food scratches stoma - is this normal?

sweetsue · November 9, 2006

Hi all,

I have a question for you. I was banded around 6 weeks ago. I had my 1st fill 3 days ago. I find that when I swallow certain foods, I experience a scratchy sore feeling as it passes through my stoma. It's actually painful. This doesn't happen with all foods, just some foods - for examples crackers, crust, etc.

Also, I still don't feel as if my pouch is filling up - I think everything is still going right through, and I can actually feel it going through. Is this normal? Is there a point of adjustment where the food feels like it's actually sitting there for a while and not just squeezing right through?

Thanks!

:cheer2:

Sweet Sue

Jachut · November 9, 2006

Anything doughy does that to me - cake and doughnuts being the worst offenders, they feel like ground glass. I dont get a golfball or blocked up feeling with those foods at all, they just HURT.

Other foods that are problematic for me as far as it goes (I can eat pretty much anything, but some things are harder than others) sit above the band and block me up, they dont scratch like you're describing.

I dont get a sensation of the pouch filling and it sitting at all, but that's obviously what happens because all of a sudden I get full and to go even a bite past that can cause pain.

derbygirl · November 10, 2006

Jack, or anyone else who is familiar,

How long does it take to know if the food you just ate is going to stick? Up to an hour? Immediately?

I haven't gotten stuck yet and I'm anxious about it. Sometimes I swallow something and think, "oh no...I didn't chew that well enough" and then I sit there and dread whatever this "stuck" feeling is going to feel like.

toqu · November 10, 2006

I have had the scratchy feeling from applesauce no less, other than that everything else that I've tried seems to go down fine, too fine if you ask me.

Jachut · November 10, 2006

I find there's a slight delay in whatever I've just bitten off going down and the stuck feeling starting. Its just too easy to eat too much that way, you dont feel the feeling till five bites later and by then you're in strife. Its so important to eat very slowly for that reason. I try to remind myself to just take breaks between bites and that generally helps me. Then if something is stuck because its not chewed enough, its only one bite of something and it goes away within a few minutes. If I've loaded it up with five more bites I can be sliming away for half an hour, my darn cast Iron gut refuses to puke anything up so it can last a long time for me.

lisalu · November 10, 2006

Heres a question about PB'ing which I should do a new post, but don't know how. Will I ever stop PB'ing? I'm almost 2 years post op and really tired of throwing up almost everything. Will this go on forever? I have a friend who is 3 years post op and she still PB's all the time too. My gastric bypass friends never throw up, once they are a year out, seems they can eat anything, just smaller amounts. Any ideas?

derbygirl · November 11, 2006

Lisa, have you told your doc that you're constantly PBing? He might be able to help you figure out why it keeps happening.

TruBlueSue · November 12, 2006

Jack, Jacqui - you guys just speak to me! I too get that ground glass / stuck feeling five bites too late to do anything about - its my own eating too fast / getting too hungry / big bites - I am so stubborn that I can't seem to get it through my head that when I eat like that I ALWAYS end up bringing up the last bite or two...my weight loss has stalled and eating is such a pain - I want to eat around the band, instead of learning what stays and works, and what doesn't...and I can feel everything that goes through - its painful! Duh - not enough to make me want to stop eating everything, just enough to make me want to go back to liquids...

sweetsue · November 17, 2006

This morning I swallowed 2 tic tac sized pills (perhaps bigger) and completely forgot that I had a lap band. Luckilly, they didn't get stuck.

hulia goolia · November 17, 2006

I swallow pills everyday. Is that still bad. I'm 5 months out????

justduckie · November 17, 2006

Oh, I'm glad I'm not the only one that gets the stuck feeling 4-5 bites after!!!! And it's definitely after I've eaten too fast! I kick myself when I do that.

Also, when I eat certain foods, it feels more like someone is taking a bottle brush and running it up and down my esophagus! I guess you could describe it as broken glass, too.

My dr. told me yesterday that if you are pb-ing all the time, you are too tight. He told me to let him know if I start puking all the time and then he would do an unfill. In 6 months, I can count the times I've puked on one hand.