Last night Jason came over, and made his craving for dinner, shepherd’s pie (hold the horseradish, parsnip, and turnip; ground beef instead of ground lamb; the addition of corn; and extra cheese – picture), and my craving for dessert, salted caramel chocolate chip cookie bars. Sugar and I are on very careful terms with one another. Being post-op gastric bypass means I will quickly dump on anything even relatively sugary – my personal limit is the 8-12g range. From past experience, dumping, for me at least, includes a drop in blood pressure, increased heart rate, heart palpitations, dizziness, drowsiness, and nausea. The intensity of the symptoms and how long they last depends on how much over the limit I’ve gone (like the time I tried to off myself with a Panera Bread smoothie), and how long it takes my body to process the sugar.
Apparently, January 31st’s surgery was not only a success in terms of solving not only my recurring attacks of severe abdominal pain (I’ve experienced nary a twinge that wasn’t related to post-op recovery), and my bowel issues since having my gallbladder removed; but the removal of approximately one foot of small intestine has also somehow intensified the dumping I experience. Last night I had a small portion1 of the super-delicious salted caramel chocolate chip cookie bars (who would have thought that chocolate and sugar would go together so well?!), and about fifteen minutes later I thought I was going to pass the hell out from the intensity of the dumping syndromes. Then a lovely addition reared its ugly head – intense intestinal cramping that is “common” with dumping, but I was previously lucky to never experience. Jason pretty much put me to bed, gave me anti-nausea and anti-bowel-spasm meds, and stayed with me until I fell asleep. Ugh. That was SO not fun… and definitely not an experience to be repeated.
Of course, I completely own up to causing the dumping (the biggest step in any weight loss journey, especially in the case of weight loss surgery, is to be accountable for your own actions, and to own up to them!), and…wow. It was a big enough deterrent before, but now I am going to be super-extra-extra careful, because last night is an experience that I definitely never ever ever want to repeat.
But hot damn, that dessert was amazing!
- but not small enough, grr ↩
Hello! I'm Jenn, and this is my blog. I'm 28, married to a sexy man named Daniel, and mother to an eight year old girl named Alyssa and a six year old autistic boy named Ryan. I'm obsessed with all things hot 
Awww, we’re bowel buddies.
That desert looks fantastic. Sorry dumping was involved.
I’d imagine it might have been worth it?
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