becomingmandikaye

@@Lizardlady Was your surgery on the 15th? Me too!

Yes, I take a pill every night.

I second Genepro

I'm in almost the same boat as you (except I can't have yogurt or jello). I've found GENEPRO to be a game changer. I strained some chicken and stars soup last night and added Genepro to the broth. It was 4 oz of broth with 30g of Protein in it, and it tasted wonderful. I went down the soup aisle and picked up any soup that seemed like it would have a flavorful broth after straining. I also have sugar free popsicles, and I did get some Luigi's Italian Ice in lemon (not sugar free, but I'm having issues getting calories in, so I thought why not). Good luck to you!

I didn't find out any of the specifics until my pre-op appointment the week before surgery. I knew the basics, but I legitimately didn't know I had to do a liver shrinking diet until that last appointment.

The burps are productive. Just keep at it.

Walking. I did laps in my hospital room or in the hallway. If you're feeling gas in your stomach or intestines, Gas X Strips *may* help - but really, walking is the remedy.

I will tell you this - you will absolutely regret it the day of surgery - when you wake up, you're groggy, thirsting to death but can't drink, in pain, and you ask yourself why on earth you did this to yourself. But the next morning when you wake up, you'll understand it's only temporary and your new life will begin. I'm one week post-op and have nearly no pain at all. I'm not ready to go back to work yet because I still tire very easily, but I feel fine.

Also fill 4 before bed - then when you wake up in the middle of the night, you have some right there to sip on. I spent my first few nights at home waking up multiple times for whatever reason, and each time I'd sip one and walk up and down my hallway a few times before getting back in bed.

It gets better after 3 or 4 days, promise. You can also take Tylenol (but not Advil) to help.

What's really helped me are those 2 oz red solo shot cups. Since I've been home, every hour on the hour I get up and walk around and then fill 4 of those with fluids (Water, propel, isopure, etc.). My goal is to drink those 4 during the hour, and then repeat.

Well today has been full of some (not so great) adventures. First, I couldn't get out of bed this morning (just super sleepy) so I ended up sleeping until 11am. Drank about 1.5 ounces of Water before getting in the shower. The combination of no water in 10 hours + hot shower left me dizzy, nauseated, and shaky. That was TERRIBLE. But I did drink a 16 oz bottle of water in less than an hour afterwards, so my tummy is definitely healing. Then, I went on some errands with my mom. I brought water with me because of what happened this morning, but nothing else. Realized at 2pm that I'd had no Protein and no calories, so we stopped at a convenience store to see if they had Muscle Milk or something similar. They had Monster Milk, but I didn't want to try it because of the caffeine, so I grabbed a low fat chocolate milk instead. Drank about a third of it and my tummy did NOT like it. It looks like I may be somewhat lactose intolerant after all (I forgot that the milk I drank yesterday was Fairlife, thus lactose-free). In other news, (sorry for the TMI) - I pooped!

My doctor said I could use Benefiber, but not Metamucil.

My doctor prescribed a stool softener, not a laxative. I take Colace 2x per day (but you can buy it OTC). I haven't had a BM since the morning of surgery, but they told me it could take 4-5 days before I have one again.

It could be from the gas too. I have so much gas in my stomach/esophagus area. Drinking cold water can often push some of it up (I burp A LOT), but sometimes the air gets stuck in my chest until I walk around.

I brought more than I needed, and I barely brought anything at all. The absolute essentials? Phone & Charger Chapstick Biotene Mouth Rinse (the anesthesia leaves your mouth so dry and you can't drink Water quickly enough to help). Hairbrush Anything else you may or may not use.

Premier Protein RTD shakes - they have 5.5g of protein per ounce. Isopure RTD has 4g of protein per ounce. I have also started mixing GENEPRO into broth and strained Soup - I end up with 30g of protein in 8 oz of soup, which I can drink in less than an hour.

sugar free popsicles are my go-to right now, but there are so many Protein shakes out there that you can turn into a protein milkshake - or even protein ice cream - that we aren't short of options. I also found Arctic Zero ice cream, which is really not half bad.

I have a blog, and I'm toying with the idea of YouTube videos - I did one about why I chose surgery, but haven't done one since.

I'm also enjoying Propel in both lemon and strawberry kiwi flavor. And Powerade Zero.

Way to go! You're doing great.

Well I survived. Wednesday was pretty rough - I did NOT want to wake up from the anesthesia, and when I did there was definitely some pain.Most of the pain has been from the muscles under the largest incision though. They did a tap block on my abdomen, which i think has helped a lot with the pain - except I really think it only worked on one side. The guy was having a hard time getting the right spot on my right side - and that's the side I feel the most pain on (side note: this guy made me cry. they thought I was completely sedated while he was doing the procedure, but I wasn't. And he started complaining to his assistant that they made him do that procedure on people of my size). I started getting up and walking and going to the bathroom on my own on Wednesday evening. I was still getting IV drugs then, and they were so lovely. The dilaudid knocked me out, which was enjoyable, and surprisingly enough the IV Tylenol took away most of my pain too. I had several periods that were pain free. I'm not accustomed to feeling nausea - I've always had a cast Iron stomach - so that threw me for a bit of a loop. I'm taking the Zofran like clockwork every 8 hours. Otherwise, I'll end up retching which is NO FUN AT ALL. I'm still only drinking 4 oz per hour, but 2 of those oz are Isopure, so I'm getting 4g of Protein each hour. Hopefully I can increase in a day or two, but right now if I drink more than an oz in 15 minutes it's too much.