Lots of people in my life have been asking " when will you be able to eat real food again??"

Of course I laugh. My two week follow up is Thursday, but I'd like to know, what comes next? Puréed? Mushy foods?

I never thought to ask what the stages were?

It really depends on your surgeon, it varies a lot mine was 3 days clear liquids (counting 2 days in the hospital, 14 days of thickened liquids, all clears plus creamed soups, 7 days of purée/mushy foods then regular.

My dr & nut had the following

2weeks preop clear liquid and Protein drinks only. This does include sf Jello. G2 ECt

Surgery was on Tuesday 11-4 and was restricted then and released in Thursday 11-6 and I started my final week of clear liquid when discharged from the hospital this was considered my wk 1 post op.

Wk 2 post op I moved to full liquid, cream of mushroom Soup or cream based soups as longs as you strain out the pcs. I could also have milk and juices like v8, or ECt in addition to the previous clear liquids and Protein Drinks.

Wk 3-4 post op. - baby food. Greek yogert And I must say the Berber multigrain Cereal is actually pretty good lol. I often made it with a Protein Drink. Plus I could have baby food this was my purée stage

Wk 5- creamy Peanut Butter, cheese, crackers, cream of wheat, oatmeal, dried Beans, eggs, soft cooked veggies and flour tortillas- I'm here in this stage and love it! So happy for a scrambled egg even if I can't eat the entire thing at once. This is the most challenging stage for me because I'm starting I. Real foods and have had such issues with nausea that I'm scared of many things here and find myself reverting back to the security of baby food which doesn't upset the tummy so much.

My next venture isn't until wk 9 where I can add lean ground beef, fish or chicken.

Then I move to 3 months and beyond where I'm open for anything.

Elode is right - there are as many different plans as there are surgeons! Ours is clear liquid in the hospital, then 1 week of full liquids (clears plus cream soups, cottage cheese, ricotta, and pudding), 3 weeks of purees, then 4 weeks of soft foods.

Like others said, the postop diet plans vary immensely. Were you given any heads up on what to expect? As for me it was 3 days clear liquid, day 4-18 full liquid, day 18-28 pureed, day 28-40 soft foods, and after that anything but nuts, seeds and other really crunchy stuff which was restricted for 3 months.

So my answer to your friends question is I could eat normal around 7 weeks after surgery.

My surgeons plan has 5 phases and it takes about 2-3 months before you get to the small normal textured food stage. I'm getting sleeved on the 24th and its 2 weeks post op full liquids (maybe thin Protein shakes if the Isopure makes me nauseous) I'm planning to take it as slow as possible.

My program required me to take a nutrition class, preop class and 2 sessions with the dietitian so the stages are pretty much drilled into our heads.

1 week of clear fluids, 1.5 weeks of puréed, 2-3.5 weeks of soft, then normal.

I had four weeks of full liquids, four weeks of purees, and then four months of soft foods. "Soft foods" = you can cut it easily with a fork. Purees - everything had to be run through a food processor unless it already had a pureed texture, such as poached eggs, refried Beans, yogurt, and cottage cheese.

We also had lots of rules about the types of foods to eat (no grains or other high carb/low Protein foods etc.), how much to eat, how often to eat, and so on.

@ kindle

Im sure my nutritionist told me, but until met with my surgeon after all my required appointments I wasn't sure if qualified. So when I finally found out I I did qualify I managed to forget everything I was taught lol

When I met with the NUT for the pre-op diet I never thought of asking.