[jiffypop]

another title could be: don't eat a meal that has ONLY things you find challenging!!!!

sounds so obvious, doesn't it.. but some of us are just hard-headed [or inattentive]

i just got out of the bathroom: chicken [dry], artichoke [fibrous] baked potato skin [not easily chewed to mush]

<sigh>

[Chickadee]

Poor you! I wish I could tell you that I have no idea what you're talking about, but I DO! For some reason I keep trying the same things that I always have trouble with and hoping it will result in a different outcome. You know, I read the definition of insanity is to keep doing the same things the same way and expect a different result. Hey Jif, we're officially nuts!

Your Loony Little Friend,
Chick

[Dawnajoy]

Okay, I have to ask. Do you have to chew your food to mush forever. Somehow I had thought that was only immediately post-surgery. And...I sort of get the fibrous thing, but I'm not sure I understand the dry or whatever. Can you explain please?

For me, meal planning at this point consists of trying to take my calcium near meals or snacks with dairy products, and trying to move my iron supplements far far away from any calcium source.

Very few foods are problems for me, although nuts tend to give me a tummy ache, so I try to avoid them for the most part.

At this point for me, food planning consists of trying to get as much nutrition out of every bite as I can, making sure I eat at regular intervals, and always, always, always, pushing fluids.

Dawna

[Chickadee]

Hi Dawna,

For us bandsters, if we have any restriction, yep, we have to chew, chew, chew. What happens if I don't chew well enough or eat too fast is that the food gets stuck in the opening created by the band and it hurts like ****! I either suffer through until it decides to go through, or <trying to be delicate here> bring it up. Certain foods create more problems than others. Chicken is always hard for me to eat and doughy bready things hurt too. So I'll have to watch it as long as I have my band - very small price to pay though!

Chickadee

[jiffypop]

yep! what chickadeedeedear said. and since i don't have a significant amount of stomach acid any more, dry stuff gets stuck easily. so the combination of fibrous and dry is painful... thank goodness i didn't add doughy to that awful combination!

[Dawnajoy]

Thanks for the info. My best friend has the band, and hopefully now I understand more about her various band issues. The other thing she talks about is the band tightening or something. Some days she has trouble eating pretty much anything, but for the most part she is extremely happy with it and is doing great. I am used to her making a run for it occasionally and always know what is going on, but I was unsure if there was any rhyme or reason to it.

As for the RNY, I had heard about dumping, but hadn't heard much about pain. Is it related to dumping or is it a different issue entirely? You would think after being around the WLS community for years, I would have a better understanding of these things! Thanks for taking the time to educate me a bit.

Dawna

[Megsmom]

I had GBS almost 2 years ago and dumping and getting something stuck for me is completely different. Dumping for me can be either I get very very tired or I am so sick that I sweat through my clothes, my heart races a mile a minute, my whole body feels like it's going to shake out of my skin, and I'm so sick and nausious that all I can do is lay down for an hour before I deal with ANYTHING. I was eating soy nuts one afternoon and either I didn't chew them enough or I just ate to many to fast and they got stuck. It hurt worse then the recovery from my surgery. I couldn't move the pain was so bad, I couldn't sit, I couldn't lay down, I couldn't move. I couldn't lift my legs up to put my socks on and to bend over was completly out of the question. It lasted about 2 1/2 hours and it was so awful I haven't touched a nut since.

[Chickita]

Before I researched WLS, I thought dumping was something like puking or severe diarrhea or both. Now I figure the "dump" is sugar going into your system very quickly. Even though we usually don't have dumping with LapBands, I experienced a very mild form of this when I ate a lot of sugar, probably because of my little stomach pouch.

Now getting things stuck.....OW!!

[original_serendipity]

Chikita, dumping syndrome isn't just about sugar, and does typically involve diarrhea or vomiting. It's more of a physical thing where our itty bitty stomachs dump all of it's contents into the intestines. I copied an official definiton of dumping syndrome for everyone. Dumping syndrome is pretty much in line with a fast hypoglycemic reaction, however.

Dumping syndrome: Rapid gastric emptying, or dumping syndrome, happens when the lower end of the small intestine (jejunum) fills too quickly with undigested food from the stomach. 1

Angie