Hey folks,

I am a little over two weeks out and am transitioning to puréed foods - mostly just mashed potatoes and refried Beans right now once a day then liquids for the rest. The first couple weeks after surgery I never really felt full (or empty) so I just ate what was required and stopped. Now I am starting to have feelings of fullness but often it's before I finish my food or drink the amount of Fluid I had hoped to within a given period. Sometimes it takes hours to stop feeling any fullness. And its happens even with fluids, though in theory fluids should mostly just go straight through. If I start feeling full I usually try to give it like 1/2 an hour or so and then resume, usually even though I still feel full. I will usually eat or drink past full, not a lot, but I will try to finish my Protein meal or maybe get that last ounce or two of fluid.

I worry about overfilling and causing a leak or bursting my staple line but at the same time there aren't enough hours in the day to get my fluid and protein requirements if I have to wait hours for the full feeling to go away. Does anyone else have any experience with this? What do you do - keep going to make at least most of your fluid and protein requirements (I've never made it all the way yet, usually I settle for at least 2/3 of them and anything better than that is a bonus) or stop when full and maybe make 1/2 your requirements or less? Also, how easy is it to create a leak? Will an extra ounce or two of fluid or a couple small bites more of mashed potatoes hurt?

The exact thing happened to me when I transitioned at 18 days out. I was so full all the time. What I ended up doing was having a little "token" puréed food - no more than 1-2 tablespoons once a day and then just doing the normal liquids and shake thing from the previous stage. I was slowly able to have 1-2 tbls 2 times a day and now I can do a puréed "meal" 3 times/day. I still get most of my Protein from shakes. I was cleared to go to soft foods yesterday but I'm gonna stick with puréed a few more days.

Don't push yourself past the point of feeling full. Just take it slow. And yes, getting all your fluids in is a full time job at this point.