Thinking about Food and Dumping Syndrome
July 12, 2008 by Terry
Filed under Terry's Rambles
As I near the surgery date for my gastric bypass July 16th, I find myself wanting to eat things I have not eaten in a long time. It is as if I am going to have to give these foods up forever when in truth most of them can still be enjoyed in moderation in a couple of months. No scotch, ice cream, caffeinated coffee, soda pop and beer are a few of those items on the list. For the past 3 months I have been weaning myself off of caffeine, yet I will still miss a cup or two of black caffeinated coffee in the morning for decaffeinated just seems to be lacking in flavor. Perhaps in a couple of months I will be able to handle a bit of caffeine, we will see. As tempted, as I am to pig out I will do my best to control myself during the next few days. As the surgeon pointed out, each extra pound of fat I lose prior to surgery will help the surgery to go better.
While thinking about the pending surgery I have been wondering how I will handle different foods later on. Now one of those foods bariatric patients are strongly warned to avoid is ice cream. For the past several years I have rarely kept ice cream in my freeze for I really do enjoy it. This may not make a lot of sense to you but my way of preventing myself from carelessly eating foods from potato chips to ice cream is to just not have them in the house. Perhaps this is a good thing. As so many bariatric surgery patients have learned, ice cream can cause the dreaded “dumping syndrome.” For those of you not familiar with “dumping syndrome,” this is a very unpleasant physical reaction that occurs shortly after eating sugary items. Some people say this pain is the most severe cramping they have ever experienced. Dumping syndrome happens when sugar is passed rapidly form the small stomach pouch into the small intestine. The body quickly draws fluid into the intestine to dilute the sugar load which can result in cramps, nausea, diarrhea, weakness and light-headedness. While dumping syndrome is certainly a warning to gastric bypass patients to behave it is a punishing one.
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