Anyone have dumping syndrome post esophagectomy?

I read a good deal from bariatric gastric by-pass patients who suffer from the same dumping syndrome issues and comprise the largest percentage of DS sufferers. Several have mentioned that their dieticians warned them not to eat leftovers, at least not those warmed in a microwave. We have seen this trend with my husband. He may eat a freshly prepared food only to find that the reheated meal cause DS.

I just had my diagnosis Stage 3, lymph node involvement. The chemo, radiation, then major surgery followed by another round of chemo. I’m 75, and although in otherwise good condition I’m struggling with undergoing the treatment or best efforts focusing on auto immune and reducing glucose

@jlmcclure Yes, i read that lying down helps because dumping is the body processing food too fast, so lying down actually slows the motility. I really found it hard to believe it would work, but it does!

Hi
I had my surgery 4th Feb 2025-full esophagus.
At first I had a feeding tube jj in my tummy ended up for 6 months,as the incision in my neck got infected,then wouldnt close-right pain!
Finally got to eat,and-yes, it was hard. First of all a stricture, so very tight trying to get food in, and wow, did I feel sick! Could only eat tiny amounts, diarrhea and lots of regurgitation. Often the dumping, sweaty and sick. Id get used to keeping it down, feel ok, but an hour later get terrible cramping pains, need to vomit and boiling hot.
In time, this has drastically reduced, thankfully. My stricture has been almost fixed by dilations, amd a temporary stent,amd I can now eat almost normal sized portions! I have learned what causes issues-which is different for all, can be. Things like pancakes I need to be careful, or potatoes,anything starchy and white which fill up, pasta too. Can have it but need limit portions.
I use ondansetron which is amazing for nausea, and nortriptyline if get bad cramps, but not often the latter.
I now excercise-swimming, gym, even dragon boating! This makes me hungry, helps digestion and enables me to eat more. I know not everyone can manage that as Im quite young for this cancer (45) but any movement definitely helps with the gut stuff.
Hope that helps. Jelly sweets and then a banana helps too when I get weak.
Best wishes
Leila

I have been carrying Glucose Tablets with me all the time. These are so handy should you need a “quick fix” they are available at Walgreens / CVS. Yummy too!

Hi!
I’m 4 years out from having the Ivor-Lewis procedure. At first, I experienced a lot of early dumping syndrome with frequent diarrhea. Imodium helped to manage it. I was also using Zofran for nausea which, on the plus side, also gave me a bit of constipation. After about 2 years, it evolved into late dumping syndrome, which I didn’t identify at the time. I was just happy that the frequent diarrhea was resolving. I knew that I often felt very weak & sweaty in the middle of the afternoon, and had drenching sweats at night that interrupted my sleep. During one afternoon episode, my husband used his glucose monitoring kit and found my blood sugar was 46. Normal is around 75-115. Eating sugary candy brought it back up. We moved out of state and my new primary care provider recently diagnosed late dumping syndrome. I spoke with a dietitian and decided to buy a continuous glucose monitoring device so I could see what’s going on with the blood sugar. I’m using the Dexcom Stelo device, purchased online. It connects with your cell phone, and shows your current blood sugar every few minutes. It has space where you can document what you’ve eaten and physical activity. For most people, BS typically peaks 2 hours after eating. Your insulin kicks in to bring it back to normal range. With late dumping, too much insulin is released and causes your blood sugar to go too low. For me, this triggers the symptoms of weakness, sweating, and irritability. I’m still trying to figure out the best way to keep my BS from going too high and too low. As some others have mentioned, I have tried diabetic- or ketogenic- type of diets. I have also tried small meals with protein every 2 hours. The blood glucose monitor has been very helpful to see the effect of different foods and beverages. I now carry high protein bars and an 8 oz apple juice with me whenever I’m away from home. The apple juice has worked very well to bring me back up if I go too low.
I hope this helps somebody.

@brianpj12
Thanks for the info; I will check it out!

@ja2
I’m five years post esophajectomy.
At one point during the past five years I found that pancreatic enzymes helped me with digestion. A specific pancreatic enzyme….
Amylase is what your body uses to digest carbohydrates. You can purchase them on Amazon. Checkout the customer reviews to see if this might benefit you.

I am 18 months post surgery. I experienced dumping often at the beginning but not very often now. Anything with sugar will cause dumping for me.

@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