Nine months post-op, I went to Mexico and lost 8lbs in 5 days (I do not recommend this). I followed medical advice, but I think being a bariatric patient probably complicated things. So! If you're going to Mexico post-op, or traveling anywhere prone to tainted water:

• As soon as you start feeling... liquid, go STRAIGHT to sports drinks/hydration fluids. Skip the water, it's not enough. I wish I'd had a bottle in my bag. From now on I'm going to pack the powder in my med kit, so I can add it to purified water in an emergency. You're not going to be able to leave the hotel room to get it yourself.
• Your stomach's going to be back at zero when it comes to tolerating content. Most people will be able to chug 20 oz of water and pass out in under a minute. You'll have to stay awake and really work at slowly sipping to get enough in you to make up for the periodic explosions, might take 15 minutes, 14 of which you'll be struggling to stay conscious. But skipping proper hydration for sleep will make things a million times worse.
• If you're still enjoying a lack of hunger post-op, this is a time when that's a BAD thing. When you can eat, EAT.
• Again, stomach is back at zero, so even when you're improved enough to start eating it's going to be tough. Half the stuff the docs suggest will not be manageable at first (dry toast, banana, flat soda). Don't postpone until you can eat those, which will be tempting because you won't have any appetite. You're going to need broths and soups (NOT ramen) and then can work your way up, but you're going to need those soup nutrients to get the energy to eat more robustly.
• Once you can eat, don't try to go back to any sort of caloric restriction/schedule until you're back home. Just eat food and drink Gatorade steadily, or you're going to pass out in the airport. You've been starving for days, any excess grazing is just making up for that deficit. You're not retaining as much as you think anyhow.
• Keep the sports drink in rotation for a few days after you're recovered. Can't hurt.

One thing this entire experience has done is made me believe that the pouch reset idea probably works - after surviving on 5 liters of Gatorade for 5 days, I'm discovering that my stomach is a LOT less tolerant of quantity than it was before I left. This isn't the way I'd've wanted to uncover that info, but I guess I'll take it.

Man, that sounds miserable and dangerous. Thank you for sharing the warning and the good advice. Hope you're 100% now.

7 hours ago, sideeye said:

Nine months post-op, I went to Mexico and lost 8lbs in 5 days (I do not recommend this). I followed medical advice, but I think being a bariatric patient probably complicated things. So! If you're going to Mexico post-op, or traveling anywhere prone to tainted water:

• As soon as you start feeling... liquid, go STRAIGHT to sports drinks/hydration fluids. Skip the Water, it's not enough. I wish I'd had a bottle in my bag. From now on I'm going to pack the powder in my med kit, so I can add it to purified water in an emergency. You're not going to be able to leave the hotel room to get it yourself.
• Your stomach's going to be back at zero when it comes to tolerating content. Most people will be able to chug 20 oz of water and pass out in under a minute. You'll have to stay awake and really work at slowly sipping to get enough in you to make up for the periodic explosions, might take 15 minutes, 14 of which you'll be struggling to stay conscious. But skipping proper hydration for sleep will make things a million times worse.
• If you're still enjoying a lack of hunger post-op, this is a time when that's a BAD thing. When you can eat, EAT.
• Again, stomach is back at zero, so even when you're improved enough to start eating it's going to be tough. Half the stuff the docs suggest will not be manageable at first (dry toast, banana, flat soda). Don't postpone until you can eat those, which will be tempting because you won't have any appetite. You're going to need broths and Soups (NOT ramen) and then can work your way up, but you're going to need those Soup nutrients to get the energy to eat more robustly.
• Once you can eat, don't try to go back to any sort of caloric restriction/schedule until you're back home. Just eat food and drink Gatorade steadily, or you're going to pass out in the airport. You've been starving for days, any excess grazing is just making up for that deficit. You're not retaining as much as you think anyhow.
• Keep the sports drink in rotation for a few days after you're recovered. Can't hurt.

One thing this entire experience has done is made me believe that the pouch reset idea probably works - after surviving on 5 liters of Gatorade for 5 days, I'm discovering that my stomach is a LOT less tolerant of quantity than it was before I left. This isn't the way I'd've wanted to uncover that info, but I guess I'll take it.

Get well soon.