Once cut, a nerve cannot be healed again, but the digestive organs can re-train themselves over time to operate much more reliably.

So as well as fatigue and discomfort, early problems after surgery can include nausea, burping, diarrhoea, acid reflux and 'dumping'.  'Dumping' is a feeling of dizziness and sweating, and possibly, feeling very hot, sickness and pain in the abdomen.   Diarrhoea and frequent bowel movements may follow.   It is distressing, very inconvenient, a social embarrassment, but not a serious medical condition in itself, and generally the frequency of attacks reduces over time.   The effects normally disappear after half an hour or so.   For oesophagectomy patients, it generally occurs about an hour after eating (late dumping);  for those who have had a gastrectomy, there may be a shorter delay after eating (early dumping).   In late dumping, the sugar content of the food or drink and the speed of its movement through the gastro-intestinal tract, causes excess insulin to be released by the pancreas.   Some patients have found that having a glucose tablet or a sweet can restore the natural balance and relieve the symptoms.   There is a dumping fact sheet available through CORE, the Digestive Disorders Foundation.

Some patients find that the best way to reduce the chances of this happening is to change their diet and eating patterns. Having two or three large meals a day with plenty of fluids is the most likely way to cause dumping syndrome. So the thing to do is to change to having small, high calorie, high protein meals with drier food, five or six times day, taking drinks at separate times rather than when you are actually eating. Avoiding sweets and cutting down on puddings can also help, as does having some fat in your meals, as this slows the rate at which food passes into the intestine.

When your stomach is partially or completely removed it means that large amounts of food pass very rapidly from your gullet to your small intestine. When undigested food goes into your small intestine in this way it absorbs a lot of fluid from the fine blood vessels in the wall of the intestine. This causes the food to swell and stretch your intestine, which can lead to nausea, irregular or rapid heartbeat, decreased blood pressure, flushing of skin, vomiting, abdominal cramps and diarrhoea.