gonnawinthisone

Just got released 3 days ago. I was able to get pretty much unlimited ice chips within a few hours of getting settled into my room. The first night, I was so thirsty and the ice was doing the trick except I had the most awful metallic bad taste in my mouth. I was really wishing for something to get rid of the bad taste. I asked the nurse tech who was in my room for one of the many middle of the night visits if there was something I could have. A few minutes later, she came back with a grape popsicle....a real grape popsicle...not even sugar free!! I wondered if I was allowed to eat it, but figured she had checked with my nurse before bringing it in.
About 2 bites in to the popsicle, my door opened and the nurse and tech were heading in. I looked at them and muttered "busted". The nurse came in and took the popsicle away. I had only gotten about two heavenly bites of it before it was confiscated.
It didn't take me long to figure out that the bad taste was being caused by the morphine pump. It got worse each time I pushed the magic button. I stopped pushing that button by mid-morning of the day after my surgery. That was the last time I got any pain meds.

Ok, so I am hardly an expert since I'm only 7 days post-op myself, but I think you might need to cut yourself some slack. Even though you don't have outward signs of major surgery, you did, in fact, have major abdominal surgery. It will take time for you to get your energy back. Low energy levels are your body's way of saying "I'm still healing...all energy should be expended to that result".
As for the Protein shakes, etc., I'm with you on that....I don't like them. Didn't like them pre-op, and like them less now!! My philosophy is that I will follow the rules as closely as I can, and live with it. Eventually it will all settle into normalcy.