It is VERY VERY VERY hard to stretch out your pouch

I just read this, i am currently doing the 5day pouch test and its killing me, cause all im doing is drinking drinking.. and not feeling full at all.. i want that feeling back. Im 2yrs post op and 7months out from being a new mommy to my amazing daughter.  I gained 15 lbs while prego, and it was hard.. but even harder was my husband having to be deployed. I never reached my goal, as at 9months post op is when i got pregant. But I realized last night that.. while i only gained 15 while pregannt.. im not pregannt anymore.. and iv gained another 5.. NO WAY.. i have been sooo upset being worried about streching it out.  I took a step yesterday by doing this 5day test.. but im hateing the feeling of never being full... Monday i start a 3times a week Personal trainer so i HAVE TO GO TO THE GYM... and im no longer drinking Soda that i love, or Carbs.. I busting my butt to do this... I CAN DO THIS>...... THANKS

 Thank you for posting this. I've been....obsessing with worry about this issue for the past few months since someone told me their friend had died from ripping theirs. 

I'm normally good, follow most of what I should and shouldn't eat. 

But sometimes I have that soda, or some coffee. Or sometimes I over eat.

This is a wake up call for me to get  back on track, but it lets me sleep better at night. 

Thank you for taking time to post this, it is good to know!
Good luck to you - you can do it!

Thank You SO MUCH! I have noticed that I can eat about 12 ounces of food if the food has a lot of water, like tomatoes or cucumber, or soup. It worried me! But your post and reading a bit of further research told me that liquids pass faster. My greatest fear is pouch stretching. I am only 8 months out with a 137 pound loss so far. I have 63 lbs to go. I dont want to EVER see that weight again!! I have been worrying to the point of tears! Thank You!!!

Thanks so much for sharing! This has been, believe it or not an inspiration. My therapist has been getting on my case about being to hard on myself. At 8 months out, I have mini panic attacks about over stretching my pouch! Every time I eat more that I think I should be able to I freak out. And really this is not ok, I follow the rules and I stop eating when I am satisfied, no drinking for an hour after I eat and no soda/carbonated drinks. So there is no reason I should be stressing myself out like that!

Your post has reenforced the two messages you were sending!   

1. Follow the rules! If you don't you will not maintain a healthy weight.  

2. Don't worry so much about stretching. 

 Thanks for being brave enough to admit that you slipped up! I wish you all the strength to get back on track and back to a healthy life style! 

 So what about the peple over on the failed surgery board? I took a look over at those scary boards last night and those people swear that you CAN stretch your ouch out and a lot of them have rained all their weight back? So did they really stretch or are they just being non-compliant? Wish there was a way to tie these 2 boards together b/c there is a discussion going on over there right now about stretching the pouch out and how it is possible.

This is absolutely true!  Which is funny because all I heard from the nutritionist was, "you don't want to stretch your pouch".  I had GB 6 years ago and developed a fistual, either from the very beginning or somewhere alone the line.  All I ate normal portion sizes and I ate ALL the time.  Because of the hole I never felt full and, honestly, I never felt like I ate at all, so I just kept eating.  I was afraid that I'd also stretch the pouch way beyond where it should be.  But when they did pre-op testing to go in and fix the fistula and do a revision I was told that the pouch at never stretched.  It was still relatively the size it was supposed to be.

It's kind of ironic though, because here I am not a month out of surgery and still worrying if I've stretched my pouch, lol.  What happened was I ended up with an abcsess that burst and I got a dominal wall infection.  Before the abcsess broke I was doing fine, I didn't want to or need to eat too often, the way it's supposed to be. 

Though I wasn't sick because I had a JP drain in that was draining all the infection away, I was in the hospital for 5 days on antibiotics, they put a picc line in and was still on antibiotics another week and a half after I got home.  Well, not only did the antiobiotics give me a monster appetite which I'm still battling (antiobiotics aren't out of my system quite yet) but everything tasted like metal.  So I ended up having to try and find stuff to eat and drink that didn't taste absolutely wretched or I wasn't going to eat or drink at all, and most of that ended up being stuff I wasn't supposed to eat or drink yet., stuff with a much stronger taste and whotnot.  Now I'm struggling to get back on track because now everything tastes alright but I still have a monster appetite.  Hopefully when the antibiotics are out of my system I can get back to eating normally again.  But it was funny reading this post, because here I am KNOWING my most likely isn't stretched but worrying that it is, lol.

thank you for the info!! im getting my back together i have only gained 50 after having my daughter and in may she will be 2 so my goal is to go back to my old weight and i know i can do it.

I'm SO glad to hear this! I was always worried about stretching out my sleeve. When I think about it... you are drinking something that is already carbonated when you drink it. It isn't going to become more carbonated after you drink it. So I would think it wouldn't stretch out your pouch. 

Hi,

Im Danita and I am glad have joined this sight. I am also glad I have found someone else that is the patient of Dr. Schumacher. I truly hope we can keep in contact because I do need some support because I am losing it .I had my surgery in January of last year. It was January 15, 2013 and I have been on a binge for a couple of months, I need help and advice it will be good to have someones support that lives in the same town.