How long does dumping last?

How long does dumping last? I emailed my surgeon today about the horrible gas/crampy feeling I feel in my lower abdomen because I was scared I might have an obstruction. He said cramps, etc without vomitting it is highly unlikely it is an obstruction. Especially since I went with like the exact same thing to the ER once and they found nothing on my tests. I have to trust in his opinion, and he suggested the cramping/gas could be a form of dumping and that he suspects I might be eating something too high in carbohydrates. He said to keep a food log. Im wondering if it's the spinach I had yesterday....I had those morningstar farm spinach nuggets, I ate about 1.5 and thats when this started. But I've had them before...I guess maybe it's one of those things where your fine with something one day and then the next it doesnt agree with you. But the pains continued into the night, but I also had something else with spinach for dinner maybe thats whats causing this? But I thought dumping only lasts for like 30 min, and I still had the cramps this morning. They have since passed. Ughhhhh who knows. I am so upset over all this stuff that I wonder sometimes if I made the right decision. Kali

Hi There is no limit on the time that dumping lasts. I have also found that one thing will agree with me one day and not the next. It happens. Just stay away from the spinach for a while.

Hi, How severe is the pain, and when you say gas...are you sure it's gas? Are you saying that based on the pain or...um....well....other symptoms such as passing the gas? I ask this because spinach nuggets are not likely something that would cause dumping, and also it sounds like the symptoms I had. Mine was intermittent from 8 weeks post op up until 2 weeks ago. Turns out mine was an internal hernia. I never had vomiting with the pains/cramps, and nothing was ever found at my ER visits. Here is the info on Petersen's Defect (Hernias). I have it posted on my profile so here is a cut/paste of what I had written last week.

Well...long story short: I *DID* have a hernia! (I had debated endlessly about whether or not to have today's surgery because I didn't think I had a hernia) It was small but it was a Petersen's Hernia (Defect), which, for those of you who are medically savvy, is between the Transverse mesocolon and roux limb mesentery. It happens when lots of weight is lost rather quickly. The original sutures no longer have all that fat to hold on to. So...a small opening occurs, and the pain happens when the intestine pops through the hole. That is VERY dangerous! I was lucky that I didn't have serious damage (or even death) because I allowed myself to have 5 "attacks" in the 9 months post-op before I did anything about it.

There's a real techy-geeky bit of info about Internal Hernias at:

http://www.bcm.edu/gastro/DDC/grandrounds/BCM/2-23-06/09-DIS C.HTM

I was convinced it was gas pain because it was so intermittent...but I should have known better because the pain level was off the chart when I had the attacks. Again: it was only 5 times in 9 months and I assumed (yeah, that dumb word) that if it was a hernia, the pain would be constant. WRONG!!! One time I even ended up in the ER on Morphine from the pain level. But, nothing showed on the CAT Scan and my pain went away a few hours later. According to my Surgeon, this type of hernia is very common in people who have had RNY Gastric Bypass....so my message is this: Don't suffer in silence if you have sharp, stabbing spasms of pain in yout stomach. It may be more than just gas and the only way to really tell is via Laproscopic exploratory surgery.

Good luck and please keep me posted! Hugs, Karen

See my post on dumpng as elizabeth wrote sugar ever i think. The spinach at 1 mo out may be too much to handle evn if u have before th coating may be all carbs also (breading) u'd have to read us the label. Sometimes the gut and pouch get irritated go back to liquids for a meal to a day to calm it down.It gets better as we go out this is the learning poeriod, I can appreciare the what have I done to myself thoughts, I had them as well when I needed 2nd emergency operation for a obstruction due to adhesions, if u cant keeeofluid down that is the worrisome time ok. keep us posted..

dumping can be igh carbs or fat, it lasts minutes to hours for many...

http://www.emedicine.com/med/topic589.htm

 

 

Dumping Syndrome ~SNIP 

Early dumping

Symptoms of early dumping syndrome (30-60 min postprandial) are believed to result from accelerated gastric emptying of hyperosmolar contents into the small bowel. This leads to fluid shifts from the intravascular compartment into the bowel lumen, resulting in rapid small bowel distention and an increase in the frequency of bowel contractions. Rapid instillation of liquid meals into the small bowel has been shown to induce dumping symptoms in healthy individuals. Bowel distention may be responsible for GI symptoms such as crampy abdominal pain, bloating, and diarrhea. Intravascular volume contraction due to osmotic fluid shifts is perhaps responsible for the vasomotor symptoms such as tachycardia and lightheadedness.

