always hungry.

I had my surgery on the 7th of April.  I'm still on liquid to soft puree food.  I'm always hungry though.  I'll have broth and a jello cup and still not get a full feeling.  I'm getting protein drinks in easily. this doesn't seem right.  I'm worried now that it won't work.  I did see my surgeon and we did the upper gi swallow.  I could see my pouch and How quickly the fluid will go through.  It's very smooth and my Dr says That's why I don't feel the fullness.  Did anyone else experience this?

A lot of folks forget that even after the surgery which creates the pouch, there is still an entire stomach on the other side of that firewall made of stitches.  Your remnant stomach will continue to see NO INPUT, and will send that signal to your brain, but eventually that signal will fall off.  When I would get this I would take a drink and find something else to do.  This phenomenon is "Head Hunger" and there's not a lot you can do about it except distract yourself.

You won't feel full with liquids (no pyloric valve) so fluid is meant to flow on through. Trust me when you get to solid food you will feel the power of your surgery... dense protein will feel very different. Also nerves are disturbed in surgery and take time to heal so that contributes a bit.  And... a bit of it is "head hunger" so we are used to consuming larger amounts visually and it takes a while to retrain the brain so to speak. 

Hope that helps,

~Michelle "Shelly"

Thank you so much. It's making me feel better. 

Are you taking an acid suppressor? A PPI?  Sometimes stomach acid mimics hunger...

Don't feel discouraged it is still very early days yet.  In a few more weeks, when you are able to eat denser foods you may find this feeling goes away.  Some folks, myself included don't feel hunger anymore, some have to fight that feeling daily.  My guess is it's a combination of liquids going through fast (as they should) and head hunger.  It's a lot to adjust to - you'll be fine!  

I had the same issue for the first 3 weeks, I was never really hungry but I never really got full. However wait until u eat your first setting of real food, chicken or something solid. Have a trash can standing by you, it will come back up. Hang in there it sucks KS at first but wait til you can start to fit into smaller clothes, u will luv it. Hang in there.