Question:
How do you know when your pouch has

it mean? I will be 17 months out on February 3, 2004, and I must admit that I'm finding every day that I have to go back and read "Pouch Rules for Dummies" on a regular basis. Should I talk to my surgeon about a possivle revision to "re-do" my stoma? Or should I go back to Phase 1 and do liquids for 3-14 days and try to shrink my pouch? I've done The Cottage Cheese Test, and I can get about 10-ozs. down and that scares me. I don't want to be able to eat that much! Someone told me that my pouch had "matured", and I'm wanting to know what that means and how it relates to my pouch being able to take in more. Your help and suggestions are appreciated! Proximal LAP RNY 9/3/02, 5'2" 265/138/115-126 Hadiyah, a.k.a.~~    — yourdivaness (posted on February 1, 2004)

February 1, 2004
The full question to this was, "How do you know when your pouch has "matured"? What does it mean? OOoops!! I think the first part got cut off some kinda way..
   — yourdivaness

February 1, 2004
I'm no expert here but, I would think that by 17 months your pouch would have reached it's 'mature' stage. My surgeon's nurse told me that they like to see their patients eating 1-11/2 cups (8-12 ounces) by about a year post op....sounds like you are right on target. My understanding though is that it should not continue increase beyond this point. I know it can be scary moving into maintenance phase of this journey...believe me, I'm kicking and screaming the whole way! But, we went into this knowing that we would lose somewhere around 75% of our excess weight (more if we worked hard or were just plain lucky) then, only be left with a tool that we would have to CHOOSE TO WORK for the rest of our lives. As far as shrinking your pouch goes...I think if anyone had any real success with that, you would hear about it all over the boards. Good luck to you!
   — eaamc

February 2, 2004
I would agree that your pouch is probably mature at this point (fully stretched). That is totally normal for your stage post-op. Keep in mind that cottage cheese is soft and 10 oz is not alot. Now try eating 10 oz of something more dense, like chicken breast and I bet you cannot do the same. Revisions are only done if something is wrong mechanically and I can't see anything wrong from your post. Stop worrying, your doing fine...
   — Cindy R.