Will my stomach ever feel normal again?!?!?

1 month post op and my stomach feels like crud.. Have no desire to eat or drink. When I eat I feel rotten after or vomit.  When I drink I get the pressure and epigastric pain...And because of that I've passed out twice and have orthostatic hypotension.. .I just want to feel normal again..I have heard no other stories of anyone "not feeling well stomach wise" after surgery. . I am sorely regretting my decision to have ever done it in the past. I would rather be overweight than feel like I'm going to pass out everytime I stand...

On September 15, 2015 at 2:14 PM Pacific Time, gerinurse1375 wrote:

1 month post op and my stomach feels like crud.. Have no desire to eat or drink. When I eat I feel rotten after or vomit.  When I drink I get the pressure and epigastric pain...And because of that I've passed out twice and have orthostatic hypotension.. .I just want to feel normal again..I have heard no other stories of anyone "not feeling well stomach wise" after surgery. . I am sorely regretting my decision to have ever done it in the past. I would rather be overweight than feel like I'm going to pass out everytime I stand...

orthostatic hypotension is not  caused by gastric bypass.It is caused by your blood pressure dropping quickly when you stand. Even ppl with normal stomachs can have this. I suggest you sit  first and rise really slowely to avoid it.

the feeling bad stomach is another issue. My sleeve feels just like my stomach did,unless I eat too much . Then I am likely to feel too full and have on a very rare occasion,vomited. 

I suggest you try eating less.

So I have a friend who has the sleeve done and she had major issues after surgery and experienced things similar to you. Just because you don't see other people's struggles doesn't mean they don't happen. Have you talked with your doctor about what has been going on? I have another friend, who is actually going in for additional testing because he can't keep anything down. Don't be afraid to speak up and say something to your provider. 

You may think you would rather be overweight, but you won't be saying that when being overweight kills you. You are just having a rough patch. In the 6 weeks since surgery, I have learned that this is a journey that sometimes sucks, but the end result outweighs the bumps you hit in the road. You will feel normal again. Hang in there. :) 

I realize the orthostasis isn't caused by the bypass but the lack of oral intake is contributing to it causing hypovolemia...the problem is it causes a tachycardia when I stand and continue to stand.. If my stomach felt semi normal I would be able to drink more. I'm barely eating and drinking as it is now.. I'm already taking protonix and that doesn't seem to help.  Cardio has adjusted my bp meds and so far no change.. I'm kind of at a loss... 

Ok, tough love here ...   Not drinking is not an option.  Being dehydrated will make you feel unwell, so you just have to suck it up.  Experiment with different liquids, different temperatures etc. and look on it as your most important job.  

Once you have the drinking thing down, you can worry about what and how much you are eating.

what is your typical diet like each day and how many ounces are you eating each time? your answers might help us help you.

I would get yourself in for a full work up at the surgeon's office first thing tomorrow. Yeah, at a month out we all feel a little blah and sluggish about eating, and have all experimented with accidentally too much or a too big bite and vomitting here and there, but what you are describing sounds more chronic and serious, if it is every time and accompanied by pain and pressure.

But in the meantime, don't worry as much about eating as you do abou****er. Dehydration is a cruel thing--once you become truly dehydrated, drinking becomes kind of repulsive and it makes it even harder. I'm sure you feel like you are drinking all the time, already, but see if you can get in a lot more with constant tiny sips--it might really help with the nauseated feeling.

You may be advancing your diet too quickly. The program your doctor gave you just may not work for you. It took four months for me to advance my diet to dense foods. Until then, I ate soft or puréed foods. If I vomited after a meal, I was advised to go back to liquids for 24 hours to allow the irritation in my throat and stomach to subside. I also struggled with fluids, as I could only handle small sips. I tended to just drink protein drinks a lot of the time, to make sure I was getting fluids and nutrition.

It does get better. Just have patience, keep hydrated, and advance your diet slowly.

I typically have protein shake for breakfast then soup, cheesestick for lunch, then a baked potato or something to the sort for dinner.  I'm forcing myself to drink fluids.  I've set a timer and am back to 30ccs every 5 minutes.. I'm not eating anything but liquids and softs.. sometimes things like eggs stay and sometimes not.  The other part of the component is that I have hypertension which is significant even after losing 55 pounds total..so they have to treat that with medication except that now my pressure bottoms out when standing and my HR jumps into the 150s... Ugh someone please tell me this all will get better!

Baked potato for dinner?  Where is your dense protein?  Cottage cheese?  Greek yogurt?  minced/pureed meats? 

I'm two years out and rarely eat a potato, I didn't try one until over a year out.  I followed my doctor's plan to a "t" the first year.

I would reevaluate your plan, check with your clinic perhaps and follow it.  It seems you're not getting enough protein, from what I see.