When you have food stuck, DON'T DRINK ANYTHING! Your first impulse will be to drink some Water to get it through, but it just makes it worse.

:tongue2: (<-- you if you drink water when something is stuck)

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Update: When something gets stuck, you will know it. It feels like there is food, literally, sitting in your throat (not a choking feeling, though)... it's not painful at all, it's just uncomfortable. For the first couple months I ahd my best fill, I carried around a bag in case I had to chuck (luckily never had to use it!)...

It won't last forever, it comes up or goes down, one way or the other... just let it be and ride it out... don't drink water!

Edited October 22, 200817 yr by Weas123
Answering questions

This is probably a silly question, but how exactly can you tell if something is stuck?

Oh you will know when something is stuck.

Oh yeah.........I did this today...it was horrible..horrible...horrible

I get a horrendous pressure that gets real uncomfortable when something sticks. Thankfully so far it passes instead of coming back up.

Teri

A couple fills into it, I was able to drink and push the food through. And this last fill, my "top off" of .3 ccs (in a VG)... made me learn this lesson the hard way. I cannot tell you how many meals I 'drank' with and it all came back... EWWWWW... totally perfect advice. I KNEW this advice, but had to learn the hard way...

I think we all learn the hard way! That is what it all is....a learning experience. I think we all know deep down not to drink when stuck but we try it because it would seem logical. I know after this last week, that I will NEVER do that again.

I hope other follow your advice!

I learned this the hard way too (even though I also had been told not to drink if I got stuck!) I am so hard headed sometimes!

And you will definitely know when you have something stuck!

Another bit of advice...DON'T lay down either!!!

Is it because it dilutes stomach acid? If not why does it not help. Sorry for my ignorance I was banded 3rd Sept still haven't had a fill yet. A week and a half ago I think I got chicken stuck but it lasted nearly 3 days. I tried everything, apple cider vinegar worked the best. Does anyone know exactly why water makes it worse, i'd love to know.

I'm not sure if this is the right answer of not, but I think it's because the stomach is so small that the food that you consumed was either not chewed enough to pass through the esophagus and into the stoma to be broken down and pass into the small stomach pouch. You could also have a stomach that is full already and this last bite took you over the limit.

The reaction is the same - hiccups (generally), a tight feeling in your chest/esophagus. Then you have this need to throw up, but it's something you cannot control - you don't have that mouth sweat reaction (at I don't) one normally felt -pre-band when they were nauseous. You feel this immediate mucus production in your throat/mouth and then the hiccups start followed by the up chucking of the last bit you tried to consume.

It's almost like your body is making room because the pouch is too full and since the food nor the water/beverage can pass through, your body's natural "fight or flight" /self-protection reaction kicks in - if it can go down, it has to come up & out.

In the beginning I think we all have a hard time realizing just how small the stomach has been reduced to and how much it can truly hold. I also think the hunger pains are part mental (old habits die hard) and part meal choices. If you are only consuming- liquids, soft mushies (pudding, Soup, oatmeal, cottage cheese), these are passing through the stomach pouch probably within 60-90 minutes tops. If you are drinking while eating mushies too, you are forcing these semi solids through the pouch even faster. This means your body is sending signals that you're not full, i.e. - feed me, so you stay hungry.

Well anyway - that's my take on it based on conversations with my surgeon.

I just so anxious to get my first fill on Thurs this week so I can start dropping more lbs. I've basically been at a stand still for the past 2 weeks. No gain and no loss. 7 lbs lost pre-op 2 week diet and 8 lbs post-op since 9/02/08.

I'm getting really impatient though.

Edited October 21, 200817 yr by MMDLynn

For banded patients:The reason you are not to drink is the following: You have swallowed something that is stuck on top of the band. It is effectively covering up the hole that it needs to go in to get to the bottom part of the stomach. Once food you eat gets to the bottom part of your stomach, you have no pain, are not stuck, do not PB or slime and although you may eventually feel full like you did when you ate too much pre banding, it will not make you feel pain. This is how you can "eat around the band". If you eat chocolate, shakes, etc, the melted/liquid will slip down past the band, go into the bottom of the stomach, you won't feel like you need to stop and you could absorb a lot of calories that way.

Okay, so you ate something that covered this hole, or the hole is too small for much of any food to go through (as in a too tight fill). (this especially happens if you do not cut your food into eraser sized pieces, mixed it with something wet, not chewed 20-30 times until it is like baby food in your mouth, swallowed too big a wad of baby food (which is why you cut it up into little pieces so that you won't have too much in your mouth when you go to swallow). You can not swallow, cannot burp. The food is now acting like a cork in a bottle. IF YOU DRINK ANYTHING you just make what is stuck pack down over the hole, therefore making it worse. If you stop trying to eat or drink anything the minute you feel anything different than no feeling, DO NOT TAKE ANOTHER BITE, do not chew another bite thinking the one that is starting to struggle getting through will go through, and DO NOT drink ANYTHING, because it probably will not go through in time and the small feeling of discomfort will only become worse the more bites you take. STOP eating and WAIT. Wait until you feel back to normal. This can take a lot of minutes. Wait.

Edited October 21, 200817 yr by cfuture88

I read this somewhere on this board and while it dealt with food getting stuck, I did it for gas pains and it worked like a charm.

Someone here said to do the yoga position 'downward facing dog'. When I felt like I was having a heart attack from the gas, I did it and the relief was immediate.

The poster said that when she got stuck, she did it and the food moved right on through. I'd love for someone who is stuck to try this and reiterate that it works!

ok, how do you do it? lolol. im stuck!

Are you still stuck from yesterday? OMG!!!

ok, how do you do it? lolol. im stuck!

Sorry, it was another person I chatted with yesterday that was stuck. My bad.

ok, how do you do it? lolol. im stuck!

I have found that if I stand up and stretch my arms up over my head, I will get relief from that stuck feeling. Of course, there may be a PB to accompany the movement, but it takes care of the awful discomfort.

Julie, banded 5/29/07 weight 295.2, now below goal weight at 123.1