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Signs that my pouch is full? and other questions



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Hello,

So I am 12 days post op and I have a few questions, actually. First, I am still on my full liquid phase. I start purees tomorrow.

1. How to tell if my pouch is full? I'm not really sure what I feel. I do get the hiccups if I drink too much. I'm trying to "feel" whatever it is I'm supposed to, but still not quite sure. I know when I'm not hungry and I haven't pushed my pouch at all. I haven't eaten or drank anything I'm not supposed to...is this why I don't know what it is that my pouch is full

2. Can my pouch even get full on liquids? I know that food can fill it up because it takes time to digest and filter through the stoma, but do liquids work differently? Does it just kind of go right through?

3.I think I've hit a stall. It's been like 4 days since the scale has budged!!! The 2 weeks before surgery I lost 13 pounds and then the week after I lost another 10. Could this be my 3 week stall??? I'm frustrated hitting a stall only a week after surgery.

4. Is marinara sauce okay to eat on pureed stage? I made some beef stew with it, but wondering if this is good because I know it has sodium and some sugar (from the tomatoes).

5. I still have a bruised feeling in the left part of my belly near some of my incisions. Is this normal? I feel like it should be gone by now. It isn't constant, but with certain movements. It is the worst when I lift my arms over my head and stretch out my belly. I don't have a fever or anything like that.

6. I get dizzy and light headed when I bend over. And slightly out of breath? Does anyone know why this happens and when it will go away?

Please help!!!

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Hello' date='

So I am 12 days post op and I have a few questions, actually. First, I am still on my full liquid phase. I start purees tomorrow.

1. How to tell if my pouch is full? I'm not really sure what I feel. I do get the hiccups if I drink too much. I'm trying to "feel" whatever it is I'm supposed to, but still not quite sure. I know when I'm not hungry and I haven't pushed my pouch at all. I haven't eaten or drank anything I'm not supposed to...is this why I don't know what it is that my pouch is full

2. Can my pouch even get full on liquids? I know that food can fill it up because it takes time to digest and filter through the stoma, but do liquids work differently? Does it just kind of go right through?

3.I think I've hit a stall. It's been like 4 days since the scale has budged!!! The 2 weeks before surgery I lost 13 pounds and then the week after I lost another 10. Could this be my 3 week stall??? I'm frustrated hitting a stall only a week after surgery.

4. Is marinara sauce okay to eat on pureed stage? I made some beef stew with it, but wondering if this is good because I know it has sodium and some sugar (from the tomatoes).

5. I still have a bruised feeling in the left part of my belly near some of my incisions. Is this normal? I feel like it should be gone by now. It isn't constant, but with certain movements. It is the worst when I lift my arms over my head and stretch out my belly. I don't have a fever or anything like that.

Please help!!![/quote']

I get the hiccups when I get full or close too it. I also feel a little tightness when I'm full. If I'm overly full I get a pain in my chest.

Liquids will slide so unless something is really thick you prob won't feel full. I have come broccoli cheese Soup and it was rather thick and I was full fast but I could eat broth all day and not feel full.

Stalls will happen. I'm 3 weeks post op and in a stall now. Don't worry about the scale. Easier said than done I know. Just keep doing what you are supposed to and it will come off.

I had Pasta sauce puréed with no problems. Just go slow when you eat it.

The bruised feeling may be from them going into many layers to get into your belly and just the healing process. If it bothers you please double check with your dr.

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I got the hiccups as well as extra saliva. I could also feel my tummy getting hard when full. Actually manually feel a bump on the outside of my belly. Stalls happen for you when they happen. Best to put the scale away and forget about it for a while. Then maybe a few weeks check again. I can get full on liquids but usually only thicker ones. As for the sauce...just try a little bit at a time. You are gonna react differently to things that you loved before. You will over eat and overfill your stomach...all of us do. I threw up for about six months at least every other day...if not more cause I was stubborn. You will learn. The part that at least made it a little easier was there was never any stomach acid in it so the horrible throw up taste at least wasn't there. Good luck

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You won't feel your restriction (real fullness) until you eat solid food down the line, don't worry you'll know the difference!

I also hiccup when full. It is a good barometer of when to stop. I get like an internal hiccup or burp, and then 1 or 2 loud hiccups. At my house everyone knows what that means. Sometimes it happens so fast!

By the way, you don't have a pouch or a stoma unless you had Gastric Bypass surgery. You just have a smaller stomach, the shape of a banana. You still have your pylorus intact at the base of your stomach.

Stalls happen. Just stay on track and you will lose the weight !! Don't stress over the scale readings, it will drive you nuts.

Drink lots of Water or other SF drinks and get your protein!!

Good luck!!

Spaghetti sauce is fine for pureed stage. Try it as a ricotta bake. Take a mini baking dish and spread with about 1/3 c. sauce (meat sauce or marinara) on the bottom, then ricotta cheese mixed with an egg and a little parm, then some shredded motzarella, then more sauce topped with motzarella and parm and bake in the oven until bubbly and starting to brown. It's the BOMB. Tastes like lasagna but no noodles.

