I was kinda surprised when I discovered I was pregnant, only 4 months after I my gastrectomy and only nine months since I gave birth to my daughter. I wasn't even sure that I would be able to have another baby let a lone so quickly. I was so skinny and worn out from the surgery and looking after a 5 month old. I was certain that my poor body had taken enough punishment and would be keen on having a rest. Apparently not. I remember being at work eating pizza and thinking it tasted really weird and I thought 'Oh shit, I know that taste' a pregnancy test the following day confirmed it and boom baby on the way.
I guess I was lucky that I had already given birth and had a completely normal pregnancy with my daughter Haea so I had something to compare the 2nd (post gastrectomy) pregnancy to.
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| 8 months pregnant with a stomach. Photo courtesy of Woman's Day |
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| 8 months pregnant without a stomach. Weighed about 18 kg less than the pic above. |
I had awful morning/all day sickness with my daughter and I hated it. So when i got pregnant post gastrectomy all I could think was "yes, I cant get morning sickness", I didn't think it was possible without a stomach. I was wrong. My morning sickness wasn't as severe but I still got it. In someways it was worse because first time round I could vomit which relieved some of the nausea but with out a stomach vomiting is awful, really awful. It's nearly impossible (for me anyway) to spew with out a stomach.
The main difference second time round was that I didn't put on any weight. I think the most I gained was 2kg but that fluctuated. My doctor assured me that as long as I wasn't losing weight it was fine. And my son was growing fine so there wasn't any need to worryI did look a bit strange though. As my sister so eloquently put it " you look like a crack ho that got knocked up". I had a massive stomach and was all bony everywhere else, my son was sucking every last ounce of fat out of me.
The biggest problem I encountered was that I could only drink tiny amounts of water. I could never drink more than 1 cup of water at a time or I would feel incredibly ill. Quite often I would vomit if I drank too much.
As i had only been living sans stomach for 4 months (and was barely even healed properly )i thought that the drinking thing was just a side effect of having no stomach and an issue that I would have to deal with for the rest of my life. Turns out it was just a side effect of prgnancy. I think that the baby was just squashing everything and there was no room for much else - food or liquid.
Which brings me to eating. I could only eat really small amounts, which again I thoughg was just because i didn't have a stomach, every time I ate I'd feel sick. But again it was just because the baby was squashing everything and without my stomach there acting as a buffer my son ended up being able to move up quite high which didn't help.
If you've been pregnant before you will know that you need to have a test for gestational diabetes around 26-28 weeks. You will be asked to drink a liquid containing 50 mg of polycose (a type of sugar). And an hour later a sample of blood is taken to see how well your body has metabolized the sugar. The drink is so sugary and gross, I threw up in my mouth 3 times when I had the test during my first pregnancy, and there is a time limit, you have to drink the entire thing within about 5 minutes and if you vomit then you have to start again. It was awful. If I could barely complete the test when I had a stomach then I didn't fancy my chances without one. I brought it up with my physician and he suggested I do another test that consisted of me eating a lot of jelly beans. I can't remember the exact amount but I think it was around 40. It was great, I love jelly beans and it worked fine. I tested negative for gestational diabetes and didn't get any side effects from eating all that sugar.
My son, Kaihu, was born healthy on his due date and weighed 6pounds and 7ounces only a couple of ounces lighter than his sister so having no stomach didn't really affect his weight too much. He was a few cm longer than his sister too.
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| 12 hours old |
Once he was born I was able to eat and drink ALOT more! I went back to the same diet as I did prior to my surgery and still eat exactly the same now. My milk supply was great too. I wondered if it would have a negative affect on my milk but it hasn't. I'm still breast feeding him without any problems.
If you have any questions I'd be happy to help if I can.
Kara x
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