Question:
After WLS do you vomit with the same intensity that you had prior to surgery?

When I vomit it is intense, therefore I can't imagine vomitting on a regular basis right after surgery without tearing something out. Since your stomach is smaller it doesn't seem like it would take as much force to throw up. Is this true? (sorry about gross subject)    — Kimberly H. (posted on August 26, 2002)

August 26, 2002
I'm almost 9 months post op and have only thrown up twice. My experience was that it was just as intense as when I was pre op.
   — Kim B.

August 26, 2002
I can tell you that it was a surprise for me that vomiting was not a hard thing to do. I have always hated vomiting and no matter how sick I was prior to WLS I would resist vomiting in any way. Vomiting after surgery for me has been easy...when I feel a pressure in my pouch if the food has been too heavy or eaten too quickly it comes back up easily and is not a forceful vomit...unless I get a feeling that something is stuck and I have to use a bit more effort to get it to come up. Now when I eat something that doesn't agree with me say too greasy or too many carbs then my vomiting may be more forceful and I feel weak afterwards. Once you learn your eating and pouch limits the vomiting episodes are much fewer and far between. Good Luck!
   — SARose61

August 26, 2002
There is a possibility that you will be one of the ones that doesn't throw up. At 14 months post, I have never thrown up. Good luck and God Bless!
   — Kimberly L.

August 26, 2002
It is not the same but it can be more painful. It depends on what you are "bringing up". For instance, today I did something I should NOT have done and I know better. I was in a terrific hurry at work and ate too fast. And I didn't even eat a lot. I got one of those new border bowls....zesty chicken. Don't yell at me! Ok, then I ate the top part which is the five or six small pieces of chicken and tomato and a small amount of lettuce. Then below that is a layer of rice....which is a no-no I found out. My pouch said "not another bite". But I was extremely thirsty. Sooooo, I took a quick drink of SF iced tea. It was too much to hold and I knew I had to throw up. But the water and a foam like saliva is all that came up. It was approximately 2 oz or so and I felt better. There was a small amount of rice in it. Gross, sorry. I could have continued to bring up the chicken, etc. but I felt so much better. I just waited and it passed through. So the throwing up is very different. It is more like a baby "spit up". Enough said about that. Then the other type of throwing up is the painful type when something like a piece of meat feels stuck. That hurts and there is a lot of dry heaving before anything comes up. It also usually occurs when you eat too fast and too much or too large a bite of meat or "hard food".
   — Marilyn C.

August 26, 2002
hi i never had a problem with being sick or anything right after surgery but recently i had a small meal i didnt over eat but for some reason it had me in alot of pain i didnt get the heaves but i made myself vomit so pain would go away. i noticed that i vomited alot more gently and not to be gross but it was not filled with all that gross gastric juices it came up very much the same way it went down i know that sounds crazy but this has been my experience :)
   — carrie M.

August 26, 2002
I had 2 strictures which caused me to throw up pretty violently. It was so forceful and repetitive that I developed a tear in my pouch called an Mallory-Weiss tear. I was throwing up blood because of it. It was absolutely horrible. But since the strictures at 3 and 5 weeks out, I have only thrown up one time when I tried rice too early. I don't miss those days at all. There is one thing that is better post-op when throwing up, there is no acid coming back up with that horrible taste. That really made a difference.
   — Cheri M.

August 27, 2002
yep, just not as much to throw up, but just as strong of a reflex.
   — Vicki L.