Dumping Syndrome - Hypoglycemia

I have to be honest I never knew this was a thing until it happened to me..... I had my RnY in 2014 and have been doing well until about October of 2018 when I began feeling really tired, lethargic and started to gain weight. To date since October 2018 I have gained almost 30 lbs. :( About 2 months ago I was in a meeting almost fainted (thankfully I work in a hospital) so I went to the Health Center and found my glucose was 22!! I went to see my PCP who told me to see an Endocrinologist. After a couple weeks she got all my blood tests back and was told "all you need to do is eat!" really??? I began to do research and decided I better go see the surgeon who did my RnY. He right away after hearing my symptoms said "You're dumping" I am a "dumper" if I have too much so I thought that was what he meant. No. It's more serious then that. Oh, and by the way, since that first episode my life has been completely changed. I have to eat every couple hours, I can't sleep with the anxiety, I have to check travel with a glucose meter. Needless to say it's been awful.

My doctor sent me to get an upper GI x-ray and had an Endoscopy this past week. The Endoscopy shows that I don't have "restriction" and I am now on the road to getting a revision. He will have to go in and close me up again. I am very nervous about going down that road again although he said the recuperation would be a lot easier and only be off work for 1 week.

I looked through the forum to see if anyone has gone through this and could let me know how their experience was and if you stopped "dumping" after the revision. Any thoughts are welcome.

Hmmm- I feel like dumping and hypoglycemia are distinctly different. (But I see how one unfamiliar would feel they are similar). Nor am I the expert in this- so I just speak from my experience/knowledge.

Hypoglycemia is a drop in blood sugar typically and hour or two after eating something that triggers it. I've easily learned my triggers.. cold cereals, cream of wheat are two. I can tell when an episode is coming on because I'm drenched in sweat, lethargic and dizzy. Resolves pretty quickly with peanut butter crackers.

But dumping is a more of a gastro-intestinal type upset IMO and more immediate after eating triggers. I'm not a dumper so don't know of any triggers.

The weight gain could just be time (this never gets easier), or maybe your eating differently due to the episodes you have. What type of revision are you getting?

Ive never revised- can't speak to that.

I don't know yet what he is going to do. Waiting for a follow-up appointment. I do know that dumping and hypoglycemia are different but he just referred to it as dumping because, how he explained it was "I was dumping my food." I wish I knew what my triggers were because I would stay far from those. It happens to me about 30 minutes after I eat.

If you decide to share more about your personal medical experience with this I would really like to hear it. I have had reactive hypoglycemic episodes and they are scary. I don't take it as seriously as I know I should but if you want to post or message privately for support I will send you a friend request. I am wondering what he meant by dumping. I hope he can clarify how that ties in to needing a revision for restriction. How does it all tie in to the hypoglycemia? I understand that is a lot of questioning but I would want to know before getting the surgery so you can at least know the whys and what caused it in order to avoid it happening again. Are they tightening the stoma or increasing your bypass? How will increasing restriction help the hypoglycemia?

What are you eating that caused the weight gain? And like what Peach said dumping & hypoglycemia are two different things.

Most RNYers don't dump, some do but most of us don't. A lot of RNYers get "RH" aka Reactive Hypoglycemia which you are most likely getting from the carbs & sugar you are eating (hence weight gain, hence revision).

Be mindful that revisions only work if you have your head on straight and get your eating under control. Revisions are not always successful and some only lose a few pounds, not hundreds like a first WLS. What if your revision is a failure and you don't have restriction and gain more weight, what then?

So many people IMO get WLS and assume that surgery fixes the part of our brains that crave food 24/7 and assume that surgery fixes our food addictions, its doesn't, not even remotely. I had my RNY Nov 2013 so coming up to 6 yrs post op, I have maintained by loss but OMG its f#cking HARD WORK. A still have my food addiction, if I could get away with it I would eat sweets and carbs all day long, I would also get right back up to 280lbs or more, so I don't. Do I struggle with this? EVERY. DAMN. DAY!

Surgery literally changes our anatomy, it does nothing to change our relationship with food, we have to work on that, be it through counselling or sheer dedication to the "rules." If you broke a body part say while playing your favourtie sport and required surgery, would the surgery fix that broken body part, yes, would surgery fix your desire to go back out and play that sport again, no.

