August Surgery buddies

[ShoppGirl 5,072]

For anyone earlier along in the process. Not sure if your allowed artificial sweeteners but the unsweetened applesauce for the purée stage is 1000 times better with a packet of Splenda mixed in. Honestly not sure why I didn’t think of it sooner.

[Onemealplan 91]

Hey everyone! I’m reading though all the post and it’s interesting how similar and different our experiences are.

Can’t thank you all enough for sharing because sometimes I feel like it’s just me lol.

This is my second week of puree foods and I can now move into soft. However I can only hold 2oz of food every 3 hrs and I drink nothing but Water with electrolytes in between. I’m thinking soft foods might be too heavy for me. How much is everyone having of foods? I tried 30z of scrambled eggs yesterday took me 1 hr to finish lol. I accidentally had matcha 🍵 tea the other day because I forgot it had caffeine, silly me but my stomach did just fine. Granted it was the tip of a teaspoon with some milk. So this week I’ll be slowly adding dry decafe coffee to my morning warm cup of milk here and there.

Oh homemade blended and straining apple, carrots, ginger is wonderful! I have about 4oz of it a day.

I do feel “full” it’s a heaviness in my chest. I’m also still feeling discomfort here and there with purée foods as they go down my esophagus . Anyone else?

That mental hunger hasn’t gone away and I know it will be a while before it does but I’m such a foodie that all I want is to “taste” food on my pallet that not the same everyday.

I’m not doing artificial sugars, I’ve never liked them. My new stomach still doesn’t and nor does my pallet. I’m just going to keep sugar low as I always have. Savory foods is my achilles heal lol.

I think because I’m not focused heavy on extra Protein in between foods I’ve not had issues with consipation. Take care of yourselves and just try one medication at a time. My stool is “lose” but not watery. I go every other day.

I’ve started Vitamins but very slow and they are so sweet I have to force myself to like it. They are the Berimelts.

I have a vacation coming up in two weeks, which I’m excited for! Mentally preparing myself for only having 1 taste of the food my husband and I decided to get. We have the same taste and always share or split plates so I’m not too worried about deciding on what to eat.

I’m nervous about restaurants pushing food on me or asking if I didn’t like something or why we are ordering for one. If anyone lives in the UK please let me know if that’s uncommon. I know in the states when I said no water with my meal post surgery they looked at me crazy.

I’m bummed that I won’t be able to enjoy beer or pub food in the UK but that’s just the way it is.

Hope everyone is having a good recovery! ❤️‍🩹 I will say I’m so happy to be out of the liquid phase that was the worst for me. Also I didn’t drop any weight during the liquid phase that was my stall, funny enough because they say week 3, but not for me it was week 1 and 2. Now I’m dropping weight and down 20 pounds. (Yay) they said you’ll lose about half of your ideal weight within the 6 months so I’m on a good track. I do weigh myself daily and the scale is dijital so it records everything. I highly recommend those.

Take care everyone!!

[Onemealplan 91]

If you’re on weeks 1/2 hang in there! It will get better ❤️‍🩹 and you will slowly be able to eat again.

Did anyone get their surgery video? I did! And OMG it was fascinating but also made me feel such sympathy for my new stomach and what we went though. 

[ShoppGirl 5,072]

2 hours ago, Onemealplan said:

Hey everyone! I’m reading though all the post and it’s interesting how similar and different our experiences are.

Can’t thank you all enough for sharing because sometimes I feel like it’s just me lol.

This is my second week of puree foods and I can now move into soft. However I can only hold 2oz of food every 3 hrs and I drink nothing but Water with electrolytes in between. I’m thinking soft foods might be too heavy for me. How much is everyone having of foods? I tried 30z of scrambled eggs yesterday took me 1 hr to finish lol. I accidentally had matcha 🍵 tea the other day because I forgot it had caffeine, silly me but my stomach did just fine. Granted it was the tip of a teaspoon with some milk. So this week I’ll be slowly adding dry decafe coffee to my morning warm cup of milk here and there.

Oh homemade blended and straining apple, carrots, ginger is wonderful! I have about 4oz of it a day.

I do feel “full” it’s a heaviness in my chest. I’m also still feeling discomfort here and there with purée foods as they go down my esophagus . Anyone else?

