Hi everyone,

I am eight days post-op and the liquid stage went very well. Never had nausea or vomiting on full liquids. My doctor cleared me to advance to soft protein so I tried an egg and a small strip of grilled chicken. That was about four hours ago and I feel a mild case of nausea right now. I am somewhat behind on my water intake compared to where I usually am by this time of day, but I’ve had roughly 30 ounces so far. Should this feeling worry me? I kinda wanna go back to only liquids because I know those are safe. I just don’t want to jeopardize my suture line in any way.

You should be fine. Everybody's post-op diet progression goes a little differently, and different surgeons give different directions. A lot of people have a pureed food stage between full liquids and soft foods. For me, the first week was liquids and the second week was purees. I was allowed to start soft foods in week 3, but I actually stuck with purees for a few extra weeks just to be safe.

Your stomach may not be ready for soft foods yet, so there's nothing wrong with going back to liquids or purees for a few days (this is what my surgeon recommended if I had any problems during my progression). I've seen a lot of people here say they had trouble tolerating eggs for a while after surgery, so the problem could just be the egg, and you might do ok with other soft foods.

The grilled chicken strip also might not be the best choice because it's too dense and dry. Chicken goes down best when it's shredded and very moist. I would suggest starting with canned chicken and adding some kind of sauce (e.g., Greek yogurt, enchilada sauce, or gravy). One of my favorite soft food meals was refried beans + protein powder with canned chicken + enchilada sauce. Take VERY small bites and chew really well. For the first few months, I often had problems when I ate meat where it felt like it got stuck on the way down. It was very unpleasant and sometimes came with some nausea. This is pretty common, and if it happens, you just need to stop eating and wait for it to work its way down. Resist the urge to try to wash it down with water because that can just make it worse. Walking around a bit can help.

Finally, a lot of people find it challenging to meet fluid goals when they go from liquids to purees/soft foods. Most people are told not to drink anything for 30 minutes before and 30 minutes after the meal (the amount of time varies), and it might take 30 minutes to eat the meal, so every meal takes away an hour and a half of drinking fluids. You just have to be vigilant about sipping constantly in between. It gets a lot easier after the first several weeks, though!