I had my surgery on 11/14 and I have the week off work while in recovery mode. Not sure if it's just boredom or the fact that it seems my husband has cooked nothing but bacon, waffles, and steak since I've been home, but I'm already so tempted to cheat.I even cooked a 1/2oz of steak today, and chewed it, then spit it out, just to get the taste of something that's not protein shake. Did anyone else have the same issues? And if so, how did you cope with them?

If you are starving and need to cheat I would call your doc, I called mine and told them I was starving and they said if I was tolerating all of the food and doing good I could move to the next stage of beans and applesauce, it was great! I never felt satisfied until I ate a piece of chicken.

I have clear liquids 2 days, full liquids the next two days and then purée for 3 weeks until I move into soft foods at the week 4. On my acceptable list (6 days post surgery) is pureed fish,chicken,lamb,pork etc. I really feel for you guys having to do liquids for so long. I would struggle.

I have clear liquids 2 days' date=' full liquids the next two days and then purée for 3 weeks until I move into soft foods at the week 4. On my acceptable list (6 days post surgery) is pureed fish,chicken,lamb,pork etc. I really feel for you guys having to do liquids for so long. I would struggle.[/quote']

Wow I wish i had your plan! lol my plan is pretty liberal i thought,especially in the beginning- but yours puts mine to shame lol. Mine is 2 days clears, 2 weeks full, 2 weeks purée and then a month soft. Not allowed to eat 'everything' again until about 2 months post op. So crazy how its so different depending on surgeons!

When I started getting really sick and couldn't eat or drink without getting sick, I chewed and spit in the hospital parking lot before I went into the er because everything was tasting like vomit after swallowing it, even my spit. One of those apple pie glazed pastries. Best tasting thing EVERRRRRR (funny enough, I've always hated them lol) that was right before I found outbi had a leak.

At least you don't have a smell aversion... When I was in the hospital for my leak, ex fiancé would bring up food and I'd rather have died, the smell devoured me and made me nauseas!

No wonder everyone is so confused

Although mine doesn't allow full foods until about week 8 either.

I'm one week post op and in the last coupe days have really started to get hungry. I've had pea soup, tomato soup, Greek yogurt and protein shakes. Today I put the tip of my finger in the peanut butter jar and let it melt in my mouth before I swallowed. That was fabulous! I'm on 2 days of clear liquids in the hospital, 2 weeks of full liquids and 2 weeks of soft foods.

I'm one week post op and in the last coupe days have really started to get hungry. I've had pea soup, tomato soup, Greek yogurt and Protein shakes. Today I put the tip of my finger in the Peanut Butter jar and let it melt in my mouth before I swallowed. That was fabulous! I'm on 2 days of clear liquids in the hospital, 2 weeks of full liquids and 2 weeks of soft foods.

I'm surprised you can already have yogurt and peanutbutter since they aren't full liquids.

My doc considers plain low fat or Greek yogurt and sugar free pudding ok on the liquid phase. The peanut butter isn't on the list but I figured if it was a tiny bite and melted in my mouth I'd be ok...just once.

I am on the same boat as you are am only 12 days post surgery and am already eating solid foods sometimes but i make sure i chew well before i swallow, i currently am overseas and i eat solid foods because i have no choices for mashies here like i would in the US... 5 days ago i started eating pureed food as instructed by my doctor, and i ate pureed potatoes and carrots every day three times a day up until yesterday and that is when my husband caught me eating some cooked rice while i was cooking for him (couldnt help it, i am a very good cook and i like to taste my food) :(of coarse after the second bite i was full... but to get back to your post, we all do cheat sometimes and try to tell ourselves that what we are doing is ok and we are probably not the first to cheat, just be careful and remember that soon enough we will be able to eat anything we'd like just much smaller amounts than before... hang in there ^_ ^

I know the feeling! I cheated. I'm not at all recommending it but it didn't do anything to me. Last Saturday 8th day post op, I had about 1/2 a scrambled egg. And for the last couple of days I've been having a few bites of soft potato( boiled or mashed) I'm not on protein shakes and find that I'm craving every kind of food imaginable. In fact, I don't even like mashed potato but the idea of putting purée soup in my mouth again was making me spew!

The weeks up to eating solid ( and for me it was 3-4 months due to complications!!) SUCKEEDDDDDD!!!!!!! Craving EVERYTHING! Now that I can eat everything, I sit looking at the pantry going "ughhhhh. Idk! Nothing looks good!" lol

It takes awhile for the hunger hormone to thin out i guess you could say. There could be a lot stored up. My advise is DON'T cheat. The phases are not only to let your tummy heal but to get used to eating less, different foods. The sooner you start on certain foods, then you want another food and before long you've completely messed up your diet. Fight the cravings! Trust me because eventually you will be able to eat any food you want, and you need to learn to resist. The head hunger will still be there you just need to work through it. Take a walk, do some laundry. And if your still feeling hungry I would ask the Doc about Prilosec or another PPI.

It may be stomach acid.

Good luck and welcome to the losers bench.

I had surgery the same day as you so I can relate ad know its rough. My problem has been Soups haven't filled me so I've actually been hungry. I got creative and made my own chicken and bean curry soup today and puréed it and it filled me more then anything else I've eaten recently. It's rough. I ordered egg drop soup last night and it came with noodles and I SO badly wanted to have 1 or 2 but the fear of putting something in my body that could hurt or kill me beat the craving. I know it's rough. Hang in there- hugs!

I wish my NUT diet allowed for soup, or even purees. The original plan for my hospital was that days 3-22 would be purees, but they recently changed it to just milk-Protein shake-yogurt-pureed fruit. I've changed it around slightly to keep myself sane and am now doing cottage cheese instead of the yogurt (gives me 10 more grams of protein), and have added a half-cup of cream of chicken soup, just for something warm with flavour. It seems to be keeping the worst of the hunger at bay, and gives me something to look forward to.

Thank you so much to everyone for your replies, so glad I have this community to turn to. Friends are great, but they just don't "get" it the same way.

My doc considers plain low fat or Greek yogurt and sugar free pudding ok on the liquid phase. The Peanut Butter isn't on the list but I figured if it was a tiny bite and melted in my mouth I'd be ok...just once.

My friend that used to work at a gym turned me on to the idea of adding peanut butter to my Protein shakes to cut that weird chemical taste. I use about half a teaspoon which is enough to lessen the taste, without just making the shake peanut butter flavoured.

My doc considers plain low fat or Greek yogurt and sugar free pudding ok on the liquid phase. The Peanut Butter isn't on the list but I figured if it was a tiny bite and melted in my mouth I'd be ok...just once.

My friend that used to work at a gym turned me on to the idea of adding peanut butter to my Protein shakes to cut that weird chemical taste. I use about half a teaspoon which is enough to lessen the taste' date=' without just making the shake peanut butter flavoured. [/quote']

Another suggestion is to try the PB2 product (reduced fat and calories with a lot of protein when compared to regular peanut butter).