That mental hunger hasn’t gone away and I know it will be a while before it does but I’m such a foodie that all I want is to “taste” food on my pallet that not the same everyday.

I’m not doing artificial sugars, I’ve never liked them. My new stomach still doesn’t and nor does my pallet. I’m just going to keep sugar low as I always have. Savory foods is my achilles heal lol.

I think because I’m not focused heavy on extra Protein in between foods I’ve not had issues with consipation. Take care of yourselves and just try one medication at a time. My stool is “lose” but not watery. I go every other day.

I’ve started Vitamins but very slow and they are so sweet I have to force myself to like it. They are the Berimelts.

I have a vacation coming up in two weeks, which I’m excited for! Mentally preparing myself for only having 1 taste of the food my husband and I decided to get. We have the same taste and always share or split plates so I’m not too worried about deciding on what to eat.

I’m nervous about restaurants pushing food on me or asking if I didn’t like something or why we are ordering for one. If anyone lives in the UK please let me know if that’s uncommon. I know in the states when I said no Water with my meal post surgery they looked at me crazy.

I’m bummed that I won’t be able to enjoy beer or pub food in the UK but that’s just the way it is.

Hope everyone is having a good recovery! ❤️‍🩹 I will say I’m so happy to be out of the liquid phase that was the worst for me. Also I didn’t drop any weight during the liquid phase that was my stall, funny enough because they say week 3, but not for me it was week 1 and 2. Now I’m dropping weight and down 20 pounds. (Yay) they said you’ll lose about half of your ideal weight within the 6 months so I’m on a good track. I do weigh myself daily and the scale is dijital so it records everything. I highly recommend those.

Take care everyone!!

I think when you go on vacation if you just tell them you had stomach surgery they will understand. Don’t have to get into what it was specifically. Just says special diet prescribed by doctor. Or even it’s delicious but I already ate. All they really care about is knowing that it’s not because you are dissatisfied with the food.

I was a savory person before my sleeve too. I had kind of a unique change to where I craved sweets which was another of the things that contributed to my regain. It’s pretty uncommon according to my dr. Post SADI I don’t feel like I am craving sweet as much. Perhaps because I know I can’t have the sweets I really would want but hopefully because that reversed itself again. We shall see. I know that I have been craving fish tacos which is really weird for me. I barely even ate fish pre surgery or post sleeve. Just made myself like once a month because I know its good for me.

I don’t think the caffeine restriction is really about how you will feel when you have it. It’s more about affecting your healing and I think I also heard something about it causing irritation or GERD.

Edited August 25, 2024 by ShoppGirl

[ShoppGirl 5,072]

2 hours ago, Onemealplan said:

If you’re on weeks 1/2 hang in there! It will get better ❤️‍🩹 and you will slowly be able to eat again.

Did anyone get their surgery video? I did! And OMG it was fascinating but also made me feel such sympathy for my new stomach and what we went though.

Oh no they didn’t offer that to me this time or last. I bet that is so weird to watch. Sounds like it could be good to motivate you again if you start struggling a bit down the road again though.

[ShoppGirl 5,072]

It just dawned on me that my first day of soft foods falls on Labor Day and I usually have snow crab legs since they always have them on sale for the holidays. I usually have other stuff with them that I can’t have now but I contemplating having them. Some people do develop allergies though and shellfish is certainly a common allergy so I’m a little scared. Part of me wants to go and get a scratch test to see if I’m allergic to anything now- although I’m not sure if that’s for foods and stuff anyways or just contact stuff. I had a little regular milk the other day and that went fine but peanuts and seafood scare me as well. I suppose I can just take a bite and then wait an hour. My husband will be home with me so I should be fine.

Edited August 25, 2024 by ShoppGirl

[Pepper_No_Salt 49]

Hey everyone! It’s been a tough couple of days. I live in a constant state of nausea from the time I wake up until I go to bed. I’m out of Zofran so I take my Phenegren every 4 hours on the clock. It’s making it ridiculously hard to even begin to figure out my fullness cues. I’m hoping it gets better and I keep telling myself I survived a whole pregnancy on a Zofran pump so I can get through a couple weeks.

The lack of energy is also hard. I went out yesterday and by 4 I was yawning and people kept asking if I was okay. I almost fell asleep driving home and crashed by 10pm. It’s like I can do one chore and then I have to rest for 30 minutes. I really didn’t think about this before and now I know why people take off work until they get to regular diet.

