Bulimia Nervosa after weight loss surgery......say it ain't so!

Has anyone heard of anyone developing bulimia after weight loss surgery?  I mean...you are making your stomach "smaller" making it difficult to get food down.  Where else can it go but up...right?  Just wondering if anyone has had this experience.....

Happy Tuesday!  :-)

The stomach pouch does stretch over time, so I suppose it's possible. The trouble is, vomiting forcefully can damage the pouch, the stoma, even the diaphragm muscle. Over-stretching the pouch can lead to nausea and vomiting for sure!

Binge-eating still can happen, to a certain extent, which is why some folks never lose weight even after surgery. If I am sipping shakes and smoothies, or eating ice cream all day, it's a very high calorie, high fat, high sugar diet right there, even if I only take in an ounce at a time. An ounce of ice cream has way more calories than an ounce of lean protein.

A friend of mine experienced that, in the days before they had the really good medical and nutritional follow-up that they have nowadays. She only lost 50 pounds, then regained it as her "liquid" diet got worse and worse. In the end, her extreme morbid obesity contributed to her death just a few months ago at the age of 37. It's a tragedy that I wouldn't want to happen to anyone else.

My heart goes out to you and your friend/family!!  That's sad.

 Hi there - I am experiencing bulimia quite badly and my shrinks answer is to go to OA!
I'm going through a rough patch in my life (lost my job and getting a divorce) so I know that the stress is causing this - and also the frustration of not being able to eat food for comfort anymore.

I take 5 mg a day of lexapro, went back on this because I was depressed about my life situation, but it's not helping with the bulimia. If I increase the dose, I have memory problems and world-finding issues and that is not good when you are interviewing!

any thought on a good medication that would help me?

Hope to hear back from the group.

Best,
Beth

Oh wow.  So sorry to hear that.  I take something called citalopram for anxiety adn depression.  It works great for me.  I don't have any ssues when taking this. It just makes me feel better.   Hope all gets better for you.  :-(

I'm so glad I'm not the only one worried about this.  A month or so ago I found myself falling into old habits, eating too much, too often.  I still work out regularly and I luckily did not gain any weight, but I think I may have damaged something.  I can hardly eat anything and when I can successfully, I try to eat more and then I have a problem--extreme discomfort, burping food back up into the back of my throat.  So, I've been spending a lot of time purging it just so I'm not so uncomfortable.  Then I'm hungry again and start all over.  I do this all day.  I've lost 15 pounds in the last 3 weeks.  My theory is that where the band sits and the stomach is cinched together is irritated and swollen.  I hope that is all it is.  I don't want to have developed a "pseudo stomach" at the bottom of the esophagus by stretching the pouch too much.  I fear this because the past month I have also had terrible acid reflux.  I can't lay flat to sleep, I have to prop myself up because the acid will wash up into the pouch or esophagus, and I'll burp and it will flood into my mouth and it's awful.  I'm sorry for being graphic, but I'm worried and I don't go in for my annual EGD scan until January.  I'm one of those stupid stubborn people who won't go to the doctor, hoping I can reverse it on my own.  I do like that I'm only 15 pounds from my goal weight.  Any thoughts would be great.  Thank you!

12/3/07  Lap Band