Anyone remember that toy? It was awesome: he was a body builder action figure type of guy, but he was filled with gel and he could be stretched out to some amazing length like 6 feet. What in the world does this have to do with gastric bypass and weight loss? Well, for the past couple of months I have been feeling kinda like Stretch Armstrong's less stretchy older sister.
About a month after surgery I started having serious trouble eating things. Things I had been eating with no trouble, like refried beans and chicken salad. It was a odd feeling- it felt like everything I ate was stuck at the base of my throat. In that place where the clavicle comes together at the front of the neck. At first, it would pass in a few minutes, so I just thought I must have eaten too fast, or didn't chew well enough ( WLS patients are supposed to chew each bite 20-30 times, and that is really really hard!)
It went on like that for about 4 days. Pain after each meal that would go away after a time, but it was getting progressively worse. Then one day I was eating a sugar free pudding cup and it just got stuck and would not go down. Pudding is considered a "slider" food- something that we can eat a lot of, because it slides right down and doesn't fill up the pouch. But this time it wasn't sliding anywhere! I sat on the couch in tears, wondering what I was doing wrong. Why couldn't I get the hang of this?
I tried to get rid of the pudding (throw it up, sorry for the TMI), but couldn't do it. I called the bariatric clinic, and they were concerned. Concerned enough to schedule me to come into the hospital for a round of IV fluids and something called an EGD. That stands for a really long word which means they stick a camera down the esophagus and and take a peek around. What they were looking for was a stricture- which is when the opening from the stomach pouch and small intestine overheals and closes up.
Sure enough, I had one. And a whopper it was indeed. My opening was completely closed. The doc said only bubbles were passing through at that point. So while I was in the "twilight sleep" stage, they used a balloon to stretch the opening. The whole twilight sleep thing is interesting when they are sticking a scope down your throat- you gag and choke and remember the whole thing, but you don't fight it because you are somewhat under.
When I woke up, they gave me water to drink and it was fine. I thought, well that's that, I am good as new. Little did I know.
Before I left the hospital, the doc told me two fantastic bits of news: I would have to go back to the liquid diet (more on that in another post), and I would need 4 more dilations before I would be back to where I should be. Great, I told him. Really looking foward to that. Once a week for the next four weeks I get to have an IV stuck in the back of my hand and a tube shoved down my throat.
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