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11 days post op

SlimBySummer

SlimBySummer

Member
At just 11 days post op I'm wondering and a little nervous about day 14, when I can start solid food again. My surgery was 10/16 and I haven't had solid food since 10/8. I'm afraid of feeling sick or vomiting. I'm also worried about gaining any weight back. I follow the plan completely, but still worried.
 
Start slow, by that I mean go for softer foods that should go down easy. One of the things I did was buy some Stouffer's meals and only eat half of it, saved the other half for another meal. Some that I found easy to digest was meatloaf, salisbury steak, stuffed pepper. Fish is a good option too, nice and light. The key is moist proteins and chew things well. You should be fine!
 
Yeah, I've never heard of anyone starting on solid foods so early. I know each doctor and each nutritionist is different, but there is a fairly standard method of ramping up to solid food. That is not only because you want to protect your surgery, but because you want to be validated that you made the right choice by losing weight immediately. It's too risky so soon, and easy to stop your weight loss or even gain weight back.
 
SlimBySummer said:
I'm afraid of feeling sick or vomiting. I'm also worried about gaining any weight back.
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Hey Slim, you don't have to worry about these things because you ARE going to feel sick and vomit a little bit in the early days. Make sure you protect your pouch by holding a pillow to your stomach and pressing it down. That will reduce the opportunity to tear or pop any stitches or staples.

But since you are complying with the plan, you shouldn't have any difficulties, except changing your mindset. It's surprising how difficult it is to do that.
 
SlimBySummer said:
At just 11 days post op I'm wondering and a little nervous about day 14, when I can start solid food again. My surgery was 10/16 and I haven't had solid food since 10/8. I'm afraid of feeling sick or vomiting. I'm also worried about gaining any weight back. I follow the plan completely, but still worried.
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Hi SlimBySummer - love the name - welcome to the group!

Go slow with solids. Follow whatever plan your surgical team has in place for you. Like Diane said the plans vary by where the surgery was done and by the doctor who did the surgery.

Your plan seems to be along the same lines as mine. Eat your protein first at every meal / and or snack. Certain foods could make you throw up - it varies from person to person. I have issues with bread - pizza crusts - sweets. If you over eat - or over fill your sleeve or pouch - you may very well have throwing up issues. Go slow. I would suggest adding 1 solid food a day or something like that. That way if you have issues with a certain food you'd know what that food was - and could avoid eating it for a while and try it again later on down the road.

Good luck!
 
Not everybody throws up, but you might. I never did and I'm 7 weeks out. Everybody's plan is different. Regardless of what people say here about what to eat and how to eat LISTEN to YOUR team. I was on liquids for 2 weeks, pureed 2 weeks but after the first week I was given the ok to start trying some soft solids. Even what my surgeon said varied from my dietician. The most important thing is to listen to your care team and go slow with your food. Add things one at a time so you know what foods upset your stomech, stop when full and chew chew chew.
 
Oh, also, if you eat too much food can get stuck in your esophagus for a long time and even crawl back up your throat and it is terrible terrible feeling. You only have to experience that and dumping one time to know what not to do. I think using the post-op phase is a great time to avoid as much food as possible while your stomach is still kind of tender. My post-op time was probably a month and then I could eat anything I wanted, but only in tiny amounts. The rules of thumb that you get from a surgeon or a clinic or members of this group are very fluid. How you react will be unique to your experience and may not resemble mine at all. But as long as you follow what your doctor says, you can feel pretty confident that all's well. Just wait a long time before you start eating a larger diet because up front is when you're going to lose the most weight easily.
 
Hi, Slim. everyone has given you great advice and I'm going to second it (3rd, 4th, 5th?!?) . START SLOW. My nutritionist said I would probably only be able to eat about a 1/4C when I started soft foods. So, I measured out 2 or 3 tablespoons, depending on consistency. And that's what I ate for the first few days while I learned what my stomach could handle. Anytime I started a new food, I still start with 2 oz. I had no vomiting issues until I stopped doing that and accidentally ate too much of the wrong thing. But I was 3 months post op by then and well healed. So, now I'm back to measuring anything new.
 
missyinacage said:
Hi, Slim. everyone has given you great advice and I'm going to second it (3rd, 4th, 5th?!?) . START SLOW. My nutritionist said I would probably only be able to eat about a 1/4C when I started soft foods. So, I measured out 2 or 3 tablespoons, depending on consistency. And that's what I ate for the first few days while I learned what my stomach could handle. Anytime I started a new food, I still start with 2 oz. I had no vomiting issues until I stopped doing that and accidentally ate too much of the wrong thing. But I was 3 months post op by then and well healed. So, now I'm back to measuring anything new.
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Very, very helpful. I will start with 2 oz. Thank you!
 
My doctor has me on liquid until my one week post op (Tuesday), then pureed foods for 3 weeks as long as everything’s going well. After that I can move up to soft foods slowly introducing them one at a time. I’m just going to be very careful about measuring when I get to pureed and beyond. I’m careful with the liquids, but I can feel when I’m getting full, so I stop myself before. I couldn’t imagine throwing up right now. I hiccuped earlier today, and I thought I was going to die!
 
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