The good news is I’m losing about a pound a day, I have no pain, and my incisions are healing well. Thursday I have a dietitian appointment and get moved to puréed foods!

[RRenaeL23 26]

My follow-up appointment is on this Thursday. Hoping to begin my next stage which I believe is the purée stage. Anyone have any ideas for first foods to try first during the puréed stage.

thank you @Hiddenroses! For your support for Veterans!

[ShoppGirl 5,072]

9 minutes ago, Pepper_No_Salt said:

Hey everyone! It’s been a tough couple of days. I live in a constant state of nausea from the time I wake up until I go to bed. I’m out of Zofran so I take my Phenegren every 4 hours on the clock. It’s making it ridiculously hard to even begin to figure out my fullness cues. I’m hoping it gets better and I keep telling myself I survived a whole pregnancy on a Zofran pump so I can get through a couple weeks.

The lack of energy is also hard. I went out yesterday and by 4 I was yawning and people kept asking if I was okay. I almost fell asleep driving home and crashed by 10pm. It’s like I can do one chore and then I have to rest for 30 minutes. I really didn’t think about this before and now I know why people take off work until they get to regular diet.

The good news is I’m losing about a pound a day, I have no pain, and my incisions are healing well. Thursday I have a dietitian appointment and get moved to puréed foods!

I can’t speak to the nausea other than suggesting you call your team and ask for more of the meds that work better. My team gave me ondansetron which is also used for nausea with chemo just in case. (I would assume that’s a pretty strong one). It does say it may cause drowsiness. I’m guessing yours does too.

In terms of the non drug induced drowsiness it got a bit better for me with purées but I am still taking naps at 2.5 weeks out. Honestly I haven’t really done any chores other than make the bed, a little laundry because I have the raised pedestals and of course the dishes. I did sweep the floors with a broom last week but it took me all day because I was still in pain and I’m pretty sure the dirt pile I asked my hubby to get is still in the laundry room.

Even if you don’t have outside incision pain, though, your insides are still healing so try to take it easy. I was told not twisting, bending, or straining of any kind for 6 weeks at least. I believe last time it was 8 weeks for anything involving over 10 pounds of weight but it’s been a while so I need to confirm that.

I know how it feels to sit here and look at things piling up in terms of chores. I’m sure we all do, but you can seriously hurt yourself if you do too much too soon. To me it’s just not worth it. Other than dusting I just don’t see what chores don’t involve bending or twisting.

I figure It will all still be waiting to be done when I am ready. It’s just me and my hubby and if it bothers him then he is perfectly capable of doing it himself. Really it’s just the bathrooms and the floors that I just can’t do properly. I have used Clorox wipes on the sink area and cleaned the mirrors. I may try to do the toilets today. I just won’t do the bottom part I guess.

I do have an appointment this week as a follow up to the muscle cramp thing. I probably could cancel it since the magnesium is working but i want to ask her what I can be doing physically at that point. I will be 3 weeks out. I know that I am physically healed enough to be doing some faster walking so I plan to get my treadmill out and start doing that gradually.

Anyways, all this to say please take it easy. Allow yourself some time. This is a pretty major surgery and it’s not at all uncommon to need some time to get back to 100%.

[ShoppGirl 5,072]

1 minute ago, RRenaeL23 said:

My follow-up appointment is on this Thursday. Hoping to begin my next stage which I believe is the purée stage. Anyone have any ideas for first foods to try first during the puréed stage.

thank you @Hiddenroses! For your support for Veterans!

Did you see the idea for the ricotta bake? I have posted it a couple of times but it’s really good. I will add though that with the purée stage I was eating a lot of cheese and barely any Fiber and between that and the shakes the Constipation was pretty bad. I ended up adding some purée oats with the NP permission and some purée veggies with GENEPRO unflavored Protein Powder mixed in and I added a teaspoon of soluble fiber to my daily proffee and all that seems to have helped. The other thing that is pretty good is puree egg salad. I just made it like normal then put it in the food processor. Well I did use less of the yolks and subbed some Greek yogurt for half the low fat mayo to cut some fat. I thought it was gonna be really gross honestly but it pretty much tastes the same. The other thing I did was to purée a whole container of salsa and I add that to my scrambled egg beaters and my purée refried Beans for some flavor.