The bruising and sore feeling will go away with time. Don't do anything too strenous until the pain is gone.

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1. I can tell my pouch is full when I start burping. I have to take small bites - about a teaspoon - to keep from getting overfull. I don't have a warning sign that I'm getting "close" to being full. It's take a bite, I'm okay, take a bite, I'm okay, take a bite, I'm full.

2. I don't know if you can get full on fluids, I haven't ever felt that way, but I am sure it can be done. Everyone's different.

3. It is normal for me to go 4 - 5 days and the scale not move. I don't worry about it. At 7 weeks out, I've gone through it enough times that I know it's just my body readjusting to the reduced calorie intake.

4. It might be okay to eat marinara sauce. Everyone's stomach is different. I still can't eat anything with sucralose or sugar alcohols - sugar free Jell-O, sugar free popsicles, G2 Gatorade.

I created my own stomach test for new foods. I take a bite, about 1/2 teaspoon, wait 5 minutes for any signs my stomach doesn't like it, take another 1/2 teaspoon and wait another 5 minutes. If my stomach isn't rumbling in that 10 minutes, I can eat it.

5. I haven't had an pains around my incisions, but during the 1st week I could feel a pulling sensation inside when I lay the wrong way on the bed.

6. Didn't experience that, sorry I can't help with that one.

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Thank you everyone. I feel much better. It's so difficult to tell sometimes because the nurses don't go through every little thing with you.

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You won't feel your restriction (real fullness) until you eat solid food down the line, don't worry you'll know the difference!

I also hiccup when full. It is a good barometer of when to stop. I get like an internal hiccup or burp, and then 1 or 2 loud hiccups. At my house everyone knows what that means. Sometimes it happens so fast!

By the way, you don't have a pouch or a stoma unless you had Gastric Bypass surgery. You just have a smaller stomach, the shape of a banana. You still have your pylorus intact at the base of your stomach.

Stalls happen. Just stay on track and you will lose the weight !! Don't stress over the scale readings, it will drive you nuts.

Drink lots of Water or other SF drinks and get your protein!!

Good luck!!

Spaghetti sauce is fine for pureed stage. Try it as a ricotta bake. Take a mini baking dish and spread with about 1/3 c. sauce (meat sauce or marinara) on the bottom, then ricotta cheese mixed with an egg and a little parm, then some shredded motzarella, then more sauce topped with motzarella and parm and bake in the oven until bubbly and starting to brown. It's the BOMB. Tastes like lasagna but no noodles.

The bruising and sore feeling will go away with time. Don't do anything too strenous until the pain is gone.

Do you have any links I can read about the stoma etc. I'm very interested in understanding this.

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I will send you a link tomorrow. I have a good one on my desktop. Right now I'm on my android phone. You did have the sleeve surgery right and not a gastric bypass? They are completely different.

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I will send you a link tomorrow. I have a good one on my desktop. Right now I'm on my android phone. You did have the sleeve surgery right and not a gastric bypass? They are completely different.

yes I had the gastric sleeve...Ok. Thank you.

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My suggestion to your stall: get a tape measure and measure yourself. I stalled as well but m body kept changing.

Don't worry too much about knowing when you are full. Measure your food and eat slowly. Chew well. You'll get your groove down. I'm still at a bit of a loss on the fullness thing. NUT says it takes time to learn and not to worry.

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Basically with gastric bypass, a pouch is created that is attached to your small intestine. They create a small hole for the contents of your stomach to pass thru to your intestine, that is called the stoma.The rest of your stomach is idle - still in your abdominal cavity, but not in use. The process is two-fold, restriction from not being able to eat much, and also what they call malabsorbtive, which means you can't digest all the food so it passes out of your body without being fully utilized.

Sleeve surgery leaves your normal esophagus intact, it is a path down your throat into your stomach that has a little flap. Your stomach is trimmed down to the size of a banana, and food exits normally through the pylorus muscle, which is a sphincter, it opens and closes to move food down into your intestines normally.

Sorry I could not attach a link, this website does not allow me to post the link, I got an error message, but you can just look up the various surgery techniques on the web.

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I 12 days post op. my inside still feel sore, like I was on a fight 12 days ago. I lost 12 lbs preop and my first week post op I only lost 2 due to all the IV fluids. I expect this weeks weight loss to be better. I weigh myself daily but I only believe what it says on weigh in day. I moved to puréed today and mashed potatoes were the best thing I have ever eaten!!

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Today I noticed that after I ate, I was able to burp and let food come up my throat as if I was vomiting it up, but I was able to control bringing it up. What does that mean?

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Today I noticed that after I ate, I was able to burp and let food come up my throat as if I was vomiting it up, but I was able to control bringing it up. What does that mean?

I get that same thing. I don't feel sick or anything but I can def burp up food if I wanted to. Yuck! I think that's a sign I ate too much.

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