The importance of chewing...my day in the ER

Hi everyone, I spent yesterday from 10 am until 4:pm almost certain I would need surgery for an obstruction or a hernia. I ate steak for dinner on Friday...no big deal, I can eat everything.  No dumping, no vomiting.  Or so I thought.  About an hour after dinner, I started vomiting, a little at a time, over about an hour.  The pain was horrible.  As soon as I had brought up (I thought) everything, I felt better.   A couple of hours later, I was starving, so I ate a SF pudding.  Up it came.  Again, not all at once, but over about an hour. Yesterday a.m., knowing I had to stick w/liquids, I had a protein drink...same thing but worse.  I vomited for about 1.5 hours, the pain was unbearable.  I called Dr. Garber, who said "it sounds like you might have a bowel obstruction, I'll call the ER & tell them you're coming." It's a good thing it was early in the day...as it was it took about an hour to finally get in to be seen.  At this point I wasn't in pain...just tired, hungry & sore.  I was able to keep down the contrast fluid before having a CT scan, a good sign.  Finally, about 3:30 pm., Dr. Garber came in & said that the CT scan showed no obstruction, but a fair amount of food was still in my pouch.  He asked me if I had eaten fast; guilty.  Did I chew well; no.   He expects that the food will pass, but to call him if I vomit again--if that happens, I'll need an endoscocpic procedure to remove it...yuk!  So yesterday was clear fluids, today is full fluids (sipping chicken broth as I type) and tomorrow mushies, etc. I have to go back to square one learning to chew slowley and take small bites.  And I definately won't be eating steak any time soon!  On a side note, my son (18) was with me at the hospital, and I'm so proud of how mature and patient he was.   So, that's my (long) story, and hopefully a lesson well-learned. Take care,

Karen, How scary for you!  I'm glad that you are going to be ok! Mary

I'm glad you're feeling better In the last 2 weeks I saw 3 people in the PACU that had to have Exploratory Laps because they became obstructed after eating, one person after eating a BANANA (BTW all RNY post-op patients in different stages) so believe me I chew, chew chew

Lesson learned.....I will make sure I chew. Thanks for the advice....although I am sure you would NOT have had to deal with it....

Thanks for your good wishes.  I just had some very thick soup w/no vomiting, so I'm sure I'm o.k.   Jane, a BANANA?  Now THAT'S scary!

Yes it was and the funny part, I saw this person(banana person) 2 days before the incident at support group and he/she looked GREAT!!! BTW, all 3 WERE NOT my surgeons patients But it did scare me just the same.

Hi- I just started to eat as of thursday.  I had surgery 2/11/08.  I eat a piece of deli turket the other day.  i did nopt chew very good i guess because it was stuck in between my breast for like an hour finally I gaged a few times and it moved.  I never threw up though....Then yesterday I had a small amount of chicken and I was fine so I thought BUT  few hours later I had such pains I think in my pouch that lasted for about three hours I was ready to go to hospital.  I tried to get sick three different times never getting sick, Which I find weird i was always able to get sick,  I just waited it out and finally I felt better.    What is that from????  I keep wondering what ir was??? 

Oh Karen, what a horrible experience for you. It is certainly a great reminder that our tools are working and we need to follow the rules. Sorry you had to go through this...thanks for sharing with us.

Hope you are feeling better.

Oh, anytime, Rachelle.  You know I like to give the good, the bad and the ugly--you never know who's reading out there, and people need to know this isn't a walk in the park! In the ER, I jokingly said to Dr. Garber, "you know, I can usually eat anything...sometimes I wonder if you really did anything in there."  He replied "Well, I must have done something, look how skinny you are."  I wanted to kiss him right then and there! hugs,

It is important that we talk about all of our experiences. It will definitely help someone...and we usually find out we are not alone.

You know...sometimes I feel the same way. I wonder if Dr. Ren really did surgery on me...then I think....Hmmm, there is no way on God's green earth that I would lose this much on my own...guess I really did have surgery. LOL

Give that Dr. Garber a big, big kiss....you look marvelous and he sounds like a wonderful Dr.