Question:
Is this just gas, is it stricture...?

Hi. I've heard from one lovely member about a possible stricture, but I have a couple of questions for you. First off, my symptoms are such: I haven't been able to eat solid food for about 10 days now. I am 9 weeks out, have lost about 38 pounds, and at about 5-6 weeks, I could eat some potatoes, but in the past few weeks, no matter how slowly I eat, no matter how long I chew my food, I throw up within 10 minutes or so, OR, I have to make myself throw up because I still feel miserable 2 1/2 hours after eating. For example, I had approximately 1 tablespoon of hamburger for dinner. I sat there and chewed my bites about 30 times each. I hadn't had anything to drink for about 30 minutes beforehand. I ate at 8:00, by 10:30 I was still burping, and feeling sick to my stomach and feeling food "sitting" in my throat. I finally made myself vomit just so I could go to bed, and (this is gross, sorry), the food came up looking almost exactly as it had going down. I've tried tuna, chicken, hamburger meat, fish filets, shrimp, lobster, any form of protein you can think of and it still either comes back immediately or I have to make it come back. Second, no matter if I've eaten or not, I get a blinding, bring me to my knees, cramp on my left side just below my rib cage. If that's gas, good Lord, but it's painful. Help me y'all. I am really hating life right now.    — Shonda P. (posted on January 21, 2003)

January 21, 2003
It sounds like you are chewing thoroughly and doing everything right and gas should not last for 10 days. Call your doctor IMMEDIATELY. You have to get some nutrition in you.
   — Yolanda J.

January 21, 2003
The symptoms you describe sound exactly like mine when I went through 2 strictures. I know how miserable it is!! And fixing it is pretty simple and quick and will get you on your way to eating immediately following. Please call your doctor.
   — Cheri M.

January 21, 2003
Hi! I had similar symptoms back in Dec. We are almost the same time out post-op. I had open RNY on 11/12/02. Anyway, I was doing great, eating mostly anything I wanted, until about 4 weeks post-op. Then every time I would eat (no matter what it was), as soon as I swallowed the first bite, I would become instantly nauseous and would feel bloated. After a few days of this, it then progressed to where I would vomit occasionally. By this time I thought, I'm not chewing well enough, I am eating too fast, eating the wrong things, drinking too soon before or after I eat. I was trying to figure out what I was doing wrong, because again, I was just fine until week 4. It eventually got to where I was vomitting every time I tried to eat and I was not eating much at all, let me tell you. So I see my surgeon and he suggests an Endoscopy to be done to see if it was a stricture. That was a very easy test and only took minutes. They semi-knock you out so you don't feel a thing. Anyway, the test came back fine. The GI doc that preformed the test said no problems. He did tell me that this nausea crap is really fairly common in gastric bypass patients and I might just have to wait it out, that it would eventually pass. He did give me 2 medications that really helped. The one is called Reglan (sp?). It is an anti-nausea medicine, but it also keeps your digestive system moving. He said that maybe the food wasn't moving through fast enough, like it was just sitting there, backing everything else up. The one down side --- it makes you poop! But I would suggest seeing your doc, getting an Endoscope done to rule out stricture, and if no stricture is present (or any other problems) asking for that medicine. By the way, about a week after I had this done, the nausea and vomitting did stop. Every once in a while, I will still have a little of both, but not anything compared to before. Hope this helps.
   — Lori F.