Feeling very restricted in my stomach right now.

juliebccs

Hoping others have experienced this. I am 7 months out and have not experienced many issues physically until now.
Today and yesterday I noticed that I feel very full after eating my meal. Not quite the same as the normal feeling of full with a VSG. The type of full that makes you think the food is sitting in your esophagus. But it doesn't really go away,,,it just stays there. I have tried having a drink a few hours later to try to push it through if you like. But I can't drink much either.
I managed to get in about 400 calories yesterday with great effort. today I am sitting on 300 and it is 8.30pm at night here.
When I ate beef, I could still sort of smell it in my stomach several hours later when I burped (sorry for that sensory eeww folk). Please tell me others have experienced this weird lack of movement so far out from surgery.
Very uncomfortable.

teachren

Julie,

I get how distressing the feeling is. As I recall, a few months back (probably about 10 months out) after eating some pork I had a similar sensation. I didn't eat for the rest of the day and the next morning I seemed back to normal. I felt like it was acid as I had a weird smell and taste in my mouth.

Was the beef particularly dry? I wonder if that could have something to do with it.

I have had since eaten pork with no issues. I hope you get some relief soon.

Renee

juliebccs

Thanks Renee. It just feels like there is no room for anything, even liquid. The beef might have been a little coarse and maybe it is struggling to move through. I am just so uncomfortable. Hope it is just that.

pawoodhull

Sounds like you are overfilling your stomach, so yes, since the stomach can no longer expand, there's nowhere for the food to go and it sits in the esophagus. I've had that happen and yes, it's very uncomfortable. The other thing it could be is your food is too dry. I get that feeling from very dense meats that are too dry, almost like a stuck feeling. But usually a couple of sips of water help.

My suggestion is eat slower and learn your "full cue". My full cue is feeling like I need to burp. I may really need to burp, but whether I do or not, I need to stop eating at that point or I will overfill and the over will most likely come back up. Last night was a good example. We had salmon and salad. I ate the salmon and felt that "I need to burp" feeling, so I put the salad in the fridge and ate it about 2 hours later when my stomach had at least partially emptied. I could have eaten the salad right away, but I would have felt like you did, so I waited.

Hang in there, it does get easier.

Pat

katematt313

Yuck! Try going back to protein shakes and mush for a day or two and see if you feel better. Maybe you are a little inflamed. Maybe you are experiencing reflux, but don't have the "heart burn" symptoms. I would also call the MD and see what they say. You need to get in more than 400 calories, so no matter the cause of the issue, it can't continue!

juliebccs

I wondered if I might be a little inflamed too. Yes might go see the Dr tomorrow just to check.

katematt313

Good. When weird stuff happens with your pouch, it is always a good idea to at least make a phone call and then the MD's office can tell you whether to come in or not.