When Food gets Stuck

It happened again on Monday night.

My husband makes this dish called "Poor Man's Meal" which is basically cut up potatoes, cut up hot dogs, some tomato sauce, and cheese. Not the most nutritionally sound thing in the world, but he could make a lot worse.

So, I was under my calorie goal for the day and above my protein, so when I came home from my knitting and crocheting group, I figured I would have a little bit of my husband's creation.

As I put the first bite in my mouth, I started talking to him, and swallowed before I was done chewing properly.

Before anything happened, I knew I did something wrong.

The advice to chew for 20 seconds (or 30 times, whatever your nutritionist tells you) is not only to slow you down, but to have your food better prepared to go into your stomach. First of all, I'm only 10 weeks out so my stomach is pretty much still recovering. Second, the point where the stomach passes food into my small intestines is the size of the tip of my pinky finger. Normal people's stomach to small intestine passageway is the size of a quarter.

When I saw my nutritionist for the first time, she didn't say this might happen, but that it would happen. I was told to not drink, because that wouldn't help "de-clog". Drinking would only make the situation worse (I had to learn for myself).

And that's the point of what happened on Monday.

I wasn't careful in chewing and swallowed without thinking and completing my chewing. Immediately I knew simply not puking would be a gold star for the evening. I quickly put the remainder of my bowl away, and went upstairs to start my night time routine. I felt better after my shower, but I knew I couldn't drink or even take my last vitamins for the day.

Sometimes I have to throw up to feel better after a clog. On Monday night, I stayed vertical a little longer than usual and I was able to fall asleep without vomiting. I did however skip my vitamins which would not be recommended.

The moral of the story is that chewing is important. I find myself trying to make meal time about meal time and not about talking to someone else which does not make me the best for dinner company. That adds into my attempts at not socializing around food.

Which is another entry for another day...