Daily Menu ? and Dumping

My food schedule
Hi Cora,

Here is my food schedule.

7AM: Pills and a bananna

9AM: Blueberry or english muffin

11AM: Small salad (very small) and cottage cheese

1PM: Mixed nuts

3PM: String cheese

5-6PM: 1/2 sandwich or bratwurst, and jello.

Snack before bed is applesauce and more pills.

I try to eat a little every 2 hours and shoot to get 60 to 80 ounces of water in between snacks/meals. I hope this helps you!

It gets better
Hi Cora:

First of all, I assume you’re familiar with the UMPC’s recommended dumping syndrome diet at http://www.upmc.com/healthatoz/patienteducation/n/pages/dumpingsyndromediet.aspx? I found it very helpful, although I still had some dumping problems for several months. In fact, I’m 6+ months post-MIE and if I’m not careful it will still happen, and probably will for the rest of my life. But it does get better – honest! – both because you and he will get used to his “do’s and don’t’s, and because his system will adapt.

It’s a weird syndrome with many manifestations besides the best known diarrhea. About 6 weeks after my surgery I was sipping a glass of ice water one evening a couple of hours after dinner, when all of a sudden I got so dizzy I literally almost fell out of my chair. It passed after a couple of minutes, then I had to go to the bathroom…RIGHT NOW, if you know what I mean. And on the way into the bathroom the dizziness came on even worse, to where I couldn’t walk and my wife had to help me to the jon. That time it lasted about 5 minutes, and when it passed and I got myself back to the living room it happened for a third time along with a rapid heartbeat and I felt flushed, at which point I was scared I might be having a stroke or something. Long story short, I ended up in an ambulance and the ER, had a CT scan and an MRI of my head, spent the night there, and in the morning the neurologist said no TSI or stroke, it was dumping!

I had a discussion about dumping with my surgeon day before yesterday, and he said it’ll take up to a year for my “new” stomach and my intestines to get to know one another, but that they do adapt and become more tolerant. For example, I was lactose intolerant for the first time in my life for about 3 months after my surgery, then it just went away. I couldn’t eat pretty much anything with any sugar in it for about 5 months, then that wasn’t as much as a problem and now I can have a small serving of ice cream, or a brownie, or whatever, as long as I already have food in my stomach. No food in stomach + sugar = dumping! But the point is that my system IS adapting and allowing me to eat more volume and more variety of foods, but only up to a point, and it’s up to me (and my lovely bride) to be aware of where that point is, and stop before I get there.

As frustrating and occasionally depressing as this beast and its consequences are, your husband’s dumping problems in all probability really will get better, and you two will be able to enjoy normal meals together – he just won’t be eating as much at a sitting as he used to. I could tell you my daily diet now, but he’d probably feel even worse, because of the volume and variety of what I eat. That’s me now, and it will be him before you know it…really!

Good luck.

FEC,
Bob
T1aN0M0
Dx 8/3/11
MIE 9/23/11

Menu's
Hi Cora,
Rob, it would appear eats a bit more than most of the people who have replied to you.
Here's his schedule:
First thing a drink made with tunos indios and apple juice.
I get the tunos fresh (either pick them if in season or buy them). I add carton apple juice.
To prepare the tunos, use a knife and fork and cut them in half. Scoop out all the flesh with a teaspoon and put it in quarter pint freezer pots or a large mug size. This will last three days.
Be very careful with the spines on the fruit, they are murderous. It is a potch, but I prepare a carrier bag full at a time and once the pots are frozen, it's easy.
I take one pot from the freezer and put it in the normal fridge the evening before and use a third every morning,in a blender with the apple juice. Pour through a sieve. You will notice when you push the pips with a spoon that it is full of pectin.
I don't know how Rob is doing so well, as his op was 29th Feb this year. Perhaps it's the pectin or even the anti-oxidant properties, but he's doing great.

A half hour later - Pro-biotic yogurt

Breakfast - Large bowl of cornflakes and banana or porridge

Mid Morning - croisant or toast

Lunch -
Large salad with tuna, egg or cheese. Easy on the onion but lots of avocado.
Small fresh tomato, but I peel it.
Or
Rice or pasta salad
Or
Large bowl Home made watercress soup or lentil soup with bacon, (sometimes with a little bread. Both freeze very well.

The watercress soup is made with;
half an onion and one potato sauteed in butter til soft
add milk and chicken stock ( I prefer home made and freeze cups of it), simmer til all is cooked. The amount of liquid depends on how thick you like it.
add a huge bag of chopped watercress and simmer for four minutes
Blend it all until smooth and creamy. Mine is very dark green at this stage.
add a swirl of cream if you like it.

Lentil soup is:
4 ozs. Lean bacon in tiny pieces and one leek finely chopped - sauteed in a little butter or olive oil.
Add chicken stock, potato, parsnip, carrot, turnip, herbs provence or any other veg you like.
big mug of red lentils.
Simmer until cooked on low heat as lentils can stick.
Blend as smooth as you like it. Rob likes this one with a lot more texture.

Mid afternoon - sandwich with cheese or lean meat and a piece of fruit

Dinner - He's eating almost anything now, and has a small glass of wine or a beer sometimes. His dinner plate size is now a breakfst plate, but he is putting on weight little by little.
A few of the things are:
Fresh salmon with a baked sweet potato or ordinary potato and butter. A large cup at least of veg.
White fish sometimes with prawns. He even eats a little garlic. Sometimes I just grill the prawns plain. Mashed potato and veg with butter.
I make a lot of vegetable bakes with cheese and he eats pizza.
He also eats fruit afterwards. Water melon, strawberries, pears, papaya (anything really, but he doesn't like oranges so I juice them.
Pasta, rice and most combinations, but he doesn't do too well with red meat, especially minced. I don't know why.

PM - sometimes he has cereal or sometimes crackers and cheese.

He drinks copious amounts of tea, coffee, water or juice or yogurt drink between all the meal times.
Sorry for being so long winded, but I hope this helps Cora.
Hugs and prayers
Marci