11 days post op and I couldn't stand it. Made my kids a frozen pizza for dinner plucked a pepperoni off stuck it in my mouth and chewed chewed chewed then spit it out. That was the best pepperoni I've ever had. Am I the only one that has had a moment of weakness?

Ha ha, lol, nope...others have posted doing that as well. Today I chewed a brussell sprout and spit it out. I was roasting them and as the cook, needed to know if they had the right seasoning. Never thought I would "cheat" with a brussell sprout!

Loool

U r not the only one

My mum made a lovely home pizza and took a full bite chewed chewed chewed and then spit it out loool

I do that with foods that i can't or don't want to risk swallowing it

I had my sleeves on 9th dec so i am amost 2 weeks out

One time will probably not do damage, but be careful about forming a pattern or snowballing into worse issues with food. We all must be disciplined to really work the sleeve. It is hard work, but it will pay off. Merry Christmas.

One time will probably not do damage, but be careful about forming a pattern or snowballing into worse issues with food. We all must be disciplined to really work the sleeve. It is hard work, but it will pay off. Merry Christmas.

Ok Party Pooper Fiddleman !

I know I can't do it....Once the launch sequence has been activated (putting in my mouth) it's waaaaaaaaay too late. It has to go down....

Ok Party Pooper Fiddleman !

I know I can't do it....Once the launch sequence has been activated (putting in my mouth) it's waaaaaaaaay too late. It has to go down....

What, me a party pooper? I am having fun at a party this very moment, just not eating any party food. Brought my blender and shake mix with me.

I suspect there are as many different "food issues" on these forums as there are members. One person's safe and routine manner of eating can conceivably be another one's downfall. We need to be very careful about generalizing personal experience and biases to others when posting here. Members of Overeaters Anonymous will admonish against the use of sugar, wheat (flour), and alcohol, while lifelong members of, for example, Weight Watchers will espouse the importance of moderation and a well-balanced diet including the use of alcohol and wheat-based foods.

In addition and, for example, those with a starting BMI of 50 are going to face different ongoing post-operative food issues than those with a starting BMI of 35. When it comes to the vertical sleeve gastrectomy, subsequent weight loss, and weight loss maintenance, one size most definitely does not fit all.

Aside from individual patient differences, everyone's surgeon seems to have different ideas about both pre- and post-operative diets. My surgeon, for example, did not require me to lose weight or go on a liquid diet before the surgery. I underwent the procedure on Thursday, December 13th and, on day 9, he instructed me to move to soft solid foods due to chronic diarrhea and a day-5 readmission to the hospital for dehydration and hypotension. Of course, my surgeon also sutures the new pouch after stapling it with self-absorbing stitches to further protect his patients from themselves. When asked, he replied that he had absolutely no concern that I might spring a leak on day nine by eating a piece of feta cheese or poached egg.

According to the research literature, in the vast majority of patients, the new stomach is completely sealed by day 14. In a very small percentage of patients, that seal could take as long as 21 days to permanently set. That means that in 100 percent of all VSG patients, the staples are serving no practical purpose after day 21 and, for most patients, after day 14.

The goal of the post-operative diet progression is to slowly introduce foods of increasing density as molecular density is directly related to stomach contractions. That is, most of us are restricted to a clear liquid diet for the first 14 days in order to avoid any stomach contractions while the new stomach is still adhering to itself.

What would happen if you tried to eat a 3oz piece of Ribeye steak on day 22? Due to the relative high density of that particular cut of meat and the fact that your stomach will still be swollen, you will most likely feel very uncomfortable and then end up "coughing up" everything you had just eaten. Chances are you won't try that again until the second or third month when all the swelling is gone. As for "damages," those would be limited to whatever you paid for that Ribeye steak you just threw up. Pressure and discomfort notwithstanding, you would not have hurt your new pouch at all, not by the end of week three.

Writing entirely for myself, I didn't undergo the vertical sleeve gastrectomy so that I could live on low-fat cottage cheese, plain poached eggs, and liquid Protein drinks for the rest of my life. I most definitely plan on eventually eating pepperoni pizza, hamburgers, and everything else I used to eat before the surgery with the one and only exception of carbonated beverages. Of course, the portions will be quite smaller than they used to be, which is why I'll lose the weight I need to and then keep it off. I didn't become obese by eating one gingerbread man or drinking one small cup of eggnog at a Christmas party.

By the way, the Withings Wifi Body scale has been a very useful tool in helping me monitor not only weight loss but relative lean vs fat body mass. It's important to make sure we're not losing muscle but only fat. Meeting our daily minimum protein requirement is very important. The scale also links directly to the MyFitnessPal.com account.

Best of luck to all the relatively new sleevers!

Mason

Thank you for a most interesting read. I am at 21 days today. I am on purée for another week and plan to stay that way just to be safe. However your information is good to know so when I move to soft foods next week I won't be so scared.

