dumping syndrome

Recently diagnosed with Dumping syndrome.  Had Bilroth 11 done in June and since I have nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and cramping and diarhea (diarrhea) all within an hour of eating.  I have also lost 55 pounds and still losing.  I am now 115 pounds.  I am losing about 2 pounds a week.  What else is there I can do.  I have changed my diet and am taking Zofran for the nausea.  It is not getting better at all.  Spend half of my day laying down because of the dizziness and weakness after eating.  Can't go anywhere because of the diarhea (diarrhea).  I am normally very active and a busy person.  Any advice or suggestion.  I don't want to loose any more weight.  I am now told I am malnourished and nothing is helping.  Thank you.

[CalGal]

Momskids, may I ask why you had the Bilroth done? Could there be a complicating factor stemming from the causative condition?

What have you done with the change in diet?

[momskids193]

I had severe ulcer disease with 4 large ulcers that were causing lots of scar tissue and damage the duodenal area.  There was a lot of scar tissue also that had to b e taken care of.  I have changed my diet tremendously.  I try to eat 4-6 times a day but mostly only make it to 2-3.  Elimanted all sugars and high carb.  On a high protein diet.  No dairy, liquids with meals, taking fiber.  My primary care doc is really concerned but my surgeon is wanting to see if it will get better.  I no longer drink fruit juice and elimenated fruit smoothies, and the water with the meals.  I do lay down right after eating.  B ut can only eat a small saucer plate of food at a time.  I no longer have the pain from the ulcers but this is almost worse at times.  

[CalGal]

Momskids, at this point you're doing all the right stuff by making the large changes to your diet. That is one of the biggest things that's going to help you. And if you can nibble, do so. With the loss of the pyloric sphincter, it's hard to control the outflow from the stomach, so the smaller the amounts you can put in, the better they'll be processed and hopefully absorbed.

Where did they re-attach the small intestine - what part of the stomach? Are you bringing up bile when you're vomiting? If so, then you may need to push the surgeon.

May I ask why you went with the Bilroth instead of the Roux-en-Y surgery?

[momskids193]

CalGal, The surgeon opted with the bilroth, not sure why.  What is a Roux-en-Y.  The surgeon reattached the stomach to the jejujum (?) after removing 2/3 of my stomach.  Apparently the stomach had so much damage.The scaring damaged the vagus nerve so he could not do the vagotomy. I get really nauseated within 1/2 - 1 hour after eating and sometimes I bring up food and half the time it is yellow bile like liquid and it is at least a cup of stuff. Then the diarrhea is terrible. I don't want to loose any more weight now but not sure how to stop it.  Sometimes I can only eat 2-3 crackers or half a slice of bread and that is all.  I was told there is reconstructive surgery but it seems that there has to be something else.  

[CalGal]

Momskids, the Bilroth is a decent surgery, but it can have some unfortunate side-effects in some people and you're unfortuantely experiencing them. You need to talk to your doc about that reconstructive surgery and see what it entails. Unfortunately handling the side-effects of the surgery is very difficult. If you could see a picture of what the surgery entailed, you may be able to understand the 'why' of what's going on.

Basically, what the surgery did was take off the bottom portion of your stomach. Then the top portion of the duodenum is taken off - just above where the common bile duct and the pancreatic duct come into the duodenum. And that section is sealed off. That section of the duodenum is left and somewhere down the line at the 2nd part of the small intestine - the jejumun - that section is stitched into the bottom of the stomach. Because of that, there's an opening between the stomach and the jejunum. With that opening, there's nothing to stop the flow of the bile and pancreatic fluids that come down from the duodenum from flowing straight into the stomach.

Take a look at some pictures of before and after - you can find them on the web.

Please talk to the doc.