my bad habits have stretched my sleeve (I believe), scared and disappointed! help me!

I had my sleeve surgey in May. I had concerns earlier that I wasn't getting full as I thought should. I wondered if I had stretched my sleeve and someone told me that it was impossible to stretch it too far. Well, I'm a little pissed (more at myself) because I just ate pizza for dinner... and I ate two pieces at that and didn't get full!

You need to call your doctor/surgeon because you could end up having other issues going on like a pouch at the end of the sleeve can form and stretch.  I would be worried also in your shoes.  I just had my surgery 8 days ago and some times 3oz. of shake will fill me and others it takes 4.  I can't say that I am physically hungry, but rather in my head.  A couple of time I caught myself tasting my toddler's meal for temp and having to spit it out.  I accidentally swallowed part of a tator tot this evening and that HURT!  Won't be doing that again anytime soon.

Call your doctor next week and share with him/her your concerns.  He is the professional and you are not his first patient to go through this so he may have some answers for you.

Good Luck

I am a week out today and I have the same issue where I am full as a tick one day and with the same food, have no restriction. It freaks me out because I am a revision and I never want to fail this thing! Good to know there are other people out here like me. Thanks.

You're only a week out, don't worry about that yet.  Liquid can (and should) go right through you.  As soon as you start eating protein/meats you should be good with restriction.  Although, don't let restriction guide you to stop eating - measure out your food.

I don't have any personal insight into this, however, I have heard people hear say that the capacity of our sleeves do increase with time. My surgeon said that it is difficult to "stretch" a sleeve but that we can train our sleeves to empty quicker.

How true either one of these is, I don't know, but now I'm going to do some research.

How is your weightloss thus far?

Dont be beating yourself up, you have to learn from your mistake. Now was pizza a good choice for dinner no. I havent had my surgery but i was a nurse for 19 yrs til I got sick. It is hard for me now that im on a no starch diet and i just feel hungry all the time. I have to stick wit it. I know so keep the faith. How did you feel after the surgery?

Jeez. I'm glad that you didn't end up sick or in the ER.  Why are you testing your sleeve?  I'm guessing that before the surgery you could have eaten the whole pizza. 

Personally, I hope to never feel full again. Yes, when something is really delicious, I don't want to stop eating.  But I remind myself that I don't want to get full, get sick, work against my goals, or waste my money. Tell yourself whatever it takes.

 I don't think that you can stretch it that fast.  Most of the elastic part is gone.  If you are so concern, maybe you need to get a scope down there and have a doctor tell you the size of it.

If you are having a hard time with food, consider seeing a therapist.  I did, and she helped me with stress management, my internal thoughts, and balancing my life.  It really helped me. In the meantime, check out 50 Ways to Soothe Yourself Without Food by Susan Albers, PsyD.

You may not be suffering the way you expected, but do you want to?  I'm afraid that one day you will reach that point and have to write about your expensive, painful trip to the ER.

There's several reasons this could be happening.

1) You could have a larger sleeve, more fundus might have been left behind thus allowing more stretch, as stated above, your sleeve might be shaped differently, and/or your transit time with breads could be faster than others due to your surgeon's technique and your own anatomy.

2) Bread could be a slider food for you.

3) It's not impossible to stretch if your stomach was left larger.

Get a contrast study and find out what is going on with your stomach.

My best advice for you is a thought process I live by to this very day at 2.5 years out "Just because I can; doesn't mean I should!" Meaning just because I can suck down a 2000 calorie milkshake, I know I shouldn't do it.

I'm 2.5 years out, and I can eat 2 slices of small thin crust pizza, but it takes me about 45-60 minutes to consume that much bready stuff. I only know this because I've done it in a social setting. I try really hard to not eat until full, and it's a habit I broke when I started my WLS journey. Eating until full helped get me fat, and it was a mentality for me that I knew I had to change. 

You really have to learn the difference between satisfied and full.

I think USAF wife has some great points, especially the concept of pizza potentially being a slider food for you with the bread component.  Also agree with others that pizza is a poor choice of a meal (unless potentially in maintainence phase).  I don't care how many people on this forum run in circles saying "cheese and meat have protein, hooray!" I still think there are about a zillion better foods to eat while having achieved maintainence.  

I'm trying to envision the volume of two chewed up pieces of pizza, but slices can be so small or big, it could take up 4, 6, or 8 ounces.  It would be suprising if you were able to get enough stretch to hold 8 ounces, but it's not impossible, especially with each surgeon creating different sleeve sizes.  So, I would recommend to chat about this both with your surgeon, to cover medical possibilities others have listed above, as well as your nutrioninst to help get you pack on plan unti you hit goal.  

Another great thing USAF wife said - don't do it just because you can!  Don't touch that second slice.  And like Frisco recommends, don't rely on restriction to tell you when to stop eating.  You know what volume of food to put into your stomach.

Good luck!  I know it's easy to panic now, but relax, speak with your surgeon and nutrionist, it's probably just fine.  And don't be too pissed at yourself either - if this is the first time, we all have our learning experiences.

I find this interesting b/c my nut. told our class to think of bread as a slider food and to avoid it as much as possible. She said that we should not be eating bread to achieve a feeling of fullness, and to basically use it sparingly until we're used to getting our protein in. She showed us portion sizes that were very small, much smaller than even a single slice of pizza.

Another thing she said is that they recently had a patient, for the first time in Dr. Curry's practice, that blew out his staple line by overeating with his sleeve. Usually a staple line leak happens shortly after surgery, but she said he was 4 months out and was the most non-compliant patient she's worked with. Moral of the story is don't test your sleeve!