can't cause dumping. I agree with everything else!

You, and everything you've gone through, are a category all of your own.

Do you actually have the sweating, heart pounding, curled up on the floor with severe chest pain that we get from eating sugar when you eat fat? I have dumped and had heart pain that resulted in open heart surgery. The pain was similar although much more severe heart pain when it was actually heart pain. I thought it was dumping but surprised because it was happening after eating anything, not after eating sugar.

About a half hour after eating, the blood would go to my stomach, my heart would not get enough blood and the pain would hit. With heart I also had pain in my arms. The doctor thought it was heartburn. It turned out to be a blockage.

I was five years out the first time I dumped. I had worked very late on Halloween, got home after 1:00 AM and started mindlessly eating the little Tootsie Rolls left over from trick or treat.

Yep. My surgeon actually sent me to an endocrinologist, who made me track my food and eat meals that were either higher in fat or higher in sugar and track my symptoms (check heart rate, etc). When I eat too much fat in a meal, I have symptoms that are identical to dumping on sugar. my heart beats so fast, you can see it pounding in my chest, i get dizzy and I sweat through my clothes. I'm not saying it happens every time, and it takes a lot of fat, but it does happen to me. I'm a medical mystery to them.

That is strange. Never heard of it either.

Dumping is a direct result from ingesting sugar. Since we have no pyloric valve the food slides right through our pouches without the added digestion we used to have by food staying in our stomach until the valve opened. Before surgery food was partially digested in the stomach before it was allowed into the intestines. With dumping Syndrome, the intestines gets shocked by the undigested sugar and sends a message to the brain to "dump" all the fluid it can into the intestines to flush away the undigested sugar. The rush of fluid is what causes the symptoms of dumping Grim described. If you don't eat sugar, you won't dump.

Not all digestive discomfort is dumping. We can have a lot of things that cause issues after surgery. If we eat too fast or too much we get sick...but it's not dumping. If we eat too much fat we can get diarrhea... but that's not dumping. If we eat something with too much spice or too acidy we can have gastric distress...again...not the same as dumping. Some of us have picky pouches that simply reject certain foods.

Lots of things give me gas post-RNY that didn't before. For me, some vegetables like broccoli will and if I happen to have simple carbs like crackers.

I have had the misfortune to think I could try ice cream, and was curled in a ball for a good hour almost immediately after. Sweating, shaking, nauseous but couldn't vomit like my body wanted to. That was dumping.