clumping

Hello Tennessee Forum, Can someone explain to me what clumping is? Thanks.  ps5516

I'm sorry, I am not familiar with clumping.  Do you mean dumping, as in dumping syndrome?

DO you mean Dumping?

Clumping is very different than Dumping.  Clumping is when you eat and your food won't go down and you sometimes throw up.  Sometimes clumping causes the foamies...  It is usually due to eating too fast, too much, or the food is too dry. Hope that helps! jenspen

They say you learn something EVERY day!  Well it must be true.  I have never heard of clumping.  Thanks, Jenspen, for that info! 

Thank you!! I thought it was the same as dumping. too. Now I know. I appreciate the response from both of you. Kathy

I actually had written the following in my blog just the same day you asked this question... I will share with you what I wrote.  It was in response to a question on my surgeon's group about the same topic - clumping .... **************************************** I have said this before but it is worth repeating.  The transition from pre-op to post-op eating is a difficult one that takes time to get use to.  What I mean by that is, you have to adjust to the rules of your new eating ... the rules of eating that we have to abide by for the rest of our lives. Too Fast Too Dry Too Much Wrong Food It was really hard for me to do all of these rules when I was fresh post-op.  I could do one or two but all of them together were hard to do.  And really if you think about it ...  none of us had good eating habits to begin with and the surgery is not going to change that immediately.  In my experience, I suffered with clumping for a little over 6 weeks.  I honestly think it took me that long to figure it out...  how to eat & what to eat. You are going to have to experiment with food and be very conscious of your eating behavior.  Make sure and document what is happening and what you have eaten.  I'll bet you'll find a pattern... I did.  In my case, chicken and eggs really bothered me but most of all what got me was STRESS.  I was stressed when I went to eat.  Stressed cause I wanted to lose weight NOW, stressed that others were eating "good" food and I wasn't, stressed cause I didn't know if I was eating the "right" food, stressed cause I didn't know if I was going to get sick, stressed cause my kids weren't eating what I fixed them, stressed JUST BECAUSE you name it. So... my advise is to learn fast by trial and error and know that you are not alone.  Second, Pre-ops do lots of research and know what you are getting into with WLS.  Don't get me wrong - I wouldn't change a thing!!    If you are informed and have support you will make it through this tough time and be stronger for it. One last thing... Clumping is a vicious cycle. Once I had a problem with it - it would snow ball. I am sure that my esophagus got irritated and when that happens it is very necessary to give it a rest. So, if you clump or get sick (throw up) you need to make sure and do 24 hours of liquids after that. When it got bad for me I went back to all liquids for 4 days per Dr. Williams' orders.

It's hard to make a transition from eating whenever, whatever, however and for any reason we wanted.  I remember chowing food down without even taking time to savor and enjoy each bite.  I just threw it in my mouth and wanted it in my tummy as soon as possible....  quite the opposite of AFTER wls...  taking small bites, chewing, chewing, chewing, chewing some more...  well that was a weird concept.  Takes practice!  And you are right.  If you "forget" or just plain disobey the rules, we sure will get that pain in our chest that says "OH GET THIS ELEPHANT OFF ME!"  Too many times of that, and we quickly learn a hard lesson.  I had never heard the term "clumping"!  Thanks for sharing it.  I have a term that I learned on another forum a few days ago that I am thinking of posting in just a while...  and thought it was something only I experienced, but come to find out, many postops do...  its definitely been an enlightening journey, both in textbook and experiential. Where's your blog, Jenspen? I would like to read it.  Is it your OH profile?  Or offsite?