Hi everyone! I know this may sound silly, but I'm so nervous about my pouch stretching. I've dumped a number of times as a learning process still, and I'm worried that stretches my pouch. Is it possible to stretch the pouch, or is it really difficult?

It is not silly. This is something that I worry about as well. I recently had a blockage and when they did the CT to determine what was going on, the surgeon told me that my stomach was the size of a normal persons since it had been accumulating with food and not passing through. Ever since then I've been petrified that I screwed it all up. I don't dump so I can't really speak to that aspect. I will be 6 months out on Nov 1st and see my doctor on the 3rd so I will definately be asking questions about the size of the pouch. I do believe however that the pouch size will increase a little as we're able to tolerate more foods but I don't think that its supposed to be as large as prior to surgery.

Maybe others have some more concrete advice for us...

@@leanne1126 thankyou! Good to know I'm not the only one who has this anxiety

I worry about it as well. I'll say this, it takes some work to really stretch a pouch out. My best friend had a RNY GB 12 years or so ago. He eats whatever he wants, and has failed miserably at the whole weight loss thing (from 700 pounds to 400) but even with that, he can't eat more than a single piece of pizza at a time. His issue, is that he'll start on a pizza at 1700, and by the time he goes to bed, he will have eaten the whole thing, one slice at a time. So, i'll go on record stating that while it is certainly possible to stretch your pouch, it is not easy, if it were my freind would be dead by now. In fact, he has a number of extremely severe health issues relating to, you guessed it, morbid obesity. He has become so anemic that he has to to the hospital three days a week and be infused with Iron via a slow drip, as his body has completely lost the ability to absorb Iron. His Vitamin D is heading the same way, I think his current Vitamin D is 200,000 IU a week and even that has not brought his levels up to normal. He'll die fairly soon I think, we've been friends for 30 years, and I'll miss him, but this is all his doing. I talked until I was blue in the face and he laughed everything off. Oh and he needs double knee replacements, complete knee replacements, at 42 years old. Not good.

I think there's more chance of eating around your pouch, rather than stretching it. I think that's the main cause for regain.

@@winklie gives an excellent example of doing it too. Her friend still can't eat a lot at one sitting, but if you eat the wrong foods, and work all day at getting it in, the weight will return.

Edited October 23, 201510 yr by The Post Op

I think there's more chance of eating around your pouch, rather than stretching it. I think that's the main cause for regain.

@@winklie gives an excellent example of doing it too. Her friend still can't eat a lot at one sitting, but if you eat the wrong foods, and work all day at getting it in, the weight will return.

I am actually a He. lol

My apologies Mr. @@winklie! ????

@ No biggie, I usually go by Winkly but it was taken if you can believe that, so I use the alternate spelling. It's a long story, perhaps someday I'll share the etymology of my username.