Item stuck- anyone experience this?

Hello, Just wondering if anyone had experienced getting food stuck and if so, what did you do after it became 'unstuck'? Before this week's food 'stuckage' I have had food 2x's that didn't go down well (but it did go down/did not get stuck). 1) Right after surgery I was told to eat carrots and I accidentally bit my cheek (because I was talking) then swallowed a piece of carrot too big- that was very painful and 2)about a couple of weeks ago I ate a shrimp that was a leftover. I did chew it well but it felt like it was having trouble going down; was painful. Ok ever since the 'carrot' incident I chew till item is mush, take small bites and I do not talk/I do concentrate on my chewing. I do not drink fluids before, during or after a meal (unless when taking a 'w/food' pill then its a small sip). Well Tuesday night I ate leftover chicken (thigh) that I re-heating in the microwave. I chewed, chewed, chewed and ate at my normal pace. Well this food got stuck in my pouch. I also had to take the Actigall during this meal (took with tiny sip of water just to get it down). So both the pill/food was stuck. When I was done eating I thought it didn't sit well and I thought maybe the chicken was no longer good (since it was a leftover). Well I woke up in the middle of the night gagging on saliva/stomach acid. I was sick spitting up saliva and extremely naseaus. Still like that all of the next day (wed) and I finally realized I needed to call a doctor. I talked with the bariatric nurse coordinator who stated this is a normal occurance and most likely due to the chicken being rubbery. Her prescribed home treatments were: Yogurt first- wait 30 mins then 1 Tbsp. Olive Oil (wait 30 min) then 1 Tbsp. Meat Tenderizor (if all else fails). I had tried to throw up before calling doc office but no luck. I took the yogurt which after the 4th bite I am pretty sure it made it go down (I gagged on taking a bite of yogurt but it still didn't come up). After the 4th bite of yogurt I felt a sharp pain in my pouch area, then later further down. My burps (this is really gross) stopped smelling like rotten food so I'm pretty sure it became 'unstuck.' Obviously I am very sore and back to liquids/soft food today but how do I know it is all out of my pouch? Its still hard for me to take liquids/soft food (yogurt) and I am assuming it is because my pouch is swollen? I'm a little confused as to why it got stuck since I chewed the 2 oz of meat extremely well. Was it because it was a leftover or because I reheated it?? I would have thought that after 3 months and after multitudes of times when I've eaten the same food exactly like this last time that I wouldn't have a 'stuck food' issue. Any help from your experiences or knowledge would be helpful! Thanks Jennifer

That is awful I have not had anything like that happen to me so I don't have an answer for you but wanted to show my support Hope you get your answer and feel better soon. You might want to post the question on the main message board so that you can get some people that are further out to answer. Hope you feel better soon! Teresa

Thanks Teresa! I appreciate your support. I posted it on the main message board

The shrimp & the chicken have been my two biggest stuck prob lems & like you I chew & chew & chew etc... I hear a lot of people have problems with chicken - I know I really do - so I try to avoid it - especially breast meat - I do better with really tender thigh meat... & the first time I ever got sick was on shrimp. I'm only guessing but from everything I;ve read - those are pretty normal - but horrible reactions. Wish you could've thrown the stuck stuff up - that would've made it alot better. I doubt you "hurt" the pouch but if it were me I'd go to fluids and vefry soft foods for a few days until I just felt better - Sorry this happened to you - BUT the advice and info you got from your docs office - good to have & I appreciate that from your bad experience some good info came from it. Hope you have less of these times.

Thanks for your post Pamela! You know the funny thing is I have been eating thigh meat (chicken) since chicken was allowed (and like you, I realized breast meat was not sitting well) and I've never had any issues until Tuesday. Same with shrimp ****il that time that I mentioned). I am able to eat Pork and fish too. Beef and eggs are the food items that are still too dense (although I haven't tried eggs in a while). Thanks for letting me know I'm not all alone here! It was very worrisome as in the past if a food item didn't sit well it just 'slowly' made its way out I do NOT want to have this happen again and I can see why folks pouches turn into 'soft food pouches' if they have to deal with this type of issue over and over again! Thanks again, Jennifer

Jennifer, I had something like this happen to me with thighs. It is an awful feeling. I no longer eat chicken thighs, at least for awhile. I only can eat breast meat. When this happened, I too just went back to liquids and soft foods for a couple of days, and I felt much better after a few days. Pam

Thanks Pam! Its funny because pre-op I only ate chicken breasts.. now post-op I found them too dry and couldn't get them down easily. I tried dark meat, and wow! so moist and soft it (usually) goes down great! But I can tell you right now I have a hard time just taking chicken broth since the smell makes me naseaus! So I don't think I will be trying chicken for a while Looks like I'll be having a lot of yogurt the next couple of days! Hopefully the IsoPure will taste better this time around Thanks again for your post! Jennifer