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Anyone have dumping syndrome post esophagectomy?
Esophageal Cancer | Last Active: Apr 9 8:37am | Replies (38)Comment receiving replies
I’m 5 years out from surgery. I’m doing great 👍 except for occasional early dumping. Everyone’s journey is different, I believe because no one’s surgery/treatments are the same and your age plays a role.
For the past five years I’ve considered having a pyloromyotomy to relax my pylorus. I’ve hesitated because I’m afraid it might increase dumping syndrome,
and because dumping has improved over the past 3 years.
Some of my experiences: Carbs don’t seem to matter to me. I usually have some type of cake and milk a couple of hours before I go to bed almost every night.
One thing I’ve been trying to understand is if I drink 2 or more beers before dinner I can eat almost whatever volume of food I want. (Like normal people)
A couple years ago my BM’s were very loose, green and sticky. I stumbled upon a study on PEI (pancreatic enzyme inefficience) that states it’s a good idea for people who’ve had any type of stomach surgery to take pancreatic enzymes which is called ( pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy) I bought a bottle on Amazon from Pure encapsulations and within 24 hours my BM’s improved a lot.
I was on immunotherapy for 10 months, it destroyed my
Thyroid which gave me hypothyroidism. Your thyroid regulates everything in your body including digestion. The standard treatment is some form of levothyroxine. It doesn’t work for 20% of people. Took me 4 years to find out that I was one of them. I’m currently on Armour thyroid, which has helped with my digestion along with brain fog and fatigue.
I also think that over time your body adapts.
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@brianpj12
Loved reading YOUR post-op history... as I'm fairly close in all regards (July 2020 surgery)... since I did a year of adjuvant Opdivo immunotherapy.
So many do panic early on post-op... because they want things to progress more quickly. We're all unhappy with how much we can eat/drink... dumping syndrome (early and late), our soft and runny poops... and ass explosions, nighttime reflux possibly, sleeping flat on our backs as well as staying elevated, possible dietary changes... and on and on. We counsel hundreds of our fellow EC and Esophagectomy patients on our twice-weekly Zoom calls... and we constantly tell them they need a new mindset post-op... because things are going to improve... but very sloooowly! So hang tough, and don't be afraid to experiment... because what doesn't work today may work just fine in a few months. No rush to be stretched... no rush to G-POEM surgery... no rush to say sugars or dairy will NEVER work again... no rush to think you'll never sleep normally or poop normally once again. EVERYTHING sucked for me my first year post-op... butvi continued to see improvements thru my second year post-op. I'm pretty much back to normal now... I sleep normally again, totally flat, head on a pillow, and I can sleep on either side. I basically never have reflux... which shocks me. I poop normally, eat fairly normally, although I do still tend to graze all day long (out of habit), and I've put 40 lbs back on out of the 60 I lost on my EC journey... and I don't want to gain another pound. I am 67 now... I even stopped taking my low dose Synthroid (50 micrograms)... it wasn't doing anything for me.
Be well.
Gary