August 2023 Surgery Buddies!

[Trisha95650 2]

I had my surgery on August 17. I didn’t have to do a 10 day liquid pre-surgery diet, thankfully. However, I sure miss food. I’m hungry all the time.

[taylrmarie 10]

I had my surgery yesterday (8/22) with minimal pain. The worst part of this is the trapped gas. It was extremely difficult to sleep at night because the gas pain was so bad. I had to walk around my apartment complex to get enough relief to go to sleep. Overall I'm doing pretty well

[PennyinAL 28]

On 8/22/2023 at 8:10 AM, Steve C. said:

Is anyone else feeling cold during the first 2 weeks of recovery? My wife loves to keep our house around 65*, and I'm wearing pants, socks, shoes, and a sweatshirt at home, and I'm still freezing. It's odd for me, as I was always the one who was hot. I would normally just wear a t-shirt and shorts and still be hot before. I'm about to go for a quick walk to try to warm up.

Omg it isn’t just me?
I’m a very hot natured person and normally keep our house between 63-69 depending on the time of year but since the surgery I have been cold! I mean like keeping one air unit set on 72-74 and the other unit on 70 or more and my husband is grateful and shocked. I’m actually happy bc it could save us money but I asked my dr and he checked my thyroid again. I got the results and it said my T3 was low but not sure what that means yet bc I don’t go back until next month.
Being in the south where it’s been hot as hell for much of the summer I need only walk outside to warm up so there’s that.

I’m curious if this is common as well

[Trisha95650 2]

8 minutes ago, PennyinAL said:

Omg it isn’t just me?
I’m a very hot natured person and normally keep our house between 63-69 depending on the time of year but since the surgery I have been cold! I mean like keeping one air unit set on 72-74 and the other unit on 70 or more and my husband is grateful and shocked. I’m actually happy bc it could save us money but I asked my dr and he checked my thyroid again. I got the results and it said my T3 was low but not sure what that means yet bc I don’t go back until next month.
Being in the south where it’s been hot as hell for much of the summer I need only walk outside to warm up so there’s that.

I’m curious if this is common as well

Seriously! I thought there was something wrong with me, too! I have been cold since my surgery in 8/17. Glad to know I’m not the only one.

[Lolo mccomb 0]

Hi! I just had a sleeve to bypass revision on the 21st!

[Maia03 2]

Hello, had my gastric bypass on the 18th! Thankful to find a group of buddies who are on a similar timeline as me. So far so good for me, just not liking the "full feeling" that I get in my chest/sternum. But still on full liquid/puree diet at this point.

Weird thing is I am craving toast and not sure why that is. Of course not allowed at this stage, so will have to avoid that and find a way to work through that.

[Shan0 13]

Anyone having food dreams? I had my bypass on the 15th and I’m not hungry and don’t really care about food. But today I had this funny dream about my husband bringing me nachos and we both just forgot all the limitations. I ate some and then I freaked out because I thought it was going to cause some sort of catastrophe. I woke up laughing about it.

[Peggy Anne 9]

Had mine on Aug 14th. Was on my "liquid" diet which was anything but liquid for 4 weeks. They called it the liver shrink and was basically 500 calories worth of salt free canned green Beans, 6 oz canned chicken, 1/2 cup low fat cottage cheese and 1/2 cup beef Gelatin Jello. I dropped 25 lbs on it.

Now I'm 12 days post op and started the puree diet 4 days ago. I've mainly been drinking Protein Drinks and eating instant mashed potatoes 1/4 cup at a time for a daily total of 3/4 cups. I know that's not right but eggs made me sick and I've not been to the store yet for chicken. Not sure what I'm supposed to be doing really but I've dropped another 6 lbs since surgery.

I think I'll get some baby food if I can find it without sugar or natural sugar. I've no clue how to puree chicken or turkey.

I'm pretty lost in all of this.

Looking forward to getting brain function (I made myself a cup of tea with monk sugar, drank nearly all of it and when I went to wash the thermos I realized I forget to add the tea bag) SMH, and energy back. Tummy feels fine now, swelling is mostly gone.

How are you doing now? You're just a day behind me.

[Peggy Anne 9]

On 8/20/2023 at 5:31 PM, PennyinAL said:

I had mine 8/1/23 and last food I had was 7/31 so 3 weeks today of clears, I asked about Protein Shakes and they said I could get the Ensure clear Protein Drink but no shakes! I can’t drink it because it’s so sweet it gags me so I’ve lived on broth and a lot of Water and snowcones w/ sf Syrup and popsicles. Three days ago I had cooked/frozen several large batches of Lima, Red Beans, cream peas and bean Soup. I had some of the bean broth bc it had a bit of substance and it seemed to be all that kept me going. I ran out and went back to broth with seasoning but finally started using 1 small can cream of chicken Soup to a quart of chicken broth plus 2 cups Water and cooked down with a bunch of Cajun spice. I go back to surgeon tomorrow and am supposed to be put on soft puréed food, eggs, mashed potatoes and yogurts per their instructions and I am certain that if I don’t gnaw my arm off by then I will come home and eat the best eggs and potatoes of my life 🤣

I have been starving for the last 10 days and I’m pretty sure my stomach has healed bc it growls and gives hunger pains about 90-120 post broth meals.

