ClareLynn

Did you ever figure out what was the problem?

I have a pre-existing sliding hiatal hernia since 2016. They did not fix it during my surgery like they said they would unfortunately. So it’s still there causing symptoms. I’m not sure how to more clearly say I’m not stressed? If it’s magic hidden stress that even I don’t know about I don’t think there’s much I can do about it anyway. 😄 I do separate my eating and drinking. I only take the same ridiculously small sips since the surgery, otherwise it backs up into my throat. I sure hope the answer is found from the upper gi I just did since otherwise, it’s not clear why this is my fault and what I’m doing wrong…

I had this diagnosis pre-surgery, it wasn’t a complication from my duodenal switch (SADI). I do not have trouble breathing really, except when I drink and then bend over or lie down. Then the contents of my stomach often come up and go down into my lungs. When that happens I can hear a crackling noise when I breathe and have trouble taking deep breaths. I avoid this by cutting off drinking about 30 minutes before bedtime and sleeping on an incline. I have read here often that gastric bypass should help with reflux. I’m sorry that you developed it even with the “right” surgery.

I have had silent heartburn since before the surgery. it took 10 years for a diagnosis. I don’t get heartburn symptoms or anything. But I do have constant trouble swallowing due to a lump and tightness in my throat. I also have had vocal troubles that required months of vocal therapy so that I could speak with less pain. It still hurts to talk though. I take 40mg omeprazole twice a day, sleep in an adjustable bed so I can be on an incline, do PT every day to relieve the throat tension, and avoid: dairy, acidic foods like tomatoes, chocolate, fatty foods, spicy foods, and bread/pasta to avoid making it worse. I was supposed to have a hiatal hernia fixed during my WLS which they thought would help but that … didn’t happen. So I still have it post op.

I don’t think it’s stress, I have been taking it easy post surgery and don’t feel stressed? Just tired of the constant disphagia. I had existing problems with my esophagus, throat and voice going in due to a hiatal hernia. They didn’t fix it during the surgery (said they didn’t see it… which well what can you do at this point?) I’ve had the hernia for over 6 years on multiple endoscopies. I’ll just wait and see what the GI shows and hope it’s a stricture that they can dilate or something. I would hate to have to go through this again with a follow up hernia surgery. 🤞

Well I’m back to having trouble swallowing and have an upper gi tomorrow morning. I hoe they see something that they can fix! 🤞

I grind up regular Tylenol and eat it with applesauce and am 5 weeks out.

I’ve been stalled for almost 3 weeks now. Lost 20 lbs in the first two weeks after surgery then hit a wall. I eat about 500-700 calories a day, weighing and tracking everything. Not losing inches either and I’m pooping like a champ. 😂 It’s demoralizing but I’m going to mentally amortize the initial 20 over the month and assume that I will keep losing weight eventually.

I called them when I was sick and the only thing they said was “Go to the ER”. I see the surgeon on the 6th and can mention it then.

I’m 4 weeks post op and am struggling with getting food wet enough to swallow without feeling stuck. If I start with something that is moist, like tuna with mayo, by the time I have chewed it, all the mayo seems to be gone and I’m left with very dry chewed up tuna that is hard to swallow. Lately I have been eating food in a bit of cream soup, like a soft boiled egg in a tbsp of cream soup or broth. Then when I’m ready to swallow, I add a wee bit of the soup to hep it go down. Not sure if this is cheating or not. If I chew less it doesn’t get as dry but it’s too chunky for me. Do I need to go back to chewing school? 😂

So this may be very specific to me and my messed up palate and teeth but I found a way to chew that doesn’t dry out my food. I keep my chin down and look at the floor. Then I use my tongue to keep pushing my food with each chew back towards the front so that I don’t accidentally swallow juices while chewing. Really weird, I assume I don’t chew correctly, I could only ever chew on one side anyway so it’s probably a bad habit I picked up to deal with bad teeth. Now that I’m doing this, it takes a lot of concentration(!) the food is staying moist. Though I still need sips occasionally too. Thanks for letting me now little sips to help food go down is okay!

So hidden bonus: my problems drinking and eating, where it wasn’t going directly into my stomach but backing up my esophagus is much better! As soon as I could drink again after my horrible day of vomiting, I could finally take a sip and not have to wait for it to go down. It’s making it possible to drink the required amount of water finally! I guess it must have knocked something loose? 😂

One thing I didn’t think to ask about but has had a big impact on my peace of mind is how problems that arise outside of business hours are handled. What can the on call surgeon do for you? Can they help you get admitted or just tell you when you should go to the ER? Is your surgeon the on call or is it someone you don’t know? During office hours are your questions answers by an assistant or can you actually reach the surgeon? I’ve spent a lot of time in the ER with long waits due to covid, and the on call isn’t able to help me. It’s made scary situations even more stressful. For example if I could do it again, I’d make sure my surgery wasn’t sending me home fright before a holiday or weekend. I had problems as soon as I was released and had to go wait in the ER because no one was around to help.