[Onemealplan 91]

On 08/25/2024 at 11:14, ShoppGirl said:

I think when you go on vacation if you just tell them you had stomach surgery they will understand. Don’t have to get into what it was specifically. Just says special diet prescribed by doctor. Or even it’s delicious but I already ate. All they really care about is knowing that it’s not because you are dissatisfied with the food.< br />

I was a savory person before my sleeve too. I had kind of a unique change to where I craved sweets which was another of the things that contributed to my regain. It’s pretty uncommon according to my dr. Post SADI I don’t feel like I am craving sweet as much. Perhaps because I know I can’t have the sweets I really would want but hopefully because that reversed itself again. We shall see. I know that I have been craving fish tacos which is really weird for me. I barely even ate fish pre surgery or post sleeve. Just made myself like once a month because I know its good for me.

I don’t think the caffeine restriction is really about how you will feel when you have it. It’s more about affecting your healing and I think I also heard something about it causing irritation or GERD.

Wow I didn’t even know you can have a taste switch like that! Sweets are difficult for sure. It’s every where and makes it a challenge for all of us. I can’t believe the amount of commercial we have just about food. Love me some fish tacos, tacos period. The true Mexican kind lol.

I’ve actually had no GERD at all! I was concerned about that too but nothing happened, luckly!

[Onemealplan 91]

08/25/2024 11:21 AM, ShoppGirl said:

It just dawned on me that my first day of soft foods falls on Labor Day and I usually have snow crab legs since they always have them on sale for the holidays. I usually have other stuff with them that I can’t have now but I contemplating having them. Some people do develop allergies though and shellfish is certainly a common allergy so I’m a little scared. Part of me wants to go and get a scratch test to see if I’m allergic to anything now- although I’m not sure if that’s for foods and stuff anyways or just contact stuff. I had a little regular milk the other day and that went fine but peanuts and seafood scare me as well. I suppose I can just take a bite and then wait an hour. My husband will be home with me so I should be fine.

I say go for it! Share with your husband and try a bit. I’m actually at Red Lobster now having crab.🦀 Had a few bites and went down just fine. Just take it one step at a time :D I will say I’m still in shock about how small my food intake is. Especially now at this stage. Did you feel that way before?

[Onemealplan 91]

On 08/25/2024 at 14:39, Pepper_No_Salt said:

Hey everyone! It’s been a tough couple of days. I live in a constant state of nausea from the time I wake up until I go to bed. I’m out of Zofran so I take my Phenegren every 4 hours on the clock. It’s making it ridiculously hard to even begin to figure out my fullness cues. I’m hoping it gets better and I keep telling myself I survived a whole pregnancy on a Zofran pump so I can get through a couple weeks.

The lack of energy is also hard. I went out yesterday and by 4 I was yawning and people kept asking if I was okay. I almost fell asleep driving home and crashed by 10pm. It’s like I can do one chore and then I have to rest for 30 minutes. I really didn’t think about this before and now I know why people take off work until they get to regular diet.

The good news is I’m losing about a pound a day, I have no pain, and my incisions are healing well. Thursday I have a dietitian appointment and get moved to puréed foods!

I hope the nausea gets better quickly. Maybe it’s a specific food? Could you get more Zolfran? I didn’t take time off either and regretted it. Maybe you can still do FMLA if needed. I still get exhausted by 2pm and just need a nap. Congratulations on the weight loss!! Feel better ❤️‍🩹 soon.

[Onemealplan 91]

08/25/2024 03:17 PM, RRenaeL23 said:

My follow-up appointment is on this Thursday. Hoping to begin my next stage which I believe is the purée stage. Anyone have any ideas for first foods to try first during the puréed stage.

thank you @Hiddenroses! For your support for Veterans!

Baby food carrots and squash. purée cottage cheese with soft fruit. I like peaches. Scrambled egg white with milk. Congratulations on your next stage.

[Onemealplan 91]

On 08/25/2024 at 11:15, ShoppGirl said:

Oh no they didn’t offer that to me this time or last. I bet that is so weird to watch. Sounds like it could be good to motivate you again if you start struggling a bit down the road again though.

It was neat to watch but shocking to see what occurred. On the positive my liver looked great! lol my stomach looked like a tube. It’s truly a real reminder to take it easy and love yourself.