After surgery diet???

Hi all:  My surgery is fast approaching and my doctor has not really elaborated on what I can expect in terms of eating afterwards, I guess they do that after the surgery.  But I’m curious and if I need to stock up on anything I’d like to get some ideas of what to expect.  Can you please share your experience of what you were eating at first and how much, and how often over your recovery? 

Also, if anyone has had success at preventing hair loss I’d like to hear about that as well. 

Thanks!  Suzanne

Who's your surgeon? I would do a search regarding post-op eating. However most folks are not on solid foods for several weeks. My doctor said 3 weeks of liquids and 3 weeks of mushies before I can have solid food.

Who is your surgeon?  Every surgeon has a bit different plan.  Some give feeding tubes.  Some allow you to eat anything you can tolerate while you are still in the hospital.  Some put their DS patients on RnY post-op diets because they are too stupid or lazy to know that people with the DS are DIFFERENT than people with a RnY. 

As for hair loss if that is your only complication you should count your blessings. 

~Becky

1.  What kind of surgery are you having?  I couldn't help but notice that this account has been in existence since 2009, but this is your very first post on this forum.  How did you find out about the DS?

2.  Who is your surgeon?

3.  Have you thought about insisting that your doctor give you more specific information?

4.  Are you aware that hair loss can happen with any surgery?  There are numerous posts on this forum about that.

I've been researching the surgeries for a long time, well before that in fact.  Just finally taking the plunge.  I think there was a mix-up in their office, that's why I'm not posting the name, but I'm on top of it and will get the information. 

thanks all!

You will want to avoid all simple carbs until you have lost your excess weight, but especially the first months you will need to be vigilant or you can bring on digestive upsets. Stay away from milk for a few months as it may keep you from becoming lactose intolerant. Cheeses and yogurt are fine, especially the high protein Greek yogurt. For protein, I found that shrimp and scallops went down easily. Scrambled eggs were one of my first foods. I bought a bag of them frozen and just took out a few at a time. Precursory, I hated soy milk but found that vanilla soy milk was the only thing that went down easily for fluids at first. Staying hydrated and eating protein are your priorities from now on.  Your tastes will change for the first few weeks and then change back again to normal. Appetite and taste will be quite different for the first months. Good luck to you. Please share more information as to who and where your surgeon is.

First two weeks was protein shakes, protein pudding, protein gelatin, protein soup. By the end of week two I wanted real food instead of protein "just add water" supplements. 

Weeks two through four I was able to add back soft foods like cottage cheese and ricotta. I was also able to add milk back into my diet, however it made me sick to my stomach so I only tried that once and never again. (Plus, milk has a lot of carbs.) I was also able to puree meats like tuna and chicken (they recommended canned as they are softer than regular meats.) I pureed chili a couple of times and was also able to eat mashed potatoes. After two weeks of protein shakes mashed potatoes were heaven. By the end of week four I was desperate to chew something. 

Weeks four through six I was able to eat ground chicken and turkey and deli cuts. (Still no beef as its hard to digest.) I had Italian turkey sausage with the casings removed. I was also able to start eating cheese and eggs again. I also put some chicken in the crock-pot with a cream cheese sauce. The chicken was so soft it just fell apart. Delicious..

At week six I was pretty much cleared to eat anything as long as it's low-carb. I avoid sugar and white flour like they're the plague. White flour makes me feel like there's an alien inside of me trying to rip it's way out of my stomach. Corn makes me feel sick too, but like there's a smaller alien inside who is content to stretