Help, I am feeling a little panicked

 Hi all,

I am day 6 post op with the vsg surgery.  I was told my stomach would be only about 2 or 3 ounces post surgery.  I have also been told to drink plenty of fluids.  I had a 1 liter bottle of flavored water that I drank today within 1/2 hour.  

Now I am feeling panicked.  Where did all that fluid go?  Is my stomach really not as small as I thought?  Did I mess up and stretch my stomach out already so I have failed?  I did pass the leak test but what if they missed something.  Is there a leak somewhere?

I just can't seem to figure out where slightly more than 16 oz of water went if my stomach is only 2 or 3 oz. in size.

Please help.

Liquids pass through your stomach quickly.  You'll feel the difference when you start eating solid food. 

Being able to drink is a good thing -- keep your fluids up and follow your surgeon's plan. 

You're perfectly normal

We have a valve at the bottom of our stomachs called the pyloric valve. The valve causes us to feel full when we eat dense foods. Liquids, however, go right past that valve, and don't cause us to feel full for more than a few seconds, if at all.

Many people here don't feel any restriction at all until they get to dense protein- chicken, fish, steak, etc. And then all of a sudden WHAM! They then realize they do in fact have a sleeve and it is working nicely.

It's great that you can get down a liter of liquid in thirty minutes. You are extremely lucky in that regard. My husband was able to do this as well after his vsg... me, not so much. I can now, but I'm also 2 months out.

Sounds like you're doing a great job. Keep it up, and you'll be feeling that restriction in no time

Liquids barely stay in your stomach at all.  They go RIGHT through you.  The pyloric valve stays almost all the way open.

That being said....1 liter of water is around 34oz of liquid.  I couldnt get that much down in 1/2 hour comfortably until I was probably 3-4 weeks out.

You are only 6 days out so take it easy!

Don't be panicked though.....your stomach is MUCH smaller than it used to be.  You won't feel much in the way of restriction until you start eating DENSE foods.  Then it will hit you like a ton of bricks.

One tip....don't eat or drin****il you feel full.  Measure.  Measure.  Measure.  I can't stress that enough. 

U r doing a fabulous job! Im 7 weeks out and still cant process that much liquid - I know what u mean tho and like everyone says it will pass but geez it freaks u out ! I often wondered if they actually did the op how can I be sure but now im on reg foods beleive me u feel it. Dont expect too much from u or yr sleeve yet jus****ch the ride coz yr body HAS changed for the better. Good luck mate keep us posted

It's great that you got that much water in your stomach.  It's easier to get fluid in because the fluid goes right through the plyoric value to the intestines.  no worries.  Now if you had eaten that much food, you would have felt restriction and not been able to get that much food in.  ;)

 This is good. It means you don't have much swelling and you won't get dehydrated. Keep right on drinking!  It swooshes right through the pyloric valve at the bottom of the stomach. 

Youmay not feel true restriction until you're cleared for regular food. -  but you'll feel it then!

Thank you everyone for your replies. It makes sense now. I just couldn't imagine how I could drink so much as I heard about the issues when you put too much in at a time. I hadn't realized that this was only when applied to actual food. I expected a bad reaction from too much of anything.

I really do feel like I was lucky in that I can put down a quantity. I did talk with the surgeon's office and they recommended that even if I can I shouldn't do that. They recommend trying to do 2 ounces every 15 minutes. So I am going to get back to that for now. Especially since it is so soon after surgery.

Thanks again everyone.