Drinking water causes regurgitation / foamy vomit

PuffyHon

My husband had 20% of his esophagus 20% of his stomach removed on Aug 4, 2011 (about 3 weeks ago). He seems to be eating ok...except for drinking water or any form of liquid. So, we're now worried that he'll get dehydrated soon! He is suppose to eat 5 to 6 small meals a day with liquid intake between meals...but because he can't seem to hold down liquid, he's stretched his meals out allowing more hours between meals to drink so that he wont vomit food back out.

So, he eats (a toddler size meal), wait about an hour then starts sipping water. Usually by the 2nd or 3rd sip (not even a 1/4 cup of water) he starts to feel gasy and starts to gag and throw the water back up (some times some bits and pieces from meal an hour or so ago will accompany the liquid coming back out.

We spoke with the stomach surgeon, and he deferred it to the thoracic surgeon...but the thoracic surgeon seems to be stumped! As he can drink clam chowder down ok, bot an hour later when he drink good ole water, then the water comes back up... Any ideas, any suggestion, have you experienced such issues?

He's now scheduled for a swallow test on Aug 31, 2011...to see where the liquid reach to trigger the gag reflex causing the throw-up... Oh and the output is mostly just foamy liquid!!! Help!!! Thank you in advance for any suggestions or ideas or experiences that you can share!

canuck1

Discomfort Drinking Water
I had 2/3 of my stomach removed and most of my esophagus ( only 5 cm left) 5 years ago and have had difficulty drinking water. I drink coffee, tea, pop ( diet cola) anything that is slightly sweet. In order to drink more water I add some fruit syrup ( like a sweet cordial ) and it seems to help. Hope this is of some help.