So, just because we have the surgery doesn’t mean we dont do stupid things.
“Dumping” is when a large amount of sugar enters the intestines. Anyone can dump, but RNY patients are more susceptible to this, because they do not have the pyloric valve at the bottom of their stomach to prevent this. As such, most VSG and DS patients do not have dumping.
So, I thought I was immune. It cant happen to me, Ive been able to handle sugar before, i’ll be fine. I had been very tired for the past week, so I decided that more calories would make me feel better. And, rather than just going for the healthy stuff, I decided I would eat chocolate cake.
The entire piece.
Now, honestly, I was satisfied after two bites. The cake was yummy and good and sweet, and I was tired of it after two bites. But, I needed calories, and I ended up eating the entire piece. In about three hours.
All of a sudden, I had the worst cramps of my life. Like, someone is sticking knives into me. I feel nauseous, im sweaty but freezing, I have cold chills, something was seriously wrong with me. I was pondering calling for an ambulance, it was that bad.
Yup. I dumped. I now know why its such a deterrent for RNY patients, if that happened every time I ate sugar I would live off of meat for the rest of my life. (I also realized it was dumping about five minutes into it, and declined to call an ambulance, but if it had gone on much longer I probably would have).
Please note: 1) This is very rare for a VSG person. 2) I ate an ENTIRE piece of cake. I would have had no problem had I stopped prior to that. 3) I have been low carbing (mostly) for 6 months. Eating that amount of sugar would have given me fits after 6 months on Atkins, so its not just surgery related.
Lesson learned. No more sweets for me :-)
