I am on mushies until July 1st. And to be honest, I am over it. Nothing tastes good, I have done it all hardboiled egss with avocado, Ricotta Bakes, tuna with mayo, cottage cheese, chicken with avocado, sf Jello and SF frozen ices. And I don't think I can do another shake. I want texture, I want flavor, I want to throw my magic bullet into the wall.

For lunch I did blended chili, 2 baby spoon bites in I threw it away. Went and got some Fage Greek Yogurt with honey, 2 baby spoon bites and I threw it away. Nothing is satifying right now, and the thought of 29 more days of this is the pits. But I will do it, I won't have solids until my doctor ok's it. But the last 2 days, I know from my food log, that I am not getting enough protien in. Oh, I can eat, and I am hungery, but the taste is just 'eventless', 'soul-less', just disgusting to be honest.

Anyone have any tips or remember this part of the journey. I know it is normal, but it's the pits.

Steven

I know how you feel! I am in the same boat. Nothing to me is satisfying. I think "oooh, that sounds good" and then i don't even like it!

I feel so defeated and don't know what to do about it. There really isn't anything I can do I guess.

Some days are so bad too, as I still have a lot of tightness when I try to eat anyting besides liquid. Like now, I am trying to eat some cottage cheese. 2 tiny bites and I am so tight feeling in my chest!! I know I can not be full already!! In a few minutes it goes away, but it is so annoying!

I just wish I could eat something and really enjoy it. SIGH!! Maybe one day.

kelly

Seems your mushie is a combo of softs and mushies.

This is what I had last night for dinner:

Mexican Night: Bare burritos: Ground beef mixed with taco sause, refried Beans, on the side in three little dollops, one of quac, one of salsa, and one of sour cream so you can just dip a little for added flavor. By the end of the meal, I didn't even use a 1/4 of each dollop.

Another is:

Since you can have chicken, mix chicken in with the ricotta bake.

Also, I tried this from the World According to EggFace: Her bites! Make them as you want they are great. I made ham, cheddar, onions and peppers. Cooked the onions and peppers realy well but was still good for Breakfast, I was able to eat 3 of them that I made in a normal sized muffin pan. That night for dinner hubby made chicken tenders cooked in marinara sauce and I had two more with a drizzle of sause and two tenders. You can do a mexican version of this and put a little sour cream and salsa on top. You can do an italian version of this too by using italian sausage out of the skin with onions and mozzeralla cheese and top with a little marinara sauce. You can also do this as a chinese version and call it egg foo young lol add chinese veg cooked well and a little ff brown gravey mixed with low sodium soy sause.

Another thing I liked doing is mashed potato and mix in carmalized vidalia onions and ground beef or cut up chicken tenders.

Hope some of this helps, when I got out of the mushie stage (mine was only basically mashed, refried beans, and such, nothing with chuncks and had to be a paste consistancy or thinner) I tried soooooo many things.

Good luck!

I made a turkey roll up with deli meat today, and I'm not soft foods.... I rolled up a slice of turkey lunch meat with a slice of pepper jack cheese and some diced green chilis. Put it in a hot greased pan and "grill" on all sides til the cheese melts!! It's delicious! I was only able to eat a few bites but took the rest for lunch today w/a side of guacamole I made this weekend. yummmm

do any of you feel like your food gets stuck after a couple of bites?? i am a little over 3 weeks out and I don't know why i still feel like I can't eat anything!!

some days are better than others, but still feel like I should be getting better daily and not going backwards!

yesterday i ate cottage cheese with no problem. today, took about 3 bites and felt such tightness in my chest for about 10 minutes! gave up and am now having unjury chicken soup!

I do fine with liquids, but sometimes (well, more than not), soilds give me issues.

do you think it is swelling or something else? i don't go for my check up for another 2 weeks!

kelly

do any of you feel like your food gets stuck after a couple of bites?? i am a little over 3 weeks out and I don't know why i still feel like I can't eat anything!!

some days are better than others, but still feel like I should be getting better daily and not going backwards!

yesterday i ate cottage cheese with no problem. today, took about 3 bites and felt such tightness in my chest for about 10 minutes! gave up and am now having unjury chicken soup!

I do fine with liquids, but sometimes (well, more than not), soilds give me issues.

do you think it is swelling or something else? i don't go for my check up for another 2 weeks!

kelly

Kelly, I wasn't allowed to have softs until 4 weeks out. Prior to that everything had to be liquids or mushies. Once I started on the mushies after week two I did get that feeling and it was a bit weird. I am now at 6 weeks and I am able to eat a lot more than what I was able to eat while on week 3 when mushies started. You are probably still swollen and that is why the feeling of being stuck. I get that feeling still when I push it and "over eat". Mind you over eating is 4 oz instead of 3 or more than a cup of food at a time. I do get that feeling when I eat 2/3's of a can of tuna with mayo. If I eat half then I am ok. Give it a couple of more weeks and you should be fine. My advise though is to stick to the liquids for another week and then start on the mushies/softs after that to see how it goes.

try corned beef hash

i agree with the refried Beans idea

Eggface was a savior during my puree phase...

