FYI about salads....

I read where alot of people are asking why we can't have salads yet. Well I'll tell you what my surgeon and his nurse practitioner told me about our delicate little systems now. Salads and foods that are stiff and hard like that are called roughage for a reason. Our newly sutured tummies and intestinal sutures can be burst or torn when food that is too rough and tough pass through. Remember the intestine is sutured to the old intestine so food can pass from our new tummy into the old intestine where it mixes with the old stomach's juices to continue digestion and pass on to the large intestine. My surgeon had 2 patients come back into the ER within 10- 12 days of surgery. 1 Had eaten fajitas and the other had eaten shrimp ( mind you my surgeon says no regular meats until your 6 week checkup), well the one eating the shrimp didn't chew well enough or something and the shrimp got stuck in the exit from the pouch, the one that ate fajitas, completely tore the sutures connecting the intestines back together and was leaking gastric jusices in to her stomach cavity and become septic. He did emergency surgery on both ladies and the shrimp eater is ok but the other lady is still at the hospital and its now been 3 months. His nurses said they've alomost lost her a couple times but she's out of ICU now and slowly recovering. To me food is not worth it, it almost killed us before and could kill us now if we don't have patience and wait. Our esophagus, stomachs, and intestines are still irritated, sore, inflamed, and tender. We just had major surgery for crying out loud!!! Feeling good on the outside doesn't mean you're completely healed on the inside, which is why good surgeons tend to keep their patients on liquids, pureed, or only REALLY soft food until 6 weeks. Even after that I've read it could be up to 6 months before ALL the internal swelling truly goes away completely. So people..... PLEASE be careful and don't push yourself. We still have head hunger and its not worth injuring ourselves being a slave to those old food demons. We have all been reborn, hence our re- birthdays! Its our 2nd chance at the life we wanted. Thats all. I hope everyone understands I want all of us to suceed and I wouldn't want someone to stand around and not tell me if I'm doing something that could hurt me. So much love and success to us all!! Trina

Great post, Trina! I think we all need to think very seriously about WHY we are following our doctor's instructions, and this is a rather sober, eloquent and necessary reminder of the answer to that question. I fully plan to be very compliant myself, but that may be easy to say at 8 days out....I'll refer back to your post if I get tempted down the road!

Thank you Samantha, I just wanted to help prevent that or something bad from happening to anyone else and I know we're all here to support one another. Congrats on your Re-birthday and I know you'll do great!!

Thanks for the info. I did enjoy salads!! Any idea when we can start to eat them?

My doctors post op instructions are: salads at 8 weeks out. Romaine not Ice Berg.

Ellen I say ask your doctor, otherwise I would take it easy and see how you like it after you're released to regular foods. I have read some post ops say they couldn't handle them even after 6 months. So see whats comfortable for you.

Well put Trina. Strange how salads were always considered diet fare but now I'd really love to have one. I guess we always want what we can't have. But you really nailed it--food almost killed me and I don't want to take any chances so I'm being really conservative in calories, sugar & fat grams and getting my protein grams in every day. Still working on the water though, any suggestions? Keep up the good attitude. Good Luck! Michelle H