I made some very bad decisions and I'm unsure what to do next. My surgery was a year ago and I haven't really experienced any dumping since then. That false sense of security made me get extremely irresponsible this week. On Thursday night, I had a plate of tortilla chips, salsa, nacho cheese, and about an hour later, a shot of vodka. To make matters worse, I hadn't had much water that day.

Friday, morning, I felt mostly okay but I had a dull ache on the left side of my groin. I was afraid it could be a kidney stone, so I bought a gallon of diet green tea around 7 PM and drank the entire thing in about four hours.

At about 10 PM, I started having diarrhea and (this next part is graphic and I apologize in advance) I could see whole tomato bits from the salsa I had Thursday in it.

I started feeling very lightheaded after about the fourth time going to the bathroom. Around midnight I ate a granola bar trying to settle my stomach. At 12:30, I had a small serving of cream of chicken soup because I was still lightheaded and shaky. The diarrhea made me go to the bathroom about six times overall. At 2 AM this morning, I had also peed about 64 ounces after drinking that gallon of green tea. I was extremely afraid to go to sleep while I was lightheaded because I thought I wouldn't wake up. Around 3 AM, the symptoms didn't feel as severe so I finally went to sleep.

This morning, I had a little more soup, half a granola bar about 3 hours after that, and I am now slowly sipping a Gatorade Zero. I still feel slightly lightheaded at times, but it's not persistent like yesterday.

I know all of this is because of my extremely stupid choices and I regret everything I did. I feel a lot better than last night, but the lightheadedness coming back today did worry me a bit. Should I just wait it out at this point?

wouldn't be dumping. "Normal" dumping happens pretty soon after you eat. What they call "late dumping" (also called reactive hypoglycemia) happens 1-2 hours after you eat, and can last a couple of hours. Sounds like you ate something that didn't agree with you - or else you've got a bug.

Edited April 2, 20224 yr by catwoman7

That's not dumping. That's overcarbing. It'll pass with time.

Besides the discomfort in your lower intestines, you had no real symptoms for 24 hours which tends to rule out all dumping. Not food poisoning as that occurs more quickly too & usually includes vomiting as well as diarrhoea. I think you picked up a bug too.

Cream soup probably wasn’t the best choice (a broth would have been better) as it likely added to your upset digestive system because of its richness.

Out of curiosity, why specifically green tea for what you thought was a kidney stone? Was it just to increase your fluids to try to flush the stone?

The lightheadedness should abate as you start to eat more. Glad you’re feeling better.

22 minutes ago, Arabesque said:

Besides the discomfort in your lower intestines, you had no real symptoms for 24 hours which tends to rule out all dumping. Not food poisoning as that occurs more quickly too & usually includes vomiting as well as diarrhoea. I think you picked up a bug too.

Cream Soup probably wasn’t the best choice (a broth would have been better) as it likely added to your upset digestive system because of its richness.

Out of curiosity, why specifically green tea for what you thought was a kidney stone? Was it just to increase your fluids to try to flush the stone?

The lightheadedness should abate as you start to eat more. Glad you’re feeling better.

Yes, just to increase fluids. I thought a full gallon would simultaneously flush it out and get me "caught up" on my water intake for the day, as it was very low. In hindsight, I don't think drinking the entire gallon in just a few hours was a good idea at all.

Today, I got a bit lightheaded around noon but I've been eating tiny portions every few hours and things seem to be back to normal as of now.

Thanks for the insight!

Diet green tea? Did it have artificial sweeteners in it? The diarrhea may be a result of the copious amount you drank?

Not sure why the groin pain, though…

10 hours ago, ms.sss said:

Diet green tea? Did it have artificial sweeteners in it? The diarrhea may be a result of the copious amount you drank?

Not sure why the groin pain, though…

At this point, I'm starting to think the pain in my side was not caused by what I ate or a stone. I was reminded by a family member that I did fall earlier this week, so maybe the position I slept in exacerbated the issue by Friday. I fall very often, so it never even crossed my mind as a possibility. Especially considering I wasn't in pain when the fall happened. Perhaps the timing just made me panic.

I don't think it has artificial sweeteners, but here's a picture of the label in case I'm missing something. The diarrhea seemed like a direct reaction to how much I had drank, but it did appear to get the rest of that salsa out of my system so I guess drinking it helped in some way.

At this point, I'm starting to think the pain in my side was not caused by what I ate or a stone. I was reminded by a family member that I did fall earlier this week, so maybe the position I slept in exacerbated the issue by Friday. I fall very often, so it never even crossed my mind as a possibility. Especially considering I wasn't in pain when the fall happened. Perhaps the timing just made me panic.
I don't think it has artificial sweeteners, but here's a picture of the label in case I'm missing something. The diarrhea seemed like a direct reaction to how much I had drank, but it did appear to get the rest of that salsa out of my system so I guess drinking it helped in some way.

Sucaralose causes stomach upset. I wouldn't drink that much artificial sweetner. Hope your feeling better