Donna Cozy

My mother had her Gastric Sleeve 8 months ago and had horrible complications. Dr. had to do open procedure. She spent a few months in the hospital and almost died. She can't keep any meals down now. After she was taken off of the feeding tube, she slowly started having what we thought was dumping syndrome. One Dr. says yes and the other says no. A swallow study was done and turned out ok. She also had her throat stretched, to no avail. She can usually keep Protein shakes down and now those are even starting to come back up too. Not always, just sometimes. This was the one thing she was able to keep down. She said it doesn't matter what she eats, it usually comes back up. Before she got this bad, she was able to keep chicken noodle Soup down one day, but not the next. Same with other foods. She's tried eating extremely slow and has really small portions. Does drink Water for an hour after meals. Tries walking around after meals. Nothing seems to help. She's been put on Nexium, Erythromycin, and new drug will be prescribed if these don't work. Has anyone out there had dumping syndrome for this long past surgery? I don't know if it's because she had the open procedure and it's going to take longer to get her back on track, or if something went wrong during the surgery... or if it's just a matter of avoiding trigger foods. I've asked her to keep a food journal, to see if there was a common denominator, but she refuses because she said it happens will anything she eats and she feels there's no rhyme or reason. She had to have THREE surgeries, by the way. She had a staple line leak and is lucky that she made it through the last surgery. After a few weeks on a ventilator, tracheotomy, pneumonia, several blood transfusions, kidneys on the verge of shutting down and sepsis, she finally pulled through and was able to make it home for Thanksgiving. Also had to go to a rehab facility to learn how to walk again because she was in bed from June through October. She has lost around 55# and I'm afraid that she's going to become weak or cause more internal damage from her food coming back up so often now. She does take Vitamins and tries to have 2 Protein Shakes a day. Has anyone out there had an open procedure, or dumping syndrome for this long? Any ideas or words of wisdom would be most appreciated. My mom is in her early 70's, so I don't want her to start going downhill because she can't keep anything down. She admits she's not sure what foods are best to eat, other than chicken and fish. She's not crazy about fish. She said she gets tired of chicken. She's a very basic cook. Doesn't like to cook with ingredients that are hard to find. And unfortunately, they've always been meat and potatoes kind of people, so I know she struggles with new recipes that are easy and healthy. I just signed her up for this forum, so I am sure she would love to see some comments from other people that may be experiencing similar symptoms or may have suggestions to ease her symptoms.

Boy, you're right about that. My mom had this done because apparently Rosie O'Donnell raved about it on TV. I wish that the Dr's would go into more detail about what "COULD" go wrong and how serious it could be if it does. My mom almost lost her life and literally lost a whole season while she was in the hospital. She went in with an overnight bag in June, thinking she'd be home the next day, and ended up coming back home in time to spend Thanksgiving with family. And thankful we were! Well, another blessing is that today is day FIVE without food coming back up. Hopefully she keeps moving in this direction. Thank you for your input Nancy.

Oh, and I forgot to answer one of your questions. She is only 5'1 and when she went in for surgery, I believe she was 225 She is down to 150 currently.

Great information Inner Surfer Girl! Will definitely give some of these ideas a try. I know she makes decaf tea sometimes, but hadn't thought of infused water. Tried the Mio drops and didn't like them. The problem is that she's 72 and set in her ways. No to mention that, at her age she doesn't like to cook. I noticed she always goes for a "quick" meal option. She will eat whatever is fast and easy over more nutritious. It's a work in progress. The good news is that we are on day 5 now without meals coming back up. She thinks the medicine is working, but I think she may have become more aware of how fast she's eating and she is making sure to not drink any liquids close to meal time. I pray it's finally over. Thank you so much for your suggestions. Still going to try to get her in with a nutritionist asap.

About the same. We did a little experiment yesterday that seemed to help. This involved taking just two bites of food and walking away from the dinner table for about 10 or 15 minutes before attempting a couple more bites. In 3 months, she will be a year out from surgery and this certainly is not how she expected she'd have to live. She is started to get very discouraged.

Thank you so much for your response. Yes, she has been getting professional help. They've already done an EGD (stretched throat) and a swallow study. She is on a medication that is supposed to help retain the stomach muscle to spasm differently, in hopes that the food will stay down. Currently she is drinking 2 protein shakes a day, at 25 grams of protein ea drink. She is going to try to start drinking a 3rd one, although she struggles to get two down. I have asked her to keep a food journal, but she is being stubborn about that. She tells me that for Breakfast she has a piece of toast (white bread. Won't eat multi-grain or wheat) and an egg. Says she gets just 2 or 3 bites of the egg down and anywhere between 1/2 piece to full pc of bread. This usually won't stay down. Sometimes she can eat chicken noodle soup and sometimes she can't keep it down either. As an experiment, yesterday I had lunch with her. She had a small piece of pork chop, a couple of brussels sprouts and a tbs of mashed potatoes. We had her take 2 bites and then walk away from the dinner table for about 10 or 15 minutes, then come back and take a couple more bites and walk away. She did that twice and kept it down. I know my mom though and I know she won't stick to this. She is very impatient when it comes to things like this. I have a feeling that after a time or two of having to do this, she will get tired of having to heat up her food and not being able to eat with my Dad. Every time I try to talk to her about different things to try, she gets very upset and doesn't want to talk about it. I am going to try really hard to get her in with a nutritionist. She went to the support group before her surgery, but doesn't want to go back because she thinks her circumstances are so rare, which they are, that nobody will be able to relate or give advice because what they went through was "the norm" without all of the extreme complications that my mom experienced. This is why I wanted to come to an online group. I was hoping "someone" out there might have had a similar experience that my mom could relate to. Although, I am very grateful for any and all advise along the way. Another thing that concerns me is that my mom doesn't take in near enough water. She drinks diet green tea all day. She thinks that is good enough, since there is no sugar and she "doesn't like water". And she said that she read that green tea is very good for you. Wondering if this could be part of the problem though. Although, she only vomits after she tries to eat something. We were under the impression that only 65g of protein was needed per day and that anything beyond that was being expelled through urine. But I see that you recommend 100g per day. She will definitely need the 3rd shake if this is the case. Thanks for your reply!