I don't have more than 2 bites at any given meal. I started out trying to make sure I didn't get the full feeling, but now I don't like the way it feels to have food in there. I even drink water to make it feel better ( get the food out ). I don't start an endless cycle of meals either. I am trying to go by the rules of 3 meals and 2 snacks. Is this normal? Does it last forever or a short time? P.S. where is spell check now?

Thank you for sharing this info....my surgery is in 2 weeks and i am bracing myself...lol.

My PCP told me that I will feel really really tired the first 2-3 weeks and then slowly start to feel better. She said that might be due to dehydration and that many people need to go for IV fluids as you just can't get enough Water in. Her little talk was good - take the "sip sip sip" seriously and don't hesitate to go get IV fluids if i feel awful.

Your comments are helping me prepare for how food will feel. I will remind myself that after a few months, eating will feel more normal again, and those early months might be really hard.

It is hard for me to remember when food started to feel better. Even now, if it is the wrong food, or I don't chew, or I eat too fast/too much it is uncomfortable. There are a couple of major milestones that seem to change how we feel. 3 months is where you can eat the 2 bites and feel less weird. 6 months is where you can eat a bit more and more variety.

In the first several months I ate 6 times a day. I portioned everything out into baggies in the morning. I ate yogurt, cheese, and meat. I would have a little oatmeal for fiber and always take my Vitamin. This helped me get closer to the goals the doc set for me but I think I was around 600 cals per day for at least 4 months. Eating was not a pleasurable experience. It was something I did to survive. I would get weird hot flashes when I was eating. Sometimes I felt like my body would rush all the blood I had to my stomach when I ate - my heart would pound.

It will pass, but you are also learning good lessons during this time.

I am about 9 months out and I still eat 4-5 times a day because I eat really small meals. Ice cream makes me sick. Bread gives me terrible heartburn. Dark chocolate is my new favorite thing, and my love affair with chicken continues...

If I eat too fast, my stomach will be unhappy. I never drink anything after I eat, because it feels horrible. These don't seem like "problems" to me now because they quickly become a habit.

Hang in there!!

Thank you, I had gotten hot sweats anytime I had real hot cocoa or drank milk I had become lactose intolerent. I hope this is temporary, I'd love to have a big glass of milk. It helps to know I'm not alone in this and still love my sleeve.

Yes I did go through a period which everything I ate sat in my tummy and just made me feel miserable, nauseated even. I had to force myself to eat because I knew I had to, to survive! I had zero appetite, what so ever. I think this lasted about 2.5 to 3 months.

However now I'm perfectly fine and can eat without issue. I do get full really fast still, but at least it doesn't feel like a brick in my chest. These were also the months I posted the largest weight drops too though, so I guess for a little bad came a lot of good. :smile1:

I'm looking forward to loosing the brick feeling. My weight is going down a lot faster right now ( plus ). I think most of the weight is the hair I'm loosing,lol ( minus ). I caught a flu and all that intails last night. I am concerned about getting dehydrated. It takes all day to drink 64 oz. Thanks for responding you are an insperation to me!

Yup, I was telling this same thing to my wife when I was going through it. "If I didn't have to eat, I wouldn't." At about 3 months is when some things didn't feel terrible. Solid proteins: chicken, tillapia, tuna ... But I still, at almost 5 months, get a terrible feeling in my tummy if I eat bread. Had one bite of my delicious homemade rolls on Thanksgiving and I was done. So sad.

Here's to second chances with left overs. You can get it down to a sience on what's the most important to eat then write it down on next year's calender. Best wishes