maria88

It's pretty difficult. I've only been able to drink 64oz daily for the last week or two. Sleeved 12-4-15. I found what has helped is using a big water bottle, I've for a 32oz nalgene and I try and get one finished by lunch time. Also I add lemon or cucumber to it, or do one cup of peach tea and the rest fill with water. ALSO the biggest help is a timer. I time my vitamin and food/water, I've literally got 10 alarms and that helps remind me. Dehydration sucks and now that I'm walking more and got more of a schedule down, it helps.

Went out with dad for lunch last week and saw this beautiful gigantic glass container with sliced pineapple and skyy vodka... Asked for a "taste" and the waitress brought us a shot, I literally sipped it, maybe drank a tablespoon and I got so tipsy, lightheaded, it was no bueno. Sleeved 12-4-15.

Vitamin e oil, I run it on them and their getting smaller... Also there's like a little massage machine you can get to rub on the scar, my mom got the massager from a physical therapist after she got carpel tunnel surgery, but I've seen them at Walgreens... Like in the vitamin section.

Try making the egg over medium, so the white is cooked but the yellow part is still runny, it makes it easier to eat - I think - and I add a little black Beans to mines (not canned but cooked the dried beans in veggie broth)... Also try adding the over medium egg in a 1/4 c of oatmeal (make it with soy milk for the added protein)... I had this for the first week of soft foods.

I'm doing the same with tea right now, 4 oz tea and about 16 oz of water... I find though if fruit especially with a hard rind like lemon or oranges sit in the water too long it gets a bitter taste, so I usually take the fruit out after a couple hours.

@rogoflum my fluid intake ranges from 35-45 ounces a day, still below my target of 64 ... I'm trying real hard and each day my intake get a little better... I've been real good with protein, ranging from 50-80 a day, so that's pretty good.

@@Joy889 yes the surgery is not the cure... There is no cure really, just learning how to cope with the new changes... And I do think a lot of it now is mental, I just wish I also had the physical adverse reactions to help justify not eating it... I learned quicker from my mom how to justify eating unhealthy food

Surgery was 4 December 2014.

I asked my doctor about this a week ago. Said I will never "feel hungry" again if I make sure I keep to the high protein diet and get my water intake at 64 oz a day which the water intake is extremely hard for me still... Said that the noises will most likely always be there but those are not hunger noises, so not to think that I need to go and eat something. Hope that helps. I also try to time my three meals 4 hours apart and then a protein shake/bar in between meals. Oh and for the soft foods, I was told to start each meal by eating the protein, like chicken (which I always added veggie broth to to moisten it, not a lot of broth, but to make it "soft") and it helped with the belly noises if I started with a harder "soft food" like chicken or slow cooked beef versus cooked carrots... It's still soft but it still heavier

Same here, slept propped and on my back for about 2 weeks post op and I'd wake every day with aches and pains on my neck and Lower back. Around day 20 I could tolerate sleeping on the left side propped with pillows and about four days ago I started sleeping onmy right side. Still can't sleep onmy stomach, and that's how I always slept before. Sleeved 12-4-14

I was told never again can I have carbonated drinks,bc it swells the stomach and the air that gets trapped in the stomach makes you feel real bad, also the sugar content is real high so you could get a sugar high then low, also not good... Although I was told by someone at a support group I attended that she bought these drops that you add to your Water and it tastes like fanta orange or grape, said she bought them at walmart in the section that has all those water enhancers. Might could try those... Oh and my dietician said I could take a coke zero (no sugar) and shake the carbonation out and have like a half cup, but to do that rarely because it might tempt you to have it with carbonation.

So have you seen the new weight watchers commercial when the lady is walking all over and everything she sees turns into food, like pizza and donuts... Well I feel like I'm that lady in the commercial. It's not like I was eating a lot of that stuff anyways, but what with the holidays, and the kitchen at my internship is loaded with cookies and pop and always smells like pizza because there's boxes of leftovers in the fridge.... I've got a pretty good will power but it's breaking down and I'm afraid I'm going to turn into one of the failure stories that you see on A&E... So like yesterday I tore of a dime sized piece of gingerbread cookie and ate it, hoping it would make me sick, and it didn't, tasted real good and I was real tempted to eat the whole cookie, and the same thing happened on Christmas Day when my mom made flan, I ate a tablespoon of it, didn't get sick and took the flan cake to the outside fridge because I wanted a whole slice... Not sure what to do to stop this... And those darn commercials don't help either. What have you done that helps? Why am I not getting sick like I've been warned by my doc and dietician?

