Can any of you post op patients give any examples or advice on things you wish you had known or done differently before surgery?

New me on the way

Me too. I thought I was being a good Scout and laid in all kinds of (expensive) protein powders. There's a scoop out of a couple and the rest have never been opened. Turns out I can't/won't tolerate that stuff no matter how hard I try.

Same!!

I also stocked up on a bunch of protein drinks that most of them ended up getting returned because I couldn't tolerate the taste after surgery. My advice- buy one of every kind of protein drink/flavor you can find and keep track of where you bought them so you can go buy more of the ones you like and don't have to deal with returning the ones you don't like.

I wish I hadn't stocked up on ANYTHING! Nothing really made me sick, but there were things I just didn't want to eat. Jell-O was WAY too sweet for me to handle and I had bought 5 or 6 packs before surgery. I still have a fridge full of Jell-O. I have to agree with the whole "missing things you love" comment! Even though I haven't been hungry in the 4 weeks since my surgery, I sometimes think, "Man, I'd love to eat a couple slices of pizza!" And then I think even if I did try to eat pizza, I'd probably only get 3 or 4 bites. I really miss the way food made me feel! But at least the scale is going down and not up! I do wish I'd done this YEARS ago before I had gotten so big.

I'm only a few weeks out, but I sure wished I'd listened to the advice to stop drinking while eating. I'm at the stage now where I can't drink 15 minutes before I eat or 30 minutes after and it's the worst learning curve in the world. So frustrating. I already struggle getting in all the ounces of water per day, so this just made it that much harder.

I too over-bought the protein powders and about a million cans of cream soups that I will now donate to the next food drive that comes around. Lots of money down the drain, but live and learn. (LOL, you know this one!)

Finally, agreeing with many above, I wish I'd had surgery two or three years ago when I first started looking into it, instead of waiting. But, in the end, things work out for a reason and having surgery is the best decision I've made for myself...maybe ever!

Edited October 17, 201312 yr by Shells_Almost_There