Thanks, the only thing that brings any real satifaction is refried beans and my hardboild egg with avocado and lemon.

Mind you everything I eat at this point goes in my Magic Bullet, so I have no chunks. I made a Chimichurri then marinaded cubed beef overnight, then slow cooked it in a crock pot for 8 hours. the meat was falling apart, but after I pureed it... It was so nasty, I just threw it away, LOL. Oh, well it is just 29 days, it could be worse!

I'm rather surprised that you have a full month of mushies.... I was 2 wks mushies and then 2 wks soft foods (which I'm on now). But a full month? wow, that's harsh!

Yeah, week 8 post-op I get to advance.

Thanks so much!!

Yeah, I use my magic bullet and puree everything to paste consistancy. No chunks! I can usually only do about 3-4 bites and then I am done! I measure out 1/4 c, but never do all of it!

I do fine with liquids and most days have to eat Soup or drink a Protein drink or SlimFast low carb to get some calories in because I can not get any from real food!! I am just worried that I may never eat again!

I am supposed to go to soft foods on Monday, but I really don't think that is going to happen!! If I can't eat what I am supposed to now, how on earth am I going to eat solid food? Unless something magical happens between now and then!!

Kelly

Kelly, I wasn't allowed to have softs until 4 weeks out. Prior to that everything had to be liquids or mushies. Once I started on the mushies after week two I did get that feeling and it was a bit weird. I am now at 6 weeks and I am able to eat a lot more than what I was able to eat while on week 3 when mushies started. You are probably still swollen and that is why the feeling of being stuck. I get that feeling still when I push it and "over eat". Mind you over eating is 4 oz instead of 3 or more than a cup of food at a time. I do get that feeling when I eat 2/3's of a can of tuna with mayo. If I eat half then I am ok. Give it a couple of more weeks and you should be fine. My advise though is to stick to the liquids for another week and then start on the mushies/softs after that to see how it goes.

THat sucks!!

I will probably be right there with you the way I am going!

Kelly

Yeah, week 8 post-op I get to advance.

Ok, so I misunderstood your purree'd stage. Keep in mind guys that your docs just want you to get used to food at this point. They are not counting on the foods you consume just yet to have your daily Protein intake yet. I would go with the mashed potatos with the carmelized vidalia onions (no chicken). Any meat I pureed was just gross so I depended on my shakes and greek yogurt for my protein. I would eat the mashed at dinner time and with the onions it adds a little extra flavor. Believe me you will love it! I also made mashed sweet potatos too. The refried Beans and chees with a little picante, sour cream and guac was alson a favorite of mine for those two weeks. Again no meat. You can have oatmeal and grits as well. I know the carbs are a little high in these but then again you shouldn't worry about those until you get to the softs. Make these for dinner and do your shakes and yogurt during the day, it gives you something to look forward to.

I only had to do 2 weeks of the mushy stage, a month seems a long time to endur to me too. But every docs plan is different!

But H to H my 8 weeks is July 3rd- aren't you more than two days further out than me? My surgery was 5/9.

Mushies has been the biggest surprise to me diet wise. I love crunch. I am not a sweets person but I might commit a crime to get my hands on movie style popcorn. So I thought mushies would kill me. Well, maybe it was being on full liquid for 3 weeks that made me so happy with mushies and hearing one comment in my support group: "you can eat anything with the sleeve now, or try anything, as long as you can make it mushy"

With that I was off to the races. I put the greek yogart down and picked up the Beef Pot Roast. That was dinner tonight, about 3 ounces of beef pot roast pureed with cooked carrots and a bit of gravy. In my mind, I think it will all end up together and mushy after it's eaten anyway. And so far my stomach is accepting everything. So while I do not like being so low capacity, nothing food wise has upset my stomach yet so I'm very happy from that perspective.

I'm so sorry to hear you are having such problems. I wonder if you went to the store and tried to find something you have never had before if it might help. Maybe if you tried something with no expectation, no prior knowledge of what it should taste like?

I know my stomach being able to take 3 ounces of beef has greatly helped me in the pursuit of Protein. I sure hope your desires will turn around when you get your crunch back. Since that's where my weakness resides I'd actually considered staying in mushy land.

This is a note to KellyW--

It took me a lot longer to be able to eat than most people--I think some of us stay swollen longer, and it just takes more time for the swelling to go down. I noticed today that I actually "chugged" 5 big swallows of Gatorade before I thought about it, and nothing bad happened. Two weeks ago, that would have come right back up immediately. I would also make sure you're on the right dose of PPI (because excess acid is horrible for keeping your tummy swollen up!). You might find relief with an additional med or a change in dose--and you don't have to wait to see your doc to try it. Hang in there; even my horrible "can't eat without getting sick" issues are gradually getting better. Sometimes it just takes longer than we want!! (and it doesn't help that it seems like everyone else is doing so great, and you feel like you can't even eat a couple of bites!!! I feel ya!!)

Meg