Comments on: On celery and other raw veggies . . .

By: Adrienne Jacque

Adrienne Jacque — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 22:49:53 +0000

I’m 8 months out and can’t eat celery, raw carrots, and have difficulty with the
skin on plums and nectarines. Sticks and I have to bring it up. So I only eat
cooked veggies, other than Romaine lettuce and a tiny amount of cucumber. But,
that’s just me.
Nona
-104 and holding.
c_raia I’ve been lucky in that I’ve had very little trouble swallowing or
keeping down anything: big pills, meat, rice, pasta, breads,
vegetables, whatever. I’ve obviously ended up with a bigger stoma
than many people, which can be both a curse and a blessing. Now at
two years out I really don’t think twice about anything. Since
surgery I’ve only had to upchuck two or three times on stuck food,
but in each case it was veggies. Once raw carrot, which I think
just wadded up; once on rather tough cooked greens. So veggies

*can* be a problem. I’ve occasionally eaten asparagus that had
woody ends; if I still have a wad of tough fibers in my mouth after
thorough chewing, I discretely remove it rather than trying to
swallow. I can imagine that tough strings of celery might do the
same thing, though I personally haven’t had a problem with them. If
you’re worried, it’s easy enough to take a paring knife and just
take off the outer layer with the tough strings.
My surgeon’s practice now puts a silastic ring around the stomas of
patients, and though their experience shows it works pretty well for
most people, they admit that occasional patients have problems with
vomiting and keeping down food.
Celia

By: Neva Marjory

Neva Marjory — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 17:26:49 +0000

I’ve been lucky in that I’ve had very little trouble swallowing or
keeping down anything: big pills, meat, rice, pasta, breads,
vegetables, whatever. I’ve obviously ended up with a bigger stoma
than many people, which can be both a curse and a blessing. Now at
two years out I really don’t think twice about anything. Since
surgery I’ve only had to upchuck two or three times on stuck food,
but in each case it was veggies. Once raw carrot, which I think
just wadded up; once on rather tough cooked greens. So veggies
*can* be a problem. I’ve occasionally eaten asparagus that had
woody ends; if I still have a wad of tough fibers in my mouth after
thorough chewing, I discretely remove it rather than trying to
swallow. I can imagine that tough strings of celery might do the
same thing, though I personally haven’t had a problem with them. If
you’re worried, it’s easy enough to take a paring knife and just
take off the outer layer with the tough strings.

My surgeon’s practice now puts a silastic ring around the stomas of
patients, and though their experience shows it works pretty well for
most people, they admit that occasional patients have problems with
vomiting and keeping down food.
Celia

By: Candy Justina

Candy Justina — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 13:37:40 +0000

Hmmm - don’t remember saying anything about being “scared of raw
veggies”… did I say that? I thought I was only talking about
celery.
Celery is different than meat. Cooked meat can be broken down into
small pieces by chewing, the cooking breaks down the protein and
chewing begins the digestion. Especially things like chicken, fish,
ground beef. I don’t eat much red meat, preferring to use chicken,
fish, and dairy as protein sources. “Bread wads”? I do eat bread -
have never had a problem - but then bread would kinda dissolve, I
would think.
Celery strings, on the other hand, well, I remember pre-op days of a
wad of celery strings that were impossible to chew into something
that could be swallowed. I can just imagine them all getting
together in my pouch. Especially in the early post-op days.
I think the person asking the question was 3-4 weeks post-op. At that

stage, I was moving from full liquids to pureed food. At 6 weeks,
when we moved to soft, we could start eating some cooked veggies -
and even later when we could try some fresh. Course each doctor’s
program is different - some progress their patients much more rapidly
than mine did.
I agree that most of us don’t chew well enough - I know that I didn’t
pre-op. Eating was more of a biting, a couple of chews, and
swallowing - frequently washed down a lump that I couldn’t get chewed
up with a beverage. Now I do chew, chew, chew. And, y’know, I
really notice that others just don’t chew their food.
Pam