Hi,

Newbie here. I got sleeved on August 18th and everything went fantastically well and was discharged on 20th. Feeling great and other than a bit of cramping and pain around incisions all is good.

Am obviously on liquids at the moment, but i am a little unsure of how fast i can drink thinks like Water and Protein shakes. Yesterday i had a stinking headache which got better after drinking some water but am a little concerned i am drinking too fast. I probably drank 500ml (17oz) over a 2 hour period yesterday. And drank about 450ml (15 oz) of Protein shake over 3 hours last night.

My questions:

1. Is there a standard recommendation as to how fast you should drink e.g. ml or oz per hour?? My surgeon said it depends on the person and you just need to sip and see how it feels - once it has gone down then you should sip again.

2. How long do liquids take to pass through the stomach?

3. I am a bit paranoid that drinking too fast will result in a leak in the staple line - is that possible on liquids alone? If a leak were to occur i would know about it right?

Many thanks.

J

Hi Jamie, I think if you do it too fast your body will let you know. Liquids should just pass straight through although with the narrowing of the restriction you will get backflow if you try to pour it in too fast!! If it doesn't hurt it should be OK. I think its more important to drink as much as possible to keep hydrated and allow the body to heal itself. Your rates of drinking above sound good to me and I remember doing similar volumes at that point. I have pasted my doctors recommended diet for the 1st 4 weeks below. As you can see he is only concerned with speed of drinking on day 1. Have you had a contrast test to check for leaks yet? I had mine after surgery and it was fine but I worried too about leaking for months after because I am a pessamist :biggrin0:.

Jane x

Dietary Recommendations

for Patients after Gastric Sleeve Resection

from BMI Surgery Clinic in Brno

First day diet:

Usually an i.v. Fluid has been administered and a contrast X-ray examination precedes per oral alimentation

• Drink slowly in small sips of Water, tea.
  
• Wait in between the sips for a minute or two.
  
• Do not drink more than 50ml at once.
  
• Nothing but tea with or without sugar, or still mineral water.
  
• Wait for least 10 minutes between drinks.
  

Your total per oral fluid intake should be not exceed two glasses or 0.5 litre in the first postoperative day.

First two weeks

• Clear broth or Soup without vegetables or meat and not too creamy.
  

• Low fat, sugar free yogurt.
  

• Skimmed milk.
  

• Natural fruit juice or pureed soft fruit (apple, banana, pear, etc).
  

• Vegetable juices.
  

• Low calorie drinks.
  

• Sugar free Protein supplements, with skimmed milk.
  

• Water (6-8 cups / 2.0 - 3.0 litres a day).
  

Between meals you may drink vegetable juice, milk, fruit juices & water to ingest sufficient liquids and prevent dehydration.

Sample Menu - Week 1 & 2

Breakfast

1/3 cup pureed fruit

? cup yogurt

lunch

? cup consomm? or broth

1/3 cup pureed fruit

dinner

? cup yogurt

? cup pureed fruit

Third and Fourth Week after Sleeve Gastrectomy

A liquid/pureed diet for your meals during week 3 and 4 after the operation may help you to get used to smaller stomach. Remember to keep a high level of protein in your diet. You will need to use a blender or food processor. The food has to be blended until reaching a applesauce consistency.

Avoid spicy foods; they may irritate your stomach.

Here is a list to give you some suggestions for what you can eat on weeks 3 and 4:

Liquids or beverages, and milk.

? Good options: Tea, non-carbonated drinks, natural fruit juices, coffee, water, skimmed milk, low fat and sugar free yogurt.

? Limit or try to avoid: Artificial fruit juices, soda, alcohol, all carbonated beverages, Iced tea with sugar, milk or yogurt products with nuts or seeds, chocolate milk, sweetened condensed milk, whole milk.

Fruits.

? Good options: Applesauce, pureed pears, and bananas.

? Limit or try to avoid: Canned fruits or fruits with syrup.

Vegetables.

? Good options: Pureed vegetables, vegetable juice.

? Limit or try to avoid: Raw vegetables, canned vegetables, vegetables that cause discomfort (gas forming).

Soups.

? Good options: Broth, cream soups make with skimmed milk, egg drop soup, low sodium bouillon or consomm?.

? Limit or try to avoid: All other.

Starches.

? Good options: Mashed potatoes.

? Limit or try to avoid: Bread, Pasta, rice and all other starches.

meats or protein supplements.

? Good options: Pureed chicken, fish, tuna, veal, beef, low fat cottage cheese, baby food meats, mashed or pureed tofu, pureed egg or egg substitute, sugar-free Protein shakes, No sugar added Instant Breakfast.

? Limit or try to avoid: Peanut Butter, others.

Fats, sugars and others

? Good options: Sugar free Jellies and puddings, sugar free ice cream and frozen yoghurt, low fat (slimmers) puddings.

? Limit: Others.

Sample Menu ? weeks 3 & 4

Breakfast

1/2 cup yogurt and 1/3 cup pureed fruit (or4-6 tablespoons cooked refined Cereal, adding 3 tablespoons of skimmed milk)

1 hour later

1 cup fruit juice (or milk)

2 hours later 4-6 tablespoons yogurt

1 hour later

1 cup water (or unsweetened fruit juice)

Lunch

3 tablespoons pureed chicken with 2 tablespoons pureed vegetables

and 2 tablespoons mashed potatoes, 1 cup water

1 hour later

1 cup water

2 hours later

1 cup protein supplement (or1 packet No Sugar Added Instant Breakfast)

Dinner

2-3 tablespoons chicken (or fish or tuna)with 2 tablespoons vegetables

and 2 tablespoons mashed potatoes

1 hour later

1 cup skimmed milk

1 hour later

3 tablespoons cottage cheese with 4 tablespoons pureed fruit

1 hour later

1 cup broth-type soup or milky (semi-skimmed or skimmed milk) drink

General Recommendations:

1. Eat small meals five times a day and limit snacking in between meals.

2. Eat slowly and chew food until it reaches a mushy consistency. (15 to 20 times per bite).

3. Stop eating or drinking right before you feel full.

4. Eat only good quality foods.

5. Drink low calorie liquids.

6. Drink enough liquids /about 2.0 ? 3.0 litres per day.

7. Drink after each eating

8. Exercise moderately, however not sooner than 2 weeks after the operation

Jamie

I was sleeved on Aug 16th and released on Aug 18th. I am doing absolutely great (other than normal incision pain which is declining day by day).

I had some problems for first three days to consume liquids, however, as of Thursday I have been able to drink well (slowly though) with no issues. Give yourself another day and you should be fine as well. I am now able to drink Protein drinks at slow pace.

I am also experiencing some diarrhea here and there, but my doctor said it is normal. He said, liquid in - liquid out.

Hope this helps.

I can understand your worry about leaks cause I had the same. Here in England they do the leakage test when your still anaestetized(or at least my surgeon does), he said if there were to be a leakage(very rare) I would know straight away because I would be really unwell, in terrible pain! Hope this helps x

Hi,

THanks for the replies.

Ok, so i think i am doing this right then (hopefully anyway :tongue_smilie:)

I actually had my surgery done in Belgium and they too did the leak test whilst under anesthesia and no leaks showed.

Thanks Again.

J