Dumping - Your first experience - tell me!

I am almost 11 years out and I still dump to this day. I have dumped a few times on fatty fried foods, but mostly things that are liquid with lots of sugar. So I stay away from ice cream and the such. Heart rate increases, sweating, nauseous feeling. Pretty much have to lay down for at least half an hour.

My first dumping was about 5 months post op. surprisingly, I initially had ZERO complications with eating after my surgery, so no vomiting ever. I followed the doc's instructions to a "T" after surgery, and they had me advance my diet fairly quickly, and unfortunately the original clinic that i went to encouraged a fairly typical diet for long term (not very carb restricted). I have slowly developed a TERRIBLE lactose intolerance and so my first episode with dumping was caused by a small amount of ice cream.

HORRIBLE. Seriously, the closest I think I ever came to dying, without actually dying. Pain in gut, dizziness, nausea, profuse sweating, and my heart rate took off and sat around 155 for almost an hour.

I've experienced dumping probably about 13 times in 3 years. every time I get really tired, and if I go to sleep for about 30 minutes I feel better when I wake up. If I can't sleep (like at work, etc), then I have to wait it out. I sometimes sweat so bad that people think I'm in need of medical attention.

I am struggling to get back on track after experiencing a regain, and have switched clinics/docs. I sometimes joke that I really wish I WOULD have had some issues with eating, or dumped more, so I would not have picked some of my bad habits back up. On a positive note, I have walked away from ice cream completely. Don't even risk it anymore. I also switched back to shakes recently and am using the lactose free milk just to be safe.

Building on what Kat and others have said, it seems that the dumping syndrome may be directly linked to damage done to the Vagus nerve during WLS. This is why some VSG also dump. As surgeons have learned to carefully identify the location of this nerve and avoid it during surgery, the occurrences of dumping syndrome have decreased.

It's a catch 22, if you want to be physically punished for eating poorly, you might wish you had it, but it is also a pretty rough event for your body to endure.

I was about 3 weeks post-op, and I thought I was eating sugar free fat-free frozen yogurt. Approximately 10 minutes later I kept switching from hot-cold-hot-cold-hot-cold. I wound up absolutely burning up. I thought I was having a heart attack. My cheeks turned bright red. I started seeing black spots. I was pouring sweat. Next thing I know-- I was vomiting and had diarrhea at the same time. This. Was. The. Most. Terrifying. Experience. Of. My. Life. I thought I was dying. After everything calmed down, I went back and read the label more closely. I mistakenly purchased full-fat full-sugar frozen yogurt.

My bariatric nurse confirmed that I experienced dumping, and I'll be damned if it didn't cure me of any hankering for full fat ice cream/ frozen yogurt to this day. Granted, I'm only 9 months post-op, but still-- I'll be absolutely damned if I sit down with a bowl of ice cream that isn't Halo Top, and even then I only eat a couple of spoonfuls.