No Stomach

happy77 said:

stomach cancer
Hi, I was diagnosed with stomach cancer last Febuary and in June 2009 I had a total gastrectomy done. I was 48 years old and could not believe this. Anyway, I went to Mayo clinic to have this surgery done. I remember what the physician had told my family and I He said I have good news, and I have bad news.The bad news was, We have to take your whole stomach because of the cancer, The good news is that you can live to be 100 without it. I said can you take it out tomorrow. I almost feel selfish saying this, and by no means was I super Woman. I had my bad bad days with chemo and radiation and thought today is going to be my last day, but I said i am going to hang on with all my might and here I am 14 months later writing this. I have experienced the thick saliva, not so much loose stool, but I had to teach myself what worked for me to eat and what did'nt anymore. Sugar can be the worse nightmare. I still get that extra saliva, but it's only there when I have something real surgary, for example the other night my husband came home with some rootbeer for us and I new I should'nt of had this , but I did and then I paid for it. I had to get up and go spit this extra saliva out. I can't even swallow it. This has not happened to me in a long time, but like I said you have to train yourself all over again. I promise you will get use to it. Things will get better. Have a good attitude about this and you will make it. Tell sister I was in the hospital to with dehydration and losing weight. I thought I was going to die. I was weak and they wanted to put a feed tube in me. Finally I had to tell myself, either you try to eat and keep hydrated or you are going down hill. This was so scary to me. I want to live. I have a Daughter that needs her Mother.So they sent me home from the hospital and I started eating peanut butter and rice cakes.Peanut Butter has some good protien in it. Then I started drinking these vitamin water and not that those drinks are good for you, but they were'nt real sweet and surgary and this helped me get some fluids in between drinking a nice glass of water. V-8 juice is so good to. Get it nice and cold. It has a lot of potassium. These are just a couple of thing that help me to get some fluids in me.Stay away from greasy foods. I ate very bland food and now I eat everything. greasy foods are not good!!! Try some cherrios plain in a bowl in the morning and see how this works for you just to nibble on if you can't are'nt in the mood for anything else, at least you are getting something in you, then try adding a slice of toast with very little butter.Scramble some eggs and add a lot of butter to make them tasty and force yourself to eat them even if it takes an hour. This is a good protien to.I am still trying to get some of my strength back,and it's coming slowly but surely. I pray for you and if you have any other questions please let me know. Just remember, keep a good attitude, I honestly feel great and would never even know that my stomach has been removed. GOD IS SO WONDERFUL, IS'nt HE??

Tina Blondek said:

Hello Happy
Thank you for
Hello Happy
Thank you for your post! You have a wonderful story. I am wondering what has ever happened to this girl's sister. She never responded back. So tell me....if you do have your whole stomach removed, and can live until 100 without it....wow! where does the food go? Do they make you a new stomach? Just wondering. God bless you, and keep up the great work!
Tina

Terri Lou said:

Gastectomy info
I'm sorry to hear about the complications your sister is having. While I cannot offer you any suggestions directly, I wanted to let you know about a support group on Yahoo for Total Gastrectomy patients. It is a closed group so you have to request to join, but the admin is quick to accept. You will find lots of great people there plus the past messages alone are an invaluable resource.

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/TotalGastrectomySupportGroup/

If the link doesn't work just search "Yahoo Groups." On the main page you will see a search option that says "Find A Group."
Type "total gastrectomy" then follow the instructions to join!