Also are you keeping up with your lab work? Many women on here suffer from low Iron Ferritin and suffer nasty side effects due to low Ferritin. I personally keep my Ferritin at 150- 200 and feel like crap if it goes below 100, something to look into.

This **** is hard post WLS, I know I live it every day. Wishing you the best on your revision, good luck.

Reactive hypoglycaemia or "late stage dumping" is typically VERY manageable and typically self induced by eating too many sugars or carbs in one sitting.

Generally you should avoid foods That are high in carbs and sugar. Knowing your drop time for your sugars is important because if you do deviate from the standard diet and have something say from Starbucks That is high in sugar or carbs, you will know when to

treat yourself to avoid a sugar drop.

Balanced meals help.

Never eat a carb without protein

I am 13 years post op and I have had reactive hypoglycaemia since about a year and a half to two years out. I know a lot about it and have lots of resources if ever you need any help. Just message me

I hope this doesn't come off as rude or that anyone takes offense to anything I'm about to say. I'm reading through the responses here and getting angry as I'm reading. I revised to RNY from VSG in 2016 due to an extreme case of GERD. Almost immediately I began to have blood sugar issues. I developed an extreme case of hypoglycemia. I'm reading these responses and feel the judgment coming through my screen. I DO NOT eat an abundance of refined sugars, carbs, sweets, etc. I can have hypoglycemic episodes after eating vegetables. I've had it after eating a spinach salad with chicken (and before you all go off, I made the dressing so I know there were no "hidden sugars") My sugar hit 30 two nights ago after eating an artichoke heart that I steamed at home (yes, paired with protein to try and temper the impact of the carb). I've had hypoglycemia from eating 1/2 c of blueberries with cottage cheese (yesterday before spin actually when my blood sugar was at 40). I've gained 20 lbs from my lowest weight dealing with the damned hypoglycemia because when it happens I need to eat. So the extra calories add up and have caused weight gain. I'm on 2 medications to treat my hypoglycemia, wear a continuous glucose monitor, and am looking at additional surgery. I was/am the poster child for post WLS compliance and yet it happened to me. RH is not necessarily easily treated with diet and comments like that and others in this thread make me feel like a damned failure or like I somehow brought this upon myself.

From the information provided, we do not know the OP's dietary habits, whether she indulges in sweets, or eats 100%. This page reeks of judgment.

To the OP, I have both dumping syndrome and hypoglycemia, and they both developed after I converted to RNY, so I'm no help to you there. They are sometimes difficult to tell apart. I tend to avoid processed foods and sugars, so most of my episodes are hypoglycemic. My symptoms include sweating buckets, a racing heart and an inability to communicate. I tend to not realize there's a problem until my sugar is in the low 40s to 30s which adds to the issues. Now that I'm3 years post conversion and don't eat sugar, my dumping has diminished significantly. From your post, it's difficult to determine what exactly you're revising to. Right now (and for the future) the best way to try and treat it is to eat every few hours, keep your diet as high protein as possible, limit carbs and try to eat foods low on the glycemic index scale. As someone who now lives with this issue. I wish you the best of luck.

I think you will agree that your medical problems are not typical, so I'm not sure you should take the advice given here personally.

Maybe the OP is just like you with your experiences, but chances are her food choices are what is causing her reactions. She doesn't seem to understand dumping or RH and it's important to explore what is causing her sudden malady before submitting to some unknown surgery for a 30lb weight gain.

I had my first dumping experience at 5 years out. I had worked until 1:00 AM on Halloween, came home from work, turned on the TV and mindlessly started eating the miniature Tootsie Rolls in a dish on the coffee table. Normally there would not have been candy in the house. I had eaten candy before, but it would be a single serving from a vending machine after a full meal. I guess my body had grown conditioned to that amount.

About an hour later, my heart was pounding, I was pouring sweat, and dizzy. It happened again about a year later when I was cooking dinner and ate a handful of starburst candy on a very empty stomach. I learned that I have to make sure I eat five small meals a day and never ingest any sugar on an empty stomach.

Both incidents ended on their own in about 30 minutes.

For me, surgery would not cure dumping and for me, it has nothing to do with restriction. For me, it has everything to do with what I eat.