Dumping experience

I knew this thing existed. Surprise surprise, not from my surgeon, nor from my dietician. I encountered this term somewhere in a forum while looking for something else. I am glad I did. Because if I had to face it completely unprepared, it would have been a good deal of panic. 

I had one of those not-so-great days, when my stomach simply didn’t want much food, saying it lightly. I had maybe a coffee and some yogurt for a whole day. It is nothing strange in my case. I have days when I can eat relatively normally and reach all my food-related goals, and then all of a sudden I have a day when it is clear from the very morning that today is not the day and I will be happy to get inside enough liquids. Don’t ask me why, the stomach is the boss here and he can be pretty moody sometimes.

Unfortunately, I had to go to celebrate the birthday of a friend of mine. I was tired and didn’t feel like it, but you know, socializing is a must, so I went. I didn’t want anything to eat, my stomach was protesting strongly, so I let it be. I was watching everyone eating, withstanding their “funny” comments, and sipping tea. 

And then it happened. Lesson learned for the next time! If you don’t eat anything much all day, don’t you dare to let them convince you that a piece of cake is a must. You negotiate a small piece, and it really was, and you eat it. You know, it is a birthday party, and it is a “must” to eat the cake. For maybe half an hour it felt that it would go unnoticed. 

And then… wooo! I started to feel nauseous, but I thought it was the heat and the lack of food, it happens to me sometimes. Then I started sweating. I mean like a pig. It was that cold nasty sticky sweat as if you are sick. It was not good. My stomach hurt me, I had something like hunger pangs, but it was not hunger, it felt like sharp pinching, my hands were shaking, and I felt incredibly weak and dizzy. All this together.

I crawled to the bathroom to wash my face and calm down a little, because I felt incredibly anxious. Lucky me. All of a sudden I rushed inside and that wonderful cake went out in a pretty nasty way. Had I not been there already, there would have been very smelly and embarrassing consequences. 

It took me another half an hour to put myself together. I felt so incredibly bad. I thought I would have to go to the emergency so that they checked me. I spent the rest of the afternoon sitting by the table, pretending all was fine and I couldn’t wait to get home and get to bed. It was a nasty lesson. 

I was investigating a little into this thing and it was clear to me that I made the most stupid thing in the world. I ate something sugary on a basically empty stomach. There was no buffer to keep it for a while in the stomach and the food continued directly to the mall intestine. This is exactly why dumping happens. The sugar that was not processed enters into the small intestine and it makes you feel literally like crap. 

In those 2,5 years since the surgery, this was the only occasion when dumping happened to me. I learned the hard way what it is and especially how it feels like. It was so nasty that I have been very careful with food since then. I wouldn’t dare to eat anything high in carbs on an empty stomach. Just remembering the feeling, it was so repulsive and caused me such a great anxiety that I will make sure it won’t happen to me ever again. 

I know, it is not the end of the world, it most likely happened to every bariatric patient at some point. What I wanted to say is that it is crucial to know about this and be at least a little prepared. If I hadn’t known about this, I would probably called the ambulance. I felt so bad, it is beyond words. 

It is a pity that my nutritionist didn’t warn me. She was great and helped me a lot with many things, but from a patient point of view, this is important to know. It scars the s.it out of you. So I am spreading the word, so that others know and can mentally prepare before it happens to them. It is a question of time.