Question on hole size

Hi everyone .... I'm hanging in there.... but I have a question... if there is a band at the end of my pouch... HOW does the hole at the bottom of the pouch expand over time??? I understand how the stomach stretches a little over time.. but how does the hole go from only allowing liquids through ...to letting well chewed grilled chicken through without getting stuck??? I mean we are told at first to eat things like soup. With absolutely NO Chuncks! How do you go from that to being able to eat "chunks" even if they *are* well chewed??? Thank you for your support! Julia

Hey Julia. The reason for the liquids and pureed is that you have just had some serious re-arranging of your insides and that takes its toll on, well the tissue inside your body. It is going to react by swelling up and trying to protect the damaged tissue and surrounding area. It's the bodies' natural defense against intrusion and injuries. Due to the fact that your body has also just been rewired, it takes the new arrangement time to get used to having something other than liquids in there. Anything other than liquids or pureed foods will cause the inside of your new arrangement to become irritated and not recognize what you are eating as food as the tissue is putting all its efforts into the healing process. This is the least medical way that I can describe it. The new arrangement also needs time to heal without having to worry about ripping a stitch by trying to force something in that it doesn't recognize. The best analogy I can think of is like a sink. When water is slowly let through it will flow smoothly but if you turn the water on full blast and try to push tons through at a time, the sink will overflow. Hope that helps.

Hey Empty, I apprecitate the time you took to answer my question.... but it really doesn't answer it. Maybe I didn't phrase the question correctly. I understand fully about tissue swelling and the need for liquids at first for the stomach to heal etc.... my question is... with a band at the lower portion of your stomach that is fixed in size, and is so small that the doc is worried about any tiny chunk clogging it... how does that later accomodate even a well chewed chicken bite?? Even if swelling enters into it.. the band is a fixed size. Do you have any information on this? Why would you want to take "the least medical way to explain it" ??? I'm a nurse So explain away! Julia