After 9 hours they finally gave me something to stop me from throwing up and for the headache. They said it was a really bad migraine and my stomach looked ok on the CT scan. I’m home now and slowly drinking as much as I can to get hydrated. There were so many people there with COVID. The ambulances just kept coming in and filled up all the available beds. They ended up treating me in a supply closet.

Aaaand I’m back in the ER. I got what I thought was a migraine today. When I took my meds I got sicker and anything I drank, even just 2 sips are being thrown up. Every ER in the area is full. So I’ve been sitting here for 5 hours waiting. They gave me fluids but refuse to give me any meds through the IV like Tylenol or anti nausea meds so that I could go home. They want a CT scan since my stomach hurts. I was throwing up a bunch so it’s not surprising it hurts. A bunch of people have been here for 8+ hours only to give up and go home. I feel like I can’t since I am not sure I can keep fluids down yet. I spent all day yesterday at the emergency vet with my cat, and now after two days of low access to water and food, I feel awful and weak…

My surgeon works out of this hospital and the dietician is the hospital dietician. I’ll call them after Christmas and see if they can recccomend another. It’s not like I am not trying to eat low fat most of the time. It’s just that I don’t want someone jumping all over the little stuff like when I eat regular cottage cheese when that’s what was available and not helping me with the bigger picture.

My dietician totally did not understand it today when I tried to explain it. She just kept repeating that I should use a tsp of non-fat mayo mixed with a 2oz serving of tuna. I think that this dietician isn’t going to be very helpful to me long term and I should consider finding someone who “gets” WLS people better. She was mostly interested in telling me to eat as low fat as physically possible, quibbling over 2g extra per serving. I don’t think it’s a very maintainable way to look at things. Also there were a few contradictions between what my surgeon and the hospital told me and what she said. It was mostly confusing and reinforced my distrust of dieticians…

Oh this makes me feel sooo much better! ❤️

I see them tomorrow and will ask about it. 👍 I mostly wasn’t sure if I’m weird or if other people have trouble with this too.

I just went to the unjury website and there is a warning on each item page to not heat it over 140 or it will curdle. Im going to buy a single serving packet and see how it compares to isopure. “For all UNJURY flavors, do not use in liquids hotter than 140º F. Proteins, when heated, change texture. For example, you have seen an egg white go from a clear gel, to firm white, when cooked. For UNJURY®, in a hot liquid, the proteins tend to clump. A food thermometer is a good way to get the temperature nicely warm…just right.”

I know that there are a million topics about this already but to be honest I was still having a hard time mixing my protein powder (isopure zero carb) into hot soups for the full liquid phase. If I mixed it first, getting out all the lumps, then microwaved it, it would curdle. If I mixed with water and added it after heating, it would thin out the soup too much and cool it down even faster. I tried blender bottles, a vitamix, and milk frothers and nothing was working. I am having much better luck mixing the powder with a tiny bit of broth (just water was diluting the soup flavor). Mix it up into a thick paste and there are still dry spots and lumps. Then just leave it for a few minutes and it finishes mixing all on its own. The consistency starts off as thick oatmeal and after sitting is like heavy cream without any lumps. I then add that to the heated soup and don’t get any lumps, thin out the soup or dilute the flavor! I’m just super happy to have finally figured out something that doesn’t totally suck after 2 weeks of liquids. 😅 I guess it also helps that I am adding salt to the soups. It’s just 3oz of soup, and more sat is the only thing making this doable.

Ah okay. My surgeon only wants me to drink shakes during a meal and when I first told him about sipping a shake throughout the day, he explicitly told me not to. So it’s been a bit of a struggle!

When people say that they are having 2-3 shakes a day in the beginning when portions are around 2-4oz, so they mean one 8oz shake drink throughout the day? Or are people really getting that many full shakes in somehow? I can still only drink 4oz at a time and can’t hit my protein targets because of the size limits.

I had the SADI on Nov 24th too. 19lbs lost so far which is amazing for me. 🎉 When I diet on my own it’s max 1-2lbs a month, so this is warp speed IMO.

I always avoided breakfast and after surgery it’s even worse. I sip flavored water for about 2 hours before I feel up to anything else in my tummy. It needs time to wake up. 😂