Motility test results...

Hey gang, I'm 7 months post-op and have had ongoing problems with nausea/vomitting. Stricture has been ruled out, so I just had an upper GI with small bowel follow-through. For those who have never had this done, it's a test that follows food/liquid as it passes your esophagus, stomach and small bowel. Well, apparently, my motility is S L O W. Very S L O W! First, I had to drink the barium...no problem. Then I had to take a barium tablet...this stayed 'stuck' in my pouch for over 5 minutes (it should have gone right through). Next I ate a small piece of barium-laced graham cracker followed by 1 teaspoon of applesause and half of a slice of lunchmeat ham. To the radiologist surprise, my pouch was completely filled up! She estimated that I ate an ounce of food over the course of 15 minutes, which is not good at all. She told me that the reason why I am all the time is because I am overfilling my pouch! Of course, I'm not being noncompliant; I SHOULD be able to eat more than 1/4 graham cracker, 1 tsp of applesauce and 1/2 slice of ham at 7 months post-op. She estimates that I'm eating the same amount of someone who is just 6 weeks postop. Then, the next part of the test was to see how long it took to empty out of my pouch and into the small bowel. Again, it was longer than usual...45 minutes for 1 lousy ounce of food! No wonder I'm sick all the time! I'm now awaiting an appt with surgeon and nut to figure out a plan to get me to eat. I don't want to have to resort to grazing all day, because that's a habit I don't want to get into! I have absolutely no energy and although my bloodwork is normal, we all know that isn't always the case. I rarely exercise and my weight loss has come to a screeching halt now for over 2 months. (Why do anorexics lose when they don't eat and I can't??) The radiologist who did the test suggested that I may have adhesions causing my stomach not to stretch to accommodate the food. Not a true stricture, but still not normal sized. I AM set to have my gallbladder out, so perhaps he can do an adhesion takedown while he's in there... Anyone else with this type of eating problem? How much should we be able to eat? I heard something like 4 or 5 ounces by now... Just venting... Toni

Hi Toni, Sorry to hear about what your dealing with. It truly sucks. Sounds like your Dr. is getting to the bottom of things. Hopefully, it'll be taken care of soon. I think when it comes to amounts of food that we should be taking in right now, that alot of our Dr's are different. The paperwork I have says that during the first year post op you should work up to 1 cup of food at a time & that should be where you stay. I can eat a whole lean cuisine (the small boxes). That's about my limit. I'll be praying for you. Keep us posted. Come and vent anytime, that's why we're here. Tammy

Hi Toni, Wow, what a story... I'm sorry you're not doing well, but as least the issue may found soon which means a solution. Dawn