I haven't had surgery yet, but am wondering how you manage to get all your water in if you can't drink for 30 minutes before you eat and 30 minutes after you eat? If you have 6 small meals a day that's 6 hours you're not drinking! If you can only take small sips when you do drink, how do you stay hydrated?

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I had wondered the same question prior and eighth after surgery. I was around 6-8 weeks before I could get to my water goal of 64 ounces a day. And still struggle somedays. It will get easier with time.

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I thought the same and then sat down and figured it out. its actually 8-9 hours a day you wont be drinking if u count the eating time itself. Then 8 hours of sleep. That leaves about 7-8 hours to drink so as long as u are getting approximately 8-10 ounces an hour, you should be able to hit your minimum mark. 2-2.5 ounces every 15 mins makes it seem more doable to me than hearing 64....lol

It mostly comes down to how much inflammation you have in your stomach post op, and how quickly it resolves. Normally, in best case, your new sleeve or pouch will be like a soda straw and water and thin fluids will flow through fairly easily, though somewhat slowly. If there is much inflammation, then it's like a pinched soda straw and things will flow, or drip, through more slowly, and if you sip or drink too fast, it will come back up. I was on the easy side, and could sip through a bowl of broth (6-8 oz?) and a juice box in one sitting in the hospital, so 10-12 oz in maybe a half hour. My wife could maybe get through her nominal stomach size of 4 oz in a sitting, so she had more inflammation; both cases were within our doc's normally expected results.

The not drinking before eating only really applies early on when there may be some inflammation present, and you want to make sure that all of the liquid is through the system before eating, so that the liquid isn't competing for space with the meal. Once things are flowing through fairly normally, there is no reason to avoid drinking before eating as the liquid passed through the stomach in just a couple of minutes, though some programs don't bother mentioning this or removing that restriction from their instructions; drinking after the meal is still a good thing to avoid in the long term.

Thanks for the repies-they are very helpful! RickM your explanation of water intake makes good sense.

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I am almost 1 month out and have had to make adjustments to get in my water.

2 of my 6 small meals are protien shakes. They are more filling than water and slow me down a little, but I can keep drinking without any 30min limit.

Still fell satisfied. And the protien shakes add to my fluid for the day. Maybe later I will have to adjust again . . . .