30 days post-op - Slime-o-rama

My first 30 days post-op have been great except for one thing... slime. Foamies. Clear projectile mucous gunk that shoots out of my stomach when I ingest something that isn't strictly plain chicken broth. Has anyone else encountered a low tolerance for soft or semi-soft foods a month post-op?

Here's what I can eat so far:
Chicken or turkey broth, jello, jello puddings, popsicles, Jamba juice smoothies, I can also handle very small amounts of Isopure protein shakes. I'd be able to do more shakes if they weren't so dang foamy after they're mixed up.

Here's the stuff that has caused a reaction:
Yogurt (no chunks), cottage cheese, V-8 juice, very soft pureed or mashed veggies like carrots, egg drop soup, the baked Ricotta Cheese recipe (for post-op DS'ers), small pieces of watermelon (chewed until they are mush).... all stuff that many folks are able to handle two weeks post-op. Sometimes even plain water gives me the mucous and slime thing.

I've upped my Nexium from 20mg to 40mgs with no improvement. I switched to Prilosec for a few days. Same thing. I tried the cottage cheese with Lactaid. No difference. My stomatch likes to fill up with mucous and then I barf it up. Generally when this happens whatever I ate stays down. That's good I guess. Just the slime comes up.

I am thinking about trying Mucinex or Claratin next to try to control the over production of stomach gunk. Anyone else had to deal with this? Hoping it's just a phase.

Other than this, everything has been great post-op. I just added my first blog post here:
http://www.obesityhelp.com/member/dudette/uzone,blog/action, view/blog_id,338288/

This does not seem normal at all. You should speak to your surgeon about it right away. I think it is pretty rare for the DS, but this is what RNY folks have when they get a stricture. I am no expert, just throwing this out there.

I've seen a few posts on VSG boards that describe what I am experiencing, so I figured that perhaps it was normal (since the stomach part of my DS is basically a VSG). On the positive side, I enjoyed two yummy pieces of thinly sliced turkey for lunch today and they both stayed down with minimal sliming. Maybe it's more of a lactose thing since many of the items I ate had some sort of dairy on or in them?  Come to think of it the brocolli did have some sort of dressing on it.

Regardless, I will be contacting my surgeon today. Thanks for the feedback. Hope it's not a stricture! 

Try eliminating dairy and see if it helps

Call your surgeon. This is not normal.

Do you have a doctor who's providing for your post op care since your surgeon is in Mexico? This sounds like RNY side effects.

Communicate with your surgeons ASAP, like last week, and get seen locally just as fast, either by a surgeon or a gastroenterologist. This MIGHT be normal, but chances are it is not. You need to knock off the self diagnosis and ESPECIALLY the self medication (where the hell did you get the idea that Claritin would treat excess stomach mucus? Or Mucinex for that matter? FMR) and get some real followup care. This propensity is something that can kill you.

Get yourself hooked up with good quality local medical care NOW. Remember how we talked about all this stuff preop when you weren't listening to anyone? Well, guess what. Listening is a skill it's time to cultivate.

I haven't self medicated with Claritin or Mucinex... or anything else. I simply read about it on another forum and thought I would mention it here while waiting for a reply from my surgeon. I am scheduled to go see Dr. Buchwald locally right after New Year's (around the 3 mos. post-op mark) for followup, but obviously it might end up being sooner than that if the mucous thing persists.

Anway, like I said I've already reached out to my surgeon. I just thought I would post here for some ideas/suggestions since it's a Sunday night and I probably won't talk to either doctor until tomorrow morning.

I was able to eat before I left the hospital...so I didn't have this with the DS.

HOWEVER...when I was a band-victim, I leaned that when the brain gets the signal that there is blockage, it sends slime.  Viscous, mucous, slimy snot globs...to loosen the "blockage."  That, of course, just back ups everything even MORE and then it all has to come up.  I did not live with this in a projectile way...but it HAD TO come up.

My suggestion until you get to your doctor is to go back to liquids...clear or maybe full and GO SLOWLY.  VERY, VERY SLOWLY. 

My guess is that however you are eating right now...your esophagus or your stomach is sending your brain a message that there is blockage and lubrication is needed RIGHT NOW.  In your position now, and based on my experience, I'd eat a tiny teaspoon of something now and do it again a half-hour later and keep on that way.

Based on my experience with the band, I'd say that you MAY be causing swelling in your stomach/esophagus with the vomiting and that makes the passageway smaller...and so you are MORE LIKELY to do it again on LESS food tomorrow.

But that's just me.

Thanks Ms Cal! What you're saying makes a lot of sense to me. It doesn't feel like I have a blockage because the food stays down... it's just the mucous that's coming up. Plus, the problem is intermittent and doesn't happen every time I eat (althought I am leaving that final diagnosis up to my doctor). However, what you described sounds a lot like what I am experiencing. A certain food irritates my stomach and 5 or 10 minutes later my brain starts sending the signals to create the mucous. Sometimes it's very small amounts of the most innocent foods like cottage cheese, yogurt or scrambled eggs that set me off. Once it starts up it can take anywhere from an hour to several hours for everything to calm down. During that time even water can trigger it again.

As luck would have it once I posted this question my stomach seems to have settled down. I've had two small servings of healthy deli turkey meat today (lunch and dinner) with no extra slimy saliva or barfing. Today was the first time I've tried turkey and my stomach seems to like it so far.