I know the feeling well. I was so hungry the 5 days before I was given the OK to eat pureed food, then I made egg salad, eggs mayo mustard, it was ok but gave me terrible bloating. Never touched it again. Been eating instant mashed potatoes and Protein drinks. I'm so hungry for real food. Wish I had a good understanding of what exactly I'm to do to make pureed chicken. Sounds very dry and ick to me.

[Shan0 13]

@Peggy Anne I’m mostly good, but keep getting a digging relentless pain between my shoulder blades, just like that gas pain right after the surgery. I have no idea what that’s all about.

[Shan0 13]

@Peggy Anne I’m mostly good, but keep getting a digging relentless pain between my shoulder blades, just like that gas pain right after the surgery. I have no idea what that’s all about.

[PennyinAL 28]

11 hours ago, Peggy Anne said:

I know the feeling well. I was so hungry the 5 days before I was given the OK to eat pureed food, then I made egg salad, eggs mayo mustard, it was ok but gave me terrible bloating. Never touched it again. Been eating instant mashed potatoes and Protein Drinks. I'm so hungry for real food. Wish I had a good understanding of what exactly I'm to do to make pureed chicken. Sounds very dry and ick to me.

First Question: How do you get your info on the left side of screen to show? I can't get it to let me edit my screen to put that stuff in....

PeggyAnne: You are NOT alone! I see a HUGE difference in the various drs and care that we all seem to get. Some of us get all the hand holding and people who are there every step of the way, others get a handout and a call if you have questions kind of experience.

My dr suggested ground sausage and so I got some Jimmy Dean ground Breakfast sausage, cooked in air fryer then diced it on a cutting board until it was finely minced and kept part to put in my scrambled eggs and took the rest and made a sizeable skillet of sausage gravy to go over those scrambled eggs. Honestly, it has been the least painful of foods. I got brave again and tried the mashed potatoes and gravy for lunch and am now regretting it!! It seems to create a suction/vacuum feeling in my stomach, weird and uncomfortable.

I have enough gravy and eggs to last through September so I may just stick to that

Beans work okay too as long as I have enough broth with them, I have had red Beans and then lima beans but the Limas with a lot of broth and picked out the ham and sausage that was initially cooked with them before I froze them into containers.

Dry foods seem incompatible at this point, no matter how soft. My dr SPECIFICALLY TOLD ME NOT TO EVEN TRY CHICKEN IN ANY FORM AT THIS POINT BC HE SAID IT IS ENTIRELY TOO DRY and I'm thinking he's right.

I may try the same thing with some ground beef at some point and a brown gravy.

Everyone seems to jump up and down when you mention this food or that food but what he basically said is that the goal at this point is just to find things that will actually go/stay down without making you sick or stuffed and in pain. I am seriously a very slow eater but it hasn't helped me here bc even eating slowly, putting utensil down between bites, chewing slowly, etc. some things are just making me feel like I ate a whole slab of beef!

The eggs may work well bc they're scrambled? maybe the gravy makes it mushy enough?

I don't know but I can't do 'pureed' and he said not to try chicken bc I was asking if I could make a chicken salad (NO) and so I'm just like you WTH can I eat? LOL

my list says eggs, pureed veg, yogurt & pudding.< /span>

at the end of week tomorrow that's 4 weeks and I guess I could move to the next stage but frankly not comfortable moving forward after another mashed potato fiasco today.

I have a cake "frosting" recipe made of SF cool whip, dry pkg of sf Jello and crushed pineapple and I'm very tempted to make it.

I've only had one chocolate Protein drink/shake and I mixed w/ice in blender and put sf whipped topping and it was like a milkshake but I'm not much into sweets so I may just have to make myself drink them.

[ShooterInTheSix 73]

It's my 'last weekend'. Surgery is on Monday at 2:15pm (hospital check-in at 11:00am). Here goes nothing...or everything 🤷‍♂️

[Angela Read 11]

I'm freezing, been freezing since surgery. Even outside in 80°F weather I need a sweater. One week 2 days post op

[Angela Read 11]

On 8/24/2023 at 7:48 PM, Maia03 said:

Hello, had my gastric bypass on the 18th! Thankful to find a group of buddies who are on a similar timeline as me. So far so good for me, just not liking the "full feeling" that I get in my chest/sternum. But still on full liquid/puree diet at this point.

Weird thing is I am craving toast and not sure why that is. Of course not allowed at this stage, so will have to avoid that and find a way to work through that.

I'm craving sushi and Buffalo wings bad 😭