HI everyone!

After 6 months trouble-free since being sleeved, maybe I was getting a little too cocky? 5 days ago, feeling fine, I ate half of a fresh coconut. I ate slowly, chewed well, and stopped long before I had any discomfort & went about my business. I have not been able to hold anything down since then!

For the first 2 days, I was in agonizing stomach pain & vomiting everything I tried to eat or drink. I felt like I had a rock in my stomach. The following day I felt better but kept to liquids just to be safe & everything was fine other than still feeling like there was a lump in my stomach. The day after that (yesterday) I tried to have some chili & got about 3 spoons into my stomach before I felt nauseous again. The vomiting resumed with a vengeance.

So last night I elected to do a barium study on myself (lucky to have access to radiology at work!) and after 5 hours there was still a perfectly round mass in my stomach that the barium was stuck to. Showed this to my doctor this AM & he sent me for endoscopy. He said I had a bezoar, which is a concretion of undigestible material in my stomach, basically from the cellulose Fiber of the coconut.

The endoscopist is telling me that this is a common finding in people who have had gastric surgery. This is the first time I've heard anything about it!!! Has anyone else had this experience? Can anyone provide me with a list of foods I should avoid, so I don't have to go through this again? I asked my doc, but he basically just said coconut, pumpkin seeds, and celery. There has got to be more to it than that!

Any advice or input is appreciated! Thanks, y'all!

Natalie

:001_wub:

I LOVE this post:

Hi everyone.

I'm not sure if anyone is still monitoring this discussion (forgot about it myself for a while), but just in case anyone else has issues with bezoars I would like to report that I successfully dissolved mine by sipping Coca Cola, all day & all night, for about 10 days. Dissolved my bezoar and made me so sick of Coca Cola that I'll probably never drink it again. So, double success!

About a year later, I thought I would try eating a smaller amount of coconut just because when I had my original bezoar, I felt like I had a rock in my stomach and was not hungry for a week. I thought if I just ate a smaller amount of coconut maybe I could kill part of my appetite without getting obstructed.

Sadly, the attempt was a failure. I successfully re-formed my bezoar but also successfully re-obstructed myself. I was too embarrassed to go back to my doctor, so I started back on the Coca Cola and was normal again a week later.

So my advice is... don't eat coconut. But if you do, keep a case of Coca Cola handy.

Cheers!

Natalie