Pouch Size

Is there a way to tell how big your pouch is. They say it's golf ball size after surgery. But I'm wondering just how much mine has stretched or naturally stretched on it's own.

I've been thinking about if I'm eating too much and have been embarrased to post in the confessional

But the other day I could only eat half an omelet. Last night I had spaghetti for dinner and got the "foamies" after. (I've had spaghetti before too) I haven't had that happen in MONTHS. I only had like 5-6 bites.

I get so "stuffed" like after that omelet but an hour or 2 later I feel hungry again. I know that sometimes it's just boredom and head hunger but it's irritating.  I wish that stuffed feeling would last longer.

I've wondered the same thing... so how big is it? I've asked by bariatric support people at Kaiser and they say if you eat only to the point of fullness it's okay. With what you are describing, you are probably not stretching it out but you may be eating too fast or not chewing well enough?

As for feeling hungry again so soon, my peeps have a rule to eat all the protein first and then only a tiny amount of whatever else. Apparently this helps keep you full longer.

I can't have pasta of any kind or rice or soft bread. :( I miss pasta.

And yeah, head hunger sucks. I don't know if that ever gets better. If you figure that one out, let me know. I've taken to sucking SF hard candy (limit 4 pieces per day) to combat that, even though it's against the rules set for me by my surgeon. A girl's gotta cope.

I think it's a normal fear/question we have. I know Sharyn has said before that the part of the stomach that is made into the pouch is not very stretchey and it would take a lot to stretch out. I know I just had my one year nut appointment and she said what I was eating and the amount is fine. I was worried about eating too much too. 

 What you do is you think back to when you had your regular stomach and how much you could eat then and then you look at how much you're eating now and it's 99.9999% of the time that you will be eating MUCH less even though you may think you're eating too much. 

I also worry about stretching the stoma, in addition to the pouch.  I feel like I can eat 3/4 - 1 cup of slider foods easily now . . . Anyone know anything more about stoma stretching?

I don't know too much about it but I do know when you have it you are hungry about 2 hours later. I have a friend that has a stretched stoma and she said it was like that. Personally, I wouldn't worry about slider foods and worry about the protein you eat. Does that fill you up or are you hungry after that? I know I am hungry after I eat my yogurt and that is total slider food. Does this make sense?

It is not a rational fear since I have been mostly well behaved just the next thing to worry about in my WLS progression.  

Deprivation - Pre-Op
Death - Pre-Op
Death - Immediate Post-Op (had a GI bleed)
More complications - Intermediate Post-Op
Stalls - Bit Back
Hair Loss - On going
Stretching stoma . . . . 

Gotcha

I have been looking into this as well.  I heard about a procedure called Sclerotherapy...an irritant is injected at the stoma creating scar tissue to make it smaller.  I just met with a surgeon yeasterday that has been performing this in the bariatric community.  He said that this is the common reason that the patients put weight back on...the stoma stretching.  Right now I can eat about 2 cups of food before I feel satisfied...3 cups to feel stuffed.  Then I am hungry again within the hour.  It isn't often that the puch stretches, but it can happen.  I am going to have this procedure and hope to fianally get to my goal. 

Hi Brooke! Great question.. Even my doctor thinks so when I emailed her about another friend regarding revision surgery.. Here is my doctors explanation, which I think will be part of my bariatric "bible"

"Think of 2 elastic bands, one a large newspaper holder band which will stretch along way.(full stomach) The other a tiny kids hair band, still stretcy but will NEVER EVER stretch as much as the big one.(this is the pouch) Initially after surgery the little band is swoolen and healing and will not stretch but as you heal the potential it ALWAYS had to stretch a little returns but NEVER to the degree of the big band. Remember all human tissue is strechy (pull on your skin)."

Hope this helps!