Stomach ache, heartburn & other fun things – February 18, 2011
So I’ve been getting stomach aches for a little over a month now. And yes, they are BM related. So you are warned not to keep reading if you’re not comfortable with BM (or any other bodily function) talk. Lol.
My first stomach ache was at the beginning of January. January 6, Dia de Reyes for us Mexicans. My sister made Tinga de Pollo. This is shredded chicken in a Chipotle sauce. I know chipotle chiles are HOT but I didn’t know she’d used an entire can of them! I ate a few bites and that was enough. Later that day, I had to “go” but since we weren’t at home I held it in. Bad idea. It was almost 10pm when we got home and I could no longer “go”. About two days later, I got a pain on my right side just under my ribcage. Ouch! I had these two pains at the same time for about a week.
My second stomach ache started one week ago today. This time it just happened, most likely because I haven’t been able to “go” on a regular basis. I haven’t been holding them in… I just haven’t been able to “go”. It started in the center of my abdomen, from bra-line to just below my belly button. I mentioned it to my nutritionist and surgeon when I saw them on Monday. Was told to drink prune juice and take Miralax to help me “go” and this should alleviate the stomach ache. I hadn’t been able to go buy these things yet. Tuesday morning I woke up with a pain on my left side just under my ribcage. Same as last month’s, but on the other side! So I had the center-of-my-abdomen-pain at the same time as the left-side-ribcage-pain. :-
Wednesday night I had INTENSE heartburn as soon as I laid down to try to go to sleep. I could NOT sleep and spent a good portion of the night in the bathroom. I had foamies and the heartburn and the pains at the same time. It was bad. I finally went back to bed and woke up much better on Thursday morning. I felt better throughout the day. Stomach pains were 90% gone. Went to bed that night and had no more pain or heartburn.
So glad I feel better. I still have a strange feeling in my stomach, but it’s not really sharp pain anymore. I had not had heartburn this intense since I was pregnant with my son, who is now 7 1/2 years old! I hadn’t had heartburn at all since my VSG. Hopefully, it does not come back!!
12 week post-op – February 14, 2011
I’m doing my 12 week post-op a day early. Why? Because I had an appt with my surgeon today.
I was running late today and didn’t get there until 3:10pm and my appt was at 3. They didn’t call me in until 3:35. :- The first thing that gets done is the weighing in. I was shocked… SHOCKED! I weighed 20lbs less than at my last appt last month on Jan 3. I was expecting to weigh at least 4lbs more than I actually did.
So then we go back to the room and my blood pressure’s taken and it’s normal. Yay. She went out to get the measuring tape to take my measurements and then the psych came. After the psych, the nutritionist came in.
TMI WARNING: Gonna talk about BM’s now. You are now warned! –> I told the nutritionist about the stomach ache i’ve had since Thursday. Told her I’d been vomiting – 3 days in a row – immediately after eating, and it didn’t matter what I ate because it made me puke. This was just before the stomach ache began. Also, I hadn’t had a bm in days. Both of which, I believed to be the cause of my stomach ache. She agreed and told me to not only increase my fiber intake, both with supplements like Benefiber and food, but also to drink more water. Fiber alone will constipate you more. Makes sense and I’ll remember this. She also said to drink about 4oz of reduced sugar prune juice in the mornings.
I also mentioned raw food, because it’s something that has become of interest to me recently. She said it would be ok, as long as I supplement with protein shakes. Although I need less now, I still need protein. My goal is now 50-60 grams of protein a day. It used to be 60-80.
My dr then came in. I warned him that I had a list of questions to ask him and he sat down and listened and answered. I didn’t feel rushed or anything. Among my list of questions were:
1) The condition of my liver during surgery – He said all patients getting wls have a fatty liver, but if he saw something notable or strange, he would have made note of it and sent a sample for closer examination, which he didn’t. Fatty liver loses fat, as the person does.
2) How often to do blood work? Every 3 months for the first year, and then yearly.
3) Gastric Plication vs Sleeve? Similar but plication is even newer than sleeve and long term research not available. Said it’s something of interest to surgeons and that is in clinical studies.
4) Sleeve revision – to DS or RNY? Revision at this hospital from a sleeve would be to RNY, NOT DS as I’d thought. He said the stomach/sleeve would be cut and the intestines then rerouted as a normal RNY is.
5) Foamies? He said they’re caused by high carb foods. Yes they happen after I eat. Yes, after he told me this I realized it was after I had eaten a tortilla or rice. :- Lesson learned.
6) Dumping? He said it happens with the sleeve too! NOT just RNY as I’d thought.
7) Soda? Will NOT rupture sleeve, but will make you feel bloated and probably stretch it.
8) Raw/Vegan diet? Definitely better than a fast food diet. Make sure to supplement with protein shakes if needed.
9) Colonics? WHY?? Apparently the colon can handle it all on its own.
10) Stomach pics – I showed him pics of a stomach that had been resected. It was inflated, I’m assuming for the leak test, and it looked like chorizo. Lol. I told him this was the kind of pic I wanted of my own resected stomach. But oh well.
He asked for the results of my last potassium check. It was 4.0!!! Without liquid potassium supplements! And, the nurse never did come back in to take my measurements.
I also showed him one of my ear tubes – a 1/2″ size one. I asked him if this was approximately how narrow my new stomach/sleeve is and he said yes. 1/2″ is about 12.5mm. The french bougie used was a 32, which means it was slightly less than 11mm (32mm circumference, divided by Pi… and Pi is approximately 3.14), therefore, a tiny bit smaller than my 1/2″ ear tube. WOW! I showed him the 7/8″ ones I currently have in my lobes and he said my stomach is definitely narrower than that!
1/2″ (12.5mm) vs. 7/8″ (22mm)
My next appt with him is in about 3 months and I was given the blood order to go get done about a week before the appt. My goal is to lose 20 more pounds by then. Doable? I hope so!!
mozmonq 