Protein Drinks - Help!

Can you eat the whole thing? I don't see why it would hurt if you can eat the whole thing. They said because it would fill you up, but if you can eat the whole thing I would think it would be okay. 16 proteins is more then we get in eggs or cheese or anything else we eat. I've been eating banquet turkey dinner. I throw out the peas because they said no peas yet but i eat the turkey and mash potatoes. It is like 8 fats and 12 proteins and 200 calories. It usually take me two meals to eat one. But its turkey and it goes down. And they are only a $1.00. I tried one of the chicken dinners from south beach but i threw it up. Still can't handle the chicken. It had good flavor though. It didn't have that odd seasoning that all the diet frozen meals seem to have. It was fresh and the broccoli actually tasted good.

If you count on the protien from the bars or food, you need to make sure that your doctor is watching all of your protein levels. I can't get enough protein from either to keep my preablumin, albumin, and protein levels up. I have tried and my numbers drop like a rock. I have found, that for me, the best combination to achieve excellent numbers is using Champion Pure Whey Stack chocolate and ProScore 100 (Champion product) chocolate in combination for a shake (I use the PS100 scoop and do one of each for a shake that is 167 calories and about 30 grams of protein). I must have 3 - 30 gram shakes daily to keep my numbers up. We are not all created equal and thus why watching and tracking our lab work is very important to us. I have an ongoing excel sheet that has all of my lab results from the time I had surgery over three years ago. I can tell what things need to be watched more carefully and which vitamins to adjust by doing this. I have to admit that I never thought my body would become such a full time job. haha. I also use excel to list all the vitamins that I take so that I can compare apples to apples when assessing how much I am getting of a particular supplement. Sandy

Thank you Sandy. So three years out you are still drinking 3 protein drinks a day? Wow. I have a feeling that is going to be me. I can't eat enough food to get in my proteins and anything that is at all solid creates too much pain and comes back up. I keep hoping that as I get closer to month four my stomach will feel better and solid food won't hurt so much but I'm not counting on it. I think like you said we are all different and our bodies react differently to things. Thank you for the advise and the product recommendations.

My surgeon did not have us go to solid food until about week five. We were moving in that direction from liquids to pulverized (my description) to soft to finally regular food over a six week period. For the most part I did not have any problem with food, but I did follow the rules very closely. I know some surgeon's do have yo start regular food much sooner. Yes, I am three plus years out now and I HAVE to do the three 30 gram protein shakes daily to keep my three protein related numbers up. Sandra

I am at week 12 and still can't handle the solid foods Up until 2 weeks ago I followed all the rules religiously so you can imagine my frustration when I am doing what I am supposed to and still getting sick every day. Sometimes when their rules don't work you have to make up some of your own. And since I have I have felt much better. I don't think any one particular diet works for every patient. Most do great on the solids. I just don't. Don't get me wrong I continue to try. I threw up turkey today! And threw up eggs yesterday! So I do continue to try the proteins. I have also found that the low cal liquid yogurts seem to go down pretty well and I'm able to drink the whole thing over a period of time. Unfortunately the regular yogurt is still don't doing good and I can only eat maybe a 1/4 of a container in a setting if I'm lucky.

Have you checked with Randy to see if you have a stricture?

I have. They haven't ever actually checked for a stricture. But they keep telling me it is all normal. Because sometimes things will stay down. If I really get desperate I can get some solids down by taking a bite about every 5 minutes. For example to eat 4 shrimp usually takes me about an hour. Usually I can't stand to take that long to eat because I get way to thirsty in the mean time. LOL.

Melissa, In the early stages, I got sick a couple of times from eating too fast or too much (OK, more than a couple) and everytime I did, I couldn't keep anything down for a few days. I was told that when you irritate the pouch, it swells and you'll have a tough time with proteins. When that happened, I'd go back to liquids for a day or two and I'd be fine. The other trick I learned was to drink a few sips of warm herbal tea before eating to soothe and relax the pouch. I know,, that goes against all the rules for not drinking before meals, but a few sips helped me tremendously. Connie

I have done the slow eating, faster, smaller, larger. At one point I even tried timing by bites literally by a clock in front of me. I do wait 24 hours before eating after throwing up. I have even went as far as 5 days back on liquids to try and stop the irritation. Still throw up on solids. I haven't tried tea directly before eating yet. I will try that. Thanks.

Melissa, Check with Cassie on the mashed potatoes. I do not think you are allowed any starchy vegetables untill after 4 months. Mary