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Crazy Food Dreams After Surgery



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I had gastric sleeve surgery12/3/15 and as I recover, I repeatedly have distressing dreams where I am gorging on foods that are completely off limits to me at this stage (pans of brownies, cake with handfuls of icing, carbonated drinks, tortilla chips... ). I wake up in a panic, thinking I have "broken" my new stomach. Then the relief comes when I realize it was just a dream. I've had a variation of this dream three to four times since having surgery seven days ago!

Must be some kind of psychic purging of old habits.

Have any of you experienced this kind of thing?

:-)

-Ann

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Yes! I have these dreams several nights a week, I'm only 3 weeks out. I think it was last night that I dreamt I was eating McNuggets while I was still on purée. No idea where they are coming from, hopefully they will stop soon

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I had the same thing. I'm four months out now, and it's been a couple of weeks since I've had one of those dreams. I wasn't gorging, but I was eating things in my dreams that were definitely off-limits.

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I would have dreams that were like food promo's. I would see pizza where the slice is being slowly, almost seductively, away from the rest of the pizza. The cheese would stretch and steam would be slithering up in the background. Or meats would be sizzling on a grill, with the juices bubbling on the char lines and the smell of charcoal would be heavy in my nose. There were also dreams of me biting down into an enormous burger, one so large that it took two hands to hold. Toppings would slide out the side and catsup would be on both my cheeks.

I swear, I would wake up with that weird sense of excitement and feverish desire like I was a 13 year old boy who just had a sex dream. Thankfully, that stage has passed!

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Ha ha ha! Awesome stories! Great descriptions! Thanks - for making me feel less crazy :-) !

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OMG! That is so funny you bring this topic up. My "food porn" dreams lasted up to a week after surgery. A few of them were " foodmares" where I would be eating some naughty food on a freshly sleeved stomach and somehow developed a leak and all the food I ate went into my foot (nope I am not on drugs ha ha). Yeah, crazy stuff.

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I had these crazy dreams too. A non-helpful member of this forum told me it meant I was a food addict. Uh, no, just had anxiety. I haven't had one of these dreams in many months.

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I had food dreams A LOT in the beginning... in one I went in Walgreens and took one of every candy bar and then got up to the register and thought "Are you nuts, you'll get SO sick if you eat even one bite of all these!" and put them back... but I also had dreams where I cheated badly on my diet and woke up for a split second thinking "ohmygosh, I've messed up all my hard work!"

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I love that you mention this! Last night I had this amazing dream that my fathers GF made me this delicious mushroom and jalapeño hamburger. I woke up thinking "What the heck?!". Of course "heck" was a different word but I'm keeping it reader friendly! :-P

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Lol I literally had a foodmare about one week ago. In my dream I ate a whole double quarter pounder slathered in ketchup, mayo, cheese. After finishing it, I realized "oh I have the sleeve" omg how did I eat the whole thing?!!? So in my dream I decide to weigh myself because I was so distressed and the scale showed that I had gained 16 kg (30 pounds). I woke up freaking out!!

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

Edited by Ray92

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I just had one of these again...so I decided to google " food dream bariatric surgery" and was floored when I found this thread.

Not only did it describe to a T what I was experiencing, but other analysis and descriptions of what was happening was soooo spooky to read.

It was like someone else wrote about my dreams before I could.

For the record I'm just 11 days post op.

Thanks for reassuring me that I'm not crazy!

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I have had a few of those dreams about eating. They’re not anything like gorging on unhealthy foods… (my weight gain wasn’t food addiction related) I’m almost 4 weeks post op from my sleeve surgery. My dreams are about having a poached egg on toast or having a salad with grilled chicken… I think whatever you’re missing food wise your brain is trying to help you make up for it somehow with dreams? Anyway I can see how it would be scary to dream you are a bunch of off limits foods in access and be afraid you ruined your sleeve! Mine are more like “I was able to swallow the bite of salad without getting foamies”’.

Edited by Thunderkiss1965

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I'm so glad this thread was bumped up because Ive had these! They'd usually be at a buffet, I'll eat a TON & suddenly remember that I had the surgery & think that I ruined everything. I guess it comes with thinking about food almost all day

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    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
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      1. LeighaTR

        I hope your surgery on Wednesday goes well. You will be able to do all sorts of new things as you find your new normal after surgery. I don't know this from experience yet, but I am seeing a lot of positive things from people who have had it done. Best of luck!

    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
      · 1 reply
      1. summerseeker

        Life as a big person had limited my life to what I knew I could manage to do each day. That was eat. I hadn't anything else to look forward to. So my eating choices were the best I could dream up. I planned the cooking in managable lots in my head and filled my day with and around it.

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        I still cook for family feasts, I love cooking. I still do holidays but I have changed from the All inclusive drinking and eating everything everyday kind to Self catering accommodation. This gives me the choice of cooking or eating out as I choose. I rarely drink anymore as I usually travel alone now and I feel I need to keep aware of my surroundings.

        I don't know at what point my life expanded, was it when I lost 100 pounds? Was it when I left my walking stick at home ? Was it when I said yes to an outing instead of finding an excuse to stay home ? i look back at my last five years and wonder how loosing weight has made such a difference. Be ready to amaze yourself.

        BTW, the liquid diet sucks, one more day and you are over the worst. You can do it.

    • CaseyP1011

      Officially here for a long time, not just a good time💪
      · 0 replies
      1. This update has no replies.
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