I love water. So much. But I've been having a lot of trouble drinking it, even small sips seem to hurt. Today while I was out and about I bought an apple juice box, poured a small bit of it into a cup and watered it down (about 5 parts water to 1 part apple juice) and was able to drink all of it without any pain! What is the meaning of this? Anybody? Normal? Not normal?

Some say plain water doesn't agree with them anymore... But I think that's more of a taste thing.

Could it of been that you were up and walking around a lot while you were drinking? Because if I'm upright and on the go, things go down with less discomfort...

I really don't know because I took a sip of plain water after I took a sip of apple juice water and for some reason the plain water felt so heavy and painful whereas the apple juice water just went down. I dont know if its a taste issue because I <3 water. It's just so weird to me.

Ahh yes the weird heavy water thing a lot of people here say that!!

It seems to get a little better with time but at this point I still flavor my water a lot to get it down.

And yes I love water too..

I don't understand it either. I have a hard drinking water because of it feeling heavy. But I can drink, gulp Gatorade down no problem.

Good! I'm glad to know its not just me!! I may stick with this apple juice thing for a while. It's great. Gatorade is good too? Any other good drink suggestions to get fluids in?

I drink a lot of "sweet tea" mio now and powerade zero grape ( not to strong so it's good)

I have a problem like that with cold water. Cold water gives me pains and hard to get down. has to be room temp for me to drink it. but anything else cold seems to go down fine.

I couldn't drink plain water until about 6 weeks out. Before that I only drank Propel Zero.

Warm tea has been a life saver for me, post op. i used to love water too

Will we ever be able to drink water again?

Lol, yes I'm stating to drink it more and more now, at three months out

I went from being someone who drank water pre-op to someone who can't stand it now. My sleeve just doesn't like it, even if it's room temp. My preference is now for warm, flavored liquids.

When people in the hospital have trouble swallowing we add a powder called "thick-it" to any liquid. A more viscous liquid is easier to swallow and apple juice is viscous, too. And maybe the pectin in apples is soothing?

Okay a little science here as told to me by my surgeon. Water has a high surface tension, meaning that its barrier to allow it to be broken down is hard. Think of a steel paper clip that floats on the surface. Now your stomach is like the size of a coffee stirrer at this point due to swelling etc. because of the high surface tension it is hard sometimes for the water to be absorbed and gets kind of backed up if that makes sense. So when you dilute water or mix it with something if breaks that high tension and thus can be absorbed faster. Not everyone experiences it but it is one of those side effects that can happen.

I always thought Bill Nye the science guy was sexy.

Wow! Thank you! It makes a lot more sense when you explain it that way