Hello everyone, I really need help with a couple of things. 7 days post op VSG.

1) When the form from the Dr. says Goal: 40-60 grams Protein per day, does that mean you should have at least that much, or try to have even more Protein shakes, like 90 or 120 grams of protein?

In other words, are they limiting you to no more than 60 grams because of the calories, or do they want you to drink a Protein shake like 3 or 4 times a day, which would be many more grams of protein than the 40-60 (like 90 or 120 grams).

2) Also, why is it that you are limited to drinking no more than 8 OZ of Water or Fluid per hour. Will it stretch the sleeve? Or might it just fill you up? And if one is able to drink a whole water bottle of 16 OZ in less than half an hour is that bad for the healing sleeve?

Thanks for all your replies!

Ljp

I am also 2 weeks out. I was told at least 80 grams of protein. I get 63 from protein drinks and the rest from meat and veggies. It takes me more than 20 minutes to eat and chew the protein for the meal; I don't often get to the veggies or fruit, so I add them to the protein drink. I drink 8 oz in about 45 minutes. It seems like I am eating and drinking all day.

Still only 7 days post op so no meat or vegetables.

I was instructed to get 50-70 grams of Protein and 500-700 calories. I have read on here that you can absorb any more than that. Eventually you will want to stop shakes and get your protein from food but at two weeks its impossible to do that. I was on puréed food at two weeks.

About drinking, remember no drinking around meals.

I am 8 weeks postop and just now eating meat and no shakes. I fight everyday to get even 40 oz of liquids a day.

The first two months after the op I felt like eating and drinking was a full time job. It was almost overwhelming.

I would go for more Protein if you can, I took the recommendation as being a minimum and it was almost 3 months before I could regularly manage more than 800 calories a day.

The key with drinking is small sips, often. Don't over do it or it will be uncomfortable and you may vomit. While healing, vomiting isn't good due to the stress you can put on the staple line and stitches. I pulled an internal stitch while vomiting and it was very painful.

Typically we see a recommendation of 60-80gm of Protein per day, though some docs may start out with a somewhat lower number reflecting the difficulty that many patients have getting in the larger amount of protein. The protein recommendation is largely based upon the maintenance needs of our bodies, and that varies depending upon the amount of lean mass we carry (muscles, organs, skin - most everything except our fat and bones) - women tend to need less while men tend to need more; some docs will recommend 80-100gm for men. Complicating matters is that our bodies need more than the basic maintenance level of protein when healing from a major trauma (like surgery), but I haven't seen any docs who recommend these higher levels and then lowering them to the basic levels later on - most likely because most patients have a hard enough time getting in the basic protein levels. So, the short answer on this would be to aim for the 60gm level and err on the higher side rather than the lower side. The 90-120gm level would be overkill in most cases, unless you were a tall, muscular man.

On the water/liquid front, doc's recommendations are all over the board on this, which basically reflects the wide variation in how different patients respond after surgery. Water will not stretch your sleeve. Your stomach will be inflamed to start with as it recovers from the surgery, so it may not hold or pass as much through it as it will later on. Between the restriction from inflammation and the pyloric valve that controls the flow of food/liquids between the stomach and intestines, water and liquids will move through the stomach at differing rates between different people, and if you drink too quickly, it will just come back up. This is why we sip,sip,sip our liquids to start with. If you are sipping slowly and not feeling anything adverse and nothing is threatening to come back up, you can continue sipping, whether that is 8 oz in an hour or 16 oz in a half hour. My wife, when she went thru this a few years ago, could barely pass her nominal stomach capacity of fluids thru in a normal meal sitting (say, half an hour,) while I had no problem moving 6-8 oz of broth and a half cup of juice thru in the same amount of time in the hospital - individual variations between us, but nothing of concern to the doc. Listen to your body and it will tell you if you are sipping too fast.

I am worried cause i have been hungry after every meal today thus i drank a cup of shake versus my normal half a cup. Is this bad for me. I didn't get full and i felt fine afterward. Im worried i will do some kind of damage