dumping syndrome

Hey y'all...I was wondering if anyone that has experienced the dreaded dumping syndrome could give some advise for a 1st time experiencer of it.  lol.  I'm about to die.  I'm 3 mths post op, and I met some friends for breakfast at IHOP....well, low and behold, their menu isn't 100% truthful b/c what I thought would be relatively low in sugar is apparently swimming in it.  I had french toast, no syrups, no fillings, etc.  But when I started eatting it, I could taste sugar...so I asked the waitress and she said there is sugar in their french toast dip.  Now, I feel like my stomach and body are fighting each other and i'm stuck in the middle...this really sux!  I just wanna pass out right about now.

Anyone have any methods of making it go by quickly or more bearable?  I even thought about goin anorexic for a while but my finger just doesn't do the trick.  :( 

TIA

Thomas

IHOP is evil.  It was like my favorite place to eat pre-op, but now not even the omlettes are safe because they put their delicious pancake batter in them.  It stinks. When I dump I drink water, take a tyle nol and go to sleep.  If that is at all an option I highly suggest chilling out for a while with some water (I like warm water when I'm really dumping - almost warm enough to brew tea in - for some reason it is soothing). It may or may not help to vomit, likely by now there is nothing in your pouch left to vomit so you're better off waiting it out. You're definately dumping though.  I recognize the symptoms well.  I hope you're feeling better soon! 

My dumping response is usually to curl up in the fetal position and lay in bed until it passes. Usually, thirty to sixty minutes. Sometimes, I fall asleep, sometimes not....I have heard that taking an antiemetic (anti-nauseua) pill can help. The one I have is called Promethazine which is the generic name for Phenegran. I was prescribed it to take in case of nausea when I used to be on vicodin and morphine for my back, but never really needed it. It causes severe drowsiness for me, so generally the benefit wasn't worth it. So far the only thing I have tried at IHOP that has been OK for me was their delicious crepes with hollaindaise sauce and some of their soups. Although the fat content can be on the high side. Lately, I just hardly eat out anymore!

I tried something like dramamine for dumping a couple times - yeah - not good.  It was perscription for when I had my feeding tube that would sometimes knock around in my stomach and made me want to either puke or die.  It worked, but it also made me pretty much useless for about 4-6 hours.  So unless you're getting ready for bed anyway, I would stick to tylenol and water.

I just remembered: I've also heard of pickle juice as a remedy. Don't ask me how or why - I have no clue, and I haven't even tried it myself it is just something I've heard...I find that drinking water helps because the symptoms you are experiencing are actually caused by a rapid dehydration: As I understand it, dumping is caused when sugar passes into your intestines in an unregulatd manner (your pouch doesn't have the pyloric valve at the bottom of it - normally the valve receives signals from hormones to open or shut and release the food intor your intestine at an appropriate rate for digestion as regulated by your pancreas)....So, now the sugar enters the intestinal track just as quick as it passes through your stoma (connection)...The problem is that sugar is very hydrophylic (water-loving) the structure of the molecules attracts water...Basically the sugar sucks up all the available water in your intestines causing this "rapid dehydration" so this is why you feel the way you do when you have a stomach virus and after a day or two have become dehydrated....I hope this makes sense, and I hope I understand it right...Anybody else ever hear it explained this way?

It also causes a rapid rise of blood sugar and a crash - which is why some people get sweaty and shakey at the tail end of dumping (those are the symptoms I get from sugar lows). But yeah, what you said pretty much sums it up.

When I did the MS 150 from Frisco to Fort Worth last year they provided bottles of pickle juice at every rest stop. Alot of people drink it for dehydration. I tried a sip but I couldn't bring myself to drink a whole bottle. Then again I'm not a pickle fan myself so that may have had something to do with it. LOL

Yeah, I've occasionaly felt those types of symptoms also, and it happens about every fifth time when I drink alcohol. I never know if it will happen when I drink alcohol, it's kind of a crapshoot - or maybe more like Russian Roulette!...Usually a few minutes lying down or sitting and a little bit of easily absorbed sugar like a small glass of orange juice does the trick...but its still a pretty big problem especially if you are say standing outside of a pub in Ireland when it happens and the bouncer notices it, and then won't let you back in citing "you've had enough lad" even though the only person you are with is still inside the pub and since you're american cell phones are useless in europe, you have no other choice then to wait outside in the cold for an hour until he realizes you are not coming back inside and something is wrong....but that's just one example!

Thanks for the input y'all.  I'm all better now.  I ended up passing out for about 3 hrs and sleeping.  When I woke up, I drank some water and was feelin MUCH better.  Def not gonna eat sugar any time soon.  That was NOT the greatest feeling in the world!  At one point I felt like my stomach was gonna just cut it's way out of my body...

As a side note - typically all resturant food is high in fat, salt and sugar... thats why it tastes so much better than the version we make at home. You always have to be careful and ask questions before ordering... the menu isnt going to spell out all the ingrediants.  Remember also that bread typically has sugar in it as well... they use white bread which is a higher glycemic index food so it has more of an effect on your blood sugar than a whole grain/whole wheat bread would. The batter is white flour based and made with whole milk or possibly cream - so you are getting more sugar and also fat.... Im sure they add sugar to it as well... then if they put powdered sugar on top you have even more sugar.