Delayed Gastric Emptying

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Hello,

My husband is 8 weeks post oesophagectomy and seems to be suffering from delayed gastric emptying.

Despite having very small portions and leaving a couple of hours between meals and snacks he fills up through the day and if he tries to eat or drink post lunch he regurgitates his food.

We discussed this with the surgeon at his post op review and he suggested that it was DGE. He said that there are things that they can do but that it does often sort itself out in time so wait and see.

We have also spoken to the dietician and specialist nurse too who don't seem to be in a rush to do anything about it. My worry is that it's affecting his nutrition and also affecting him psychologically. 

My husband has had no dumping syndrome and gets very constipated so I think his whole digestive system has slowed due to the surgery.

I have read lots about dumping syndrome on here but wondered if anyone else has had similar problem to my husband and did it settle with time or did you have to have treatment?

We are seeing the dietician again next week so I will raise it again.

  • Hi,

    I suffered from DGE too. Used to feel that I couldn’t physically fit any more food into my digestive system, even though I was actually eating very little. It did sort itself out in the end. Moving around and sipping warm drinks seemed to help a bit. The digestive system does suffer considerable trauma during surgery so it isn’t surprising that it takes a while to come to terms with its new plumbing arrangements. Hope things sort themselves out soon. CB..

  • Thank you, cool blue, that's good to know.

    I keep saying to him it's early days and things will get better. He doesn't feel that way at the moment though.

    He does take a couple of short walks a day with me and the dogs and some days are better than others.

    Do you mind me asking how long things took to settle down? 

  • I suppose it must’ve been a few months before things settled down. I’m 18 months post-op and still have to be very mindful of how much I eat as, if I overdo it, then I usually suffer for it for a couple of days afterwards. Just part of my new normal. Other than that, I can pretty much eat whatever I like. 

  • My husband is nearly six months post surgery and has a similar problem every now and then. He can eat slightly larger amounts than before but still has to be very careful. He has also had bad constipation every so often and that’s when he gets nauseous too. The oncologist advised him to be proactive with eg Laxido to stop things getting backed up and not to wait until actually constipated, also to sit very still for some time after eating. It is improving Grinning

  • Thank you. We have just been to see the gp and advised the same.....stay on the laxatives.

    He has been prescribed some different ones as the laxido filled him up then he couldn't eat his breakfast.So he has a tablet now.