Try not to be scared. Post-surgical leaking at the staple line, although a very serious complication, is relatively rare in that it occurs in less than one percent of all cases (approximately .9 percent). When it does occur, in almost every case, it typically occurs within 2 to 7 days after surgery and it's not related to poor patient compliance but, in five out of six cases, to an inherent physiological weakness at the esophagogastric junction (the top of stomach just below where the esophagus meets the new stomach) due to high intragastric pressure caused by impaired peristaltic activity. This is why it is so important to keep the new stomach as well hydrated as you possibly can. Try to drink four to six ounces of Water or sport's drink every hour if you can.

If the intraoperative blue methylene test was negative and you don't spring a leak in the first week following surgery, you really shouldn't worry about doing so from that point forward.

The new stomach will continue to heal for weeks to come so proper nutrition, especially meeting minimum Protein requirements and keeping the new stomach walls well hydrated are critically important. Whether you "cheat" with a piece of pepperoni on day 11 or eat a piece of Tilapia instead of a piece of shell fish at the beginning of week four is not nearly as important as meeting your daily BMR caloric intake and nutritional requirements. If you eat the "wrong" food (given where you are in your recovery process), eat too quickly, or too much, you'll simply regurgitate the food into your mouth like a cow.

For personal reassurance, take a look at this article: Nonsurgical Treatment of Staple Line Leaks after Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy. You can jump straight down to the discussion section.

Mason while that all sounds nifty keen, you are actually encouraging people to eat improperly after having this surgery. Leaks can occur two ways. One is that they develop early at the staple line from an open area within the line. These typically happen within the first three weeks and are the most common. But you neglect to mention the other type of leak. These occur after the suture line is healed, but the healed wall is still thin enough to erode causing a late leak. They can occur any time after three weeks and have been known to occur as far out as nine months.

Stressing a recently healed staple line, or one not healed is never a smart idea. Encouraging it by saying all that will happen is you'll cough up the food is not a responsible approach to take. That piece of steak could stress a newly healed line and kill someone. Rarer than leaks prior to three weeks, but still they happen which is why we are told not to eat steak at three weeks. Nor pepperoni, nor Cookies, cake, candy, etc.,

Leaks are serious business and something that we should all try to avoid. Putting food in your mouth that you are told not to can lead to death. Don't be stupid. It's not worth it!

I know someone in real life not hearsay or internet who had a leak at 8 weeks post op.

Follow the guide lines...its just too scary to risk it.

As for chewing and spitting, oh man I think a lot of us have...we have moments, we are human but never willingly risk it.

Just throwing it out there .... steak was on my 3 week plan!

But you neglect to mention the other type of leak. These occur after the suture line is healed, but the healed wall is still thin enough to erode causing a late leak. They can occur any time after three weeks and have been known to occur as far out as nine months.

The only thing I am trying to encourage fellow forum members to do is provide external citations and authoritative evidence for their assertions instead of relying on personal experience and anecdotal evidence as some type of proof... without much success it appears.

By any chance, do you have any external references that document the percentage of post-VSG patients who have experienced post surgical leaks "weeks" and even "nine months" after surgery? The longest post-surgical leak case I could find in the literature is 35 days post op and it is extremely rare (.16 x .01).

As a matter of intellectual curiosity, I have compared VSG post-op progressive diet plans across three different continents. The longest duration of any such plan is three months. If, in fact, it is true that one isolated patient had died from a VSG-related leak nine months after surgery, certainly, it could not be reasonably argued that the belated leak was associated with poor patient compliance but with a residual mechanical or structural failure of the surgery itself.

Related, I'd be particularly interested in any research literature you have that documents a statistical association between poor patient compliance and post surgical leak rates and death (i.e., "putting food in your mouth that you are told not to can lead to death"), especially after 21 days post-op when the staples themselves are redundant. I can't find even one case that links poor patient compliance with leak rates and death and I've searched our university's Dialog Database Service several times.

Don't be stupid

Exactly. VSG patients need to be properly informed so that they can understand what's involved in their recovery. Proper patient compliance is enhanced by providing valid information, not by using ridiculous scare tactics. Guilt and unfounded fear are not effective motivators yet they are frequently used on these forums.

Just throwing it out there .... steak was on my 3 week plan!

And you're still alive to write about it!? Imagine that!

I think when you have lived through a rare complication it seems you need to warn others. Iggy has lived through the hell of a leak.

My complication incase you don't know was a cut to small bowel because of scar tissue. I feel the need for every person to be checked before surgery but at such a very small percentage of bowel cutting accidents I know it is not going to happen. My complication came from surgeon error plain and simple so I can't tell people how to prevent it. If like Iggy I thought I could help others by telling them not to do this or that I would.

We do however need the voice of reason that having done the research can tell us what the medical norm is suppose to be. We can't operate off the worst case rare complications are going to get us all if we don't watch out but we certainly can't ignore them either.

We all need balance of optimistic hope and caution of possible complications a mix of Iggy and Mason do this.

Very well said Kapoor!

As others have said, just don't make it a habit to chew and spit out food. Apparently, this is considered an eating disorder if done on a regular basis. It also sends a signal to your stomach that it's time to eat and it will start producing digestive fluids to deal with the food that never gets there. So you could feel worse than if you had actually swallowed that pepperoni! The good news is that the liquid/puree stage really doesn't last that long and you'll soon be introducing foods back in. Enjoy the (turkey) pepperoni!