Thanks for your story.

Thanks, those are the most gratifying for me.

Yall I bought premier protein shakes and bars at costco and they've got like 30g of protein, very low sugar on the bar like 10g, and even lower on the shakes, it came out to a dollar each individual bar or shake, and you know in the costco size, but it's well worth it, and actually don't taste chalky or leave me with a weird aftertaste or vitamin taste like these darn chewable multivitamins I take

Even if you don't have an infusion pitcher, I take cucumbers and slice them add them to a big Nalgene bottle and after a couple hours in the fridge I scoop out the cucumbers, do the same thing with strawberries (whole) + lemon (sliced), or sliced orange + lemon, and then cucumber + mint

Hmm... My dietician saying anything that's a liquid counts, Soup, decaf tea (I water mine down a lot tho like 4 oz tea to 16 oz water and no sugar), she also said to count apple sauce, Popsicles (sugar free), Jello, Protein shakes... A liquid is a liquid.

I did the same thing within a week post-op, driving while under the influence of narcotics - but no one wanted to drive me to school... Lifting the laundry basket and doing my laundry - again waiting for mom or sister to do this after I asked four time over the last two days... When you have no choice, and something has to get done... Unfortunately doing all that caused a. LOT of pain. The bending, lifting, pulling, driving... But you do what you go to do.

Same here, I found the best thing for me was to buy a composition book, on the left side of the paper I've got Water, Protein, calories and sugar (that's what my dietician want me to track) and then in the right paper I write the times I eat, drink, or take medicine/vitamins... Writing how much and of course if the food did not sit well. It's old school but I find it really easy.... I'm eating basically the same things so far, three weeks out and in the soft food diets, so it's easy to do this right now.

Surprisingly, walmart has decent workout clothes, I've got several xxl "yoga" pants and I was a size 20w and they fit fine, now that I down to a 18 they're a bit big, but I probly stretched them out. I'm also a huge Macy's shopper and they've got awesome stuff too. But it's pricy unless you've got a coupon or shop their one day sales.

I'd also suggest.... It helped me out a lot too.... Clean out the pantry and refrigerator... Get rid of anything and everything you will not be able to eat/drink post-op. I did think two weeks prior. You'll get a list of all the Things not suggested after surgery. But it helps to get used to not having those around to kill the craving /temptation before surgery.

Hi!! I'd say to really "shop around" hospitals if you can... I looked at two hospitals where I live and I opted to one rather than the other because of the support team that the hospital offers, I had to sit through two informational sessions, meet a dietician twice, psychologist twice, and a nutritionalist once, and the surgeon twice before my scheduled surgery. I also had to attend a support group. All this helped a ton, I felt way more prepared before the surgery. If you haven't already contact your insurance and see if your covered for surgery, and if you have to do a waiting period prior to surgery, it'd suck to go to an appointment and start the process then find out that your insurance requires a 6 month waiting period, or whatever, better to know all about that sooner rather than later.

Recovery time is all relative... I was sleeved 4 December 2014. Drinking Water "normally" like 1tablespoon sips, after 3 days post-op... My doc had me on liquids for like three days and since I was able to drink or sip okay, they moved me to pureed. It's a week I'm on soft food. My drinking sips are bigger too, not gulping water but it's definitely not like the first two days of sipping. My stomach still hurts on the right side, but it's random, like electric shocks, but the pain goes as quickly as it comes... In terms of sleeping... I had to sleep on my bad for almost two weeks because it would hurt to sleep on my side. And it's about two days that I can sleep on my right side. Hurts to sleep on my stomach...

Yes I've been told as much at my support group, but my sense of smell has changed so much, I don't know if I could take another restaurant trip again, at least not for while.