Best wishes for you and your sister both!

happy77 said:

stomach cancer
Hi, I was diagnosed with stomach cancer last Febuary and in June 2009 I had a total gastrectomy done. I was 48 years old and could not believe this. Anyway, I went to Mayo clinic to have this surgery done. I remember what the physician had told my family and I He said I have good news, and I have bad news.The bad news was, We have to take your whole stomach because of the cancer, The good news is that you can live to be 100 without it. I said can you take it out tomorrow. I almost feel selfish saying this, and by no means was I super Woman. I had my bad bad days with chemo and radiation and thought today is going to be my last day, but I said i am going to hang on with all my might and here I am 14 months later writing this. I have experienced the thick saliva, not so much loose stool, but I had to teach myself what worked for me to eat and what did'nt anymore. Sugar can be the worse nightmare. I still get that extra saliva, but it's only there when I have something real surgary, for example the other night my husband came home with some rootbeer for us and I new I should'nt of had this , but I did and then I paid for it. I had to get up and go spit this extra saliva out. I can't even swallow it. This has not happened to me in a long time, but like I said you have to train yourself all over again. I promise you will get use to it. Things will get better. Have a good attitude about this and you will make it. Tell sister I was in the hospital to with dehydration and losing weight. I thought I was going to die. I was weak and they wanted to put a feed tube in me. Finally I had to tell myself, either you try to eat and keep hydrated or you are going down hill. This was so scary to me. I want to live. I have a Daughter that needs her Mother.So they sent me home from the hospital and I started eating peanut butter and rice cakes.Peanut Butter has some good protien in it. Then I started drinking these vitamin water and not that those drinks are good for you, but they were'nt real sweet and surgary and this helped me get some fluids in between drinking a nice glass of water. V-8 juice is so good to. Get it nice and cold. It has a lot of potassium. These are just a couple of thing that help me to get some fluids in me.Stay away from greasy foods. I ate very bland food and now I eat everything. greasy foods are not good!!! Try some cherrios plain in a bowl in the morning and see how this works for you just to nibble on if you can't are'nt in the mood for anything else, at least you are getting something in you, then try adding a slice of toast with very little butter.Scramble some eggs and add a lot of butter to make them tasty and force yourself to eat them even if it takes an hour. This is a good protien to.I am still trying to get some of my strength back,and it's coming slowly but surely. I pray for you and if you have any other questions please let me know. Just remember, keep a good attitude, I honestly feel great and would never even know that my stomach has been removed. GOD IS SO WONDERFUL, IS'nt HE??

dustmagnet7 said:

Life without a stomach...
In febuary this year I was diagnosed with stage 4 stomach cancer. It matastesized and was so advanced that I was bleeding internally. I ended up loosing my entire stomach, 2/3 of my small intestines and a small portion of my large intestine. Like you said, not what you expect to hear at your age...I'm 36. They gave me 12-16 months to live, but I fought hard and refused to give up the fight. After surgery and 21 weeks of chemo, I'm now cancer free (for now) and doing well. Its been some difficult times for my wife and daughter and I, but we got through it. I'd love to answer any questions you have (or at least try). My family and I have learned a lot over the last 8 months and want to help people in similar situations as best as we can. Its scary, but there is always hope...never give up.

Hello, I was doing some research on life after a total Gastrectomy due to Cancer and trying to find out how others are doing and about what they have found to eat that works along with what their weightloss has been.  I know your post was in 2010 and its now October 2014 but finding info or talking to others who have gone through this same thing is not easy to find.  

My husband was diagnosed with Stage 3 Gastric cancer in May of 2013 and he started Chemo in June 2013 for 3 months then had a Total Gastrectomy with 3 more months of Chemo follow up.  They did find 3 out of 31 Lymphnodes that tested positive for Cancer during the surgery. It  has now been a year and all of his scans have been good, Thank God!

He ofcourse is never hungry but needs to eat. It seems that the mornings he can not eat because just the thought makes him sick. Then he eats different things throughout the day, sometimes getting sick and sometimes he is okay. Alot of it is because in his mind he is still 301lbs but in actuallity he has lost down to 189, to date.  A few days ago at the doctors office they told him to start eating nothing but Protein to try and put on weight and to drink Whole milk. So this is our new meal plan that we try to stick to.  

How are you doing after all of this time and how has  your weightloss been? Are there any foods that you found really work for you or do you have any suggestions that I could pass along to him. Any info you can give would be greatly appreciated.

I pray that this message finds you well.