Hi there fellow sleevers...

My name is Caroline and I just recently had my lapband removed and got the gastric sleeve done this past monday. I switched because long term the lap band was not working well for me... Anyway the surgery went really well, although I was in the hospital for 4 days 3 nights because was throwing up blood and unable to keep down Water the first 2 days. I have been at home since thursday afternoon and am struggling with the full liquid diet. I understand that my stomach is probably very confused and the nerve endings are in total shock, but I am having a hard time with knowing when I am full. It seems to be getting a little better each day (more signals that tell me I am full) and I have now been able to eat thinned cream of wheat and thinned mashed potatoes. I have lost 5 pounds since surgery, but am feeling really hungry again. My doc has me on an all liquid diet for the first two weeks and it is definitely the pits. I am going to talk to my doc and nutritionist tomorrow to see about if I am able to progress to anything else right now in pureed category. Would love some input as how others progressed (My surgery was 7 days ago, Monday March 23 2015).

Warmly

Caroline

Edited March 31, 201511 yr by carolinacrumb88

You need to follow YOUR doctor's instructions. Are you on a PPI. You may be experience acid which often masquerades as hunger. Regardless of what anyone on here does, do not advance yourself without talking to your nutritionist or doctor first. Considering your hospital course, adding anything without your doctor's instructions does not seem like a wise choice to me.

As I understand it, the risk of adding solid food back to quickly is that your stomach could start leaking into your abdomen. This would be a very bad thing. You are also more likely to vomit. I know after my surgery I was terrified of throwing up.

This is an amazing process for those of us who automatically thought that any growling in our intestines is hunger (::::raising my hand:::. One thing I learned is that what I thought was hunger is not. What I thought was my "stomach" growling was actually my intestines processing what was already there. I have learned to trust the other manifestations of hunger -- feeling a little light headed and irritable is where I look rather than intestinal/abdominal cues.

When I was a week out and on liquids, I had intense head hunger. Being home and recuperating led to lots of TV, which led to lots of hamburger and pizza commercials. I also realized that all the things I had prepared -- pudding, sugar free custard (I had a great recipe), yogurt -- grossed me out. I wanted salt. So I found some Soup and pureed the heck out of it. That worked better!!

It is okay to be hungry at this stage, though. Just don't eat what you're not supposed to. You won't die. Follow your doctor's / nutritionist's instructions to the letter. If they say don't eat solid food, don't eat solid food. If they say drink 64 ounces of liquid, drink 64 ounces of liquid. What keeps me going when I need to do things that my pre-op self didn't want to do is some self-talk: the old me may have eaten that, may have chosen not to exercise, may have not followed instructions. The new me has changed her lifestyle and does what she needs to do.

It is too soon, though, even if you were allowed solid foods, to eat ground beef or a brisket. I'm five weeks out and I was advised not to eat beef in any form for a few months, as it might be too rich for our new plumbing to process at this point.

Thank you all for your replies. I am going to call my nutritionist and doc tomorrow to ask her. But I think you all are right, a majority of it is head hunger :/ Wouldn't actually eat anything like that without talking to them but was curious as to how others recovered. Will stick to my Protein shakes until then (le sigh).

I went band to sleeve also. I had 1 week of clear, and 2 weeks of full liquids. It is tough, but I was more afraid of creating a complication or leak than I was of the hunger. I surely wouldn't try beef yet. I think of all meat Proteins it is the hardest to digest.

I think it would be best to bite the bullet and follow your surgeons plan... it seems incredibly tough now but it is really a matter of days and once you get to soft foods/purees it is totally different. They do seem to quell the hunger pangs.

Just hang in there, most of us have been there and understand the liquid phase burn-out.

@@liannatx thank you for your response and encouragement! I know a week will fly by to the pureed stage but definitely tough being at home on all liquids. My graduate school spring break was last week so tomorrow I will be back to the books and I work in a few days too so that should hopefully distract me.