Late dumping

Late dumping occurs 1-3 hours after a meal. Rapid delivery of a meal to the small intestine results in an initial high concentration of carbohydrates in the proximal small bowel and rapid absorption of glucose. This is countered by a hyperinsulinemic response. The high insulin levels are responsible for the subsequent hypoglycemia.~SNIP

DUMPING SYNDROME DEFINED, EXPLAINED, AND AVOIDABLE!

 

http://www.sabariatric.com/effects.php

 

 

 

The weight loss that is achieved through the RNY appears to be primarily dependent upon the removal of the pyloric valve, leaving the individual without a regulator of food movement into the small intestine. This results in the well-known phenomena called "dumping syndrome" which can cause an individual to feel sick or even faint. 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. "Early" dumping begins during or right after a meal. Symptoms of early dumping include nausea, vomiting, bloating, diarrhea, and shortness of breath.  "Late" dumping happens 1 to 3 hours after eating. Symptoms of late dumping include weakness, sweating, and dizziness. Many people have both types. Stomach surgery is the main cause of dumping syndrome because surgery may damage the system that controls digestion. Treatment includes changes in eating habits and medication. People who have dumping syndrome need to eat several small meals a day that are low in carbohydrates and should drink liquids between meals, not with them. It is imperative to the Roux En Y or other procedural gastric bypass patient that they follow their diet plan to reduce the risk factor of Dumping Syndrome. Many people equate the term solely to be spasmodic fits of diarrhea, when that is merely one of the symptoms of a more intensified unpleasant experience. Dumping syndrome is usually divided into "early" and "late" phases - the two phases have separate physiologic causes and shall be described separately. In practical fact, a patient usually experiences a combination of these events and there is no clear-cut division between them. Early dumping is caused by the high osmolarity of simple carbohydrates in the bowel. The various types of sugar all have small molecules, so that a gram of (for example) sucrose has MANY more molecules than a gram of protein, creating a higher concentration (number of molecules per cc) from simple sugars than from other foods. This matters because, inside the body, fluid shifts will generally go toward the higher concentration of molecules. So, if a patient consumes a bite of milk chocolate (lots of sugar), when it gets to the Roux limb it will quickly "suck" a significant amount of fluid into the bowel. This rapid filling of the small bowel causes it to be stretched (which causes cramping pain). This also causes the activation of hormonal and nerve responses that cause the heart to race (palpitations) and cause the individual to become clammy and sweaty. Vomiting or diarrhea may follow as the intestine tries to quickly rid itself of this "irritant." Late dumping has to do with the blood sugar level. The small bowel is very effective in absorbing sugar, so that the rapid absorption of a relatively small amount of sugar can cause the glucose level in the blood to "spike" upward. The pancreas responds to this glucose challenge by "cranking up" its output of insulin. Unfortunately, the sugar that started the whole cycle was such a small amount that it does not sustain the increase in blood glucose, which tends to fall back down at about the time the insulin surge really gets going. These factors combine to produce hypoglycemia (low blood sugar), which causes the individual to feel weak, sleepy, and profoundly fatigued. Late dumping is the mechanism by which sugar intake can create low blood sugar, and it is also a way for gastric bypass patients to get into a vicious cycle of eating. If the patient takes in sugar or a food that is closely related to sugar (simple carbohydrates like rice, pasta, potatoes) they will experience some degree of hypoglycemia in the hour or two after eating. The hypoglycemia stimulates appetite, and it's easy to see where that is going...The reason that sugar does not cause dumping in non-operated people is that the stomach, pancreas, and liver work together to prepare nutrients (or sugar) before they reach the small intestine for absorption. The stomach serves as a reservoir that releases food downstream only at a controlled rate, avoiding sudden large influxes of sugar that can occur after a Roux En Y. The released food is also mixed with stomach acid, bile, and pancreatic juice to control the chemical makeup of the stuff that goes downstream and avoid all the effects outlined above. Obviously, surgeons consider dumping syndrome to be a beneficial effect of gastric bypass - it seems to be important to provide quick and reliable negative feedback for intake of the "wrong" foods. In practice, most patients do NOT experience full-blown dumping more than once or twice. Most simply say that they have "lost their taste" for sweets. Of course, this is always a great topic to ask patients about directly, so you may want to ask about it at our support group in person, or in a support group online. It is an unpleasant side effect of this surgical procedure, experiencing it means one simple thing; you are not following your prescribed diet, and unless you do, dumping syndrome is going to become a major part of your life. Do yourself, and your body a favor and follow doctor’s orders, to the letter.

 

Also note how were the nuggets prepared if fried the grease could cause a dumping type feeling that  for me sometimes lasts for quite some time.