Symptoms of dehydration in rny folks

I've gotten in maybe 20oz of fluid today. I know, not good. How can I avoid dehydration when I can't take in much at a time?

I'm having difficulty as well. I find it the easiest when I eat shaved ice or have a SF slurpee. BiMart had a snow cone machine on sale for $9.99 last week and I find that helped a lot. They have SF syrup as well.

 I don't know if this is common but, I usually feel a pain in my chest when I haven't had any water in a while. The trick is to take tiny sips all day long!

      I've battled fluid intake since surgery, too. I had to give up thirst-quenching, fun, flavorful cold beverages for herbal tea. Water and cold things landed in my pouch like a sack full of rocks and it took hours to get one glass down. Warm herbal tea lets me drink a whole cup easily in an hour.
     The second thing I've done is insert a fluids schedule in my food log. This has helped a lot. I check off each time when I get that 8 oz. in. I usually run late and have to make it up at night, so I'm a peeing machine all night, but by george, I am hydrated.

This is my schedule. It works around meals and exercise.
8 - 10:00  decaf, 16 oz.
11:00  8 oz.
2:00
4:00
6:00
9:00

I'll have a protein smoothie at some time, which adds at least 9 oz to the day's total.

Try to use water bottles. Buy them by the case, or re-use bottles a few times with your own larger bottled water.  Place 6 or 7 full bottles out the before you go to bed--in the fridge if you like cold, or on counter if you prefer room temp. Drink a couple of sips every 15 minutes, about 2 oz.  Get a diabetic timer, medicine timer, egg timer, use cell phone timer, etc.--any timing device to remind you it's "drink time".  You don't have to drink a whole bottle at one time by any means. The sips add up througout the day.

Dizziness, foggy thinking, bright yellow urine throughout the day are sure signs of dehydration. DAVE

dark yellow urine, actually, is a sign of dehydration.

The only way to avoid dehydration is to take in more than 20 oz.  If you can't drink more than that, you would need to be getting IV fluids.  Why are you unable to take in more than 20 oz?

you are really new out and this is really important before you do get dehydrated especially since it is coming on the summer which makes it even worse - you are going to have to drink even more than if it were in the winter.

What my surgeon had us do is - he sent us home with 100 = 1 ounce medicine cups and had us use them to drink from.  For week 1  - we had to drink 1 ounce of water every 10 minutes all day long, it was our full time job to do and since we couldnt eat, we had nothing else in our way - just to drink.  To also get in some protein, go to GNC and get some Isopure - zero carb protein drink which has 40grms of protein for 20 ounces of fluids - this will give you a head start.  it isnt important to get 60 ounces of protein week 1 but you do need to get in the fluids and you want to get more proten later on the month.
You can also have SF ice pops, chicken broth, SF jello, G2 by gatoraide, vitamin waters, other  SF flavored waters and powdered packets that you put in water bottles - these saved me.

then at 2 weeks, I was allowed 2 ounces every 10 minutes so this allowed me to get in double the amount of fluids and was on full fluids at this point, so I was allowed to add cream soups, tomato soup but no pieces, pea soup, protein shakes - was required 1 per day

at 3 weeks, I was allowed 3 ouncesevery 15 minutes and was advanced to mushy foods so now it got a little harder = had to eat tiny amounts every 3 hours 6 times per day and fit in my fluids in between but since I could drink 3 ounces at a time, it wasnt so bad. At this point, I went out and bought a small box of 3 ounce cups so I knew exactly how much to drink at one time. 

4 weeks, I was allowed 4 ounces every 20 minutes and advanced to solid foods slowly - 1 - 2 ounces only - mostly 1 ounces at a time, 2 ounces if mushy.


it is very importatnt to make sure you get in your fluids and if you ever feel really lightheaded and weak - you need to get to the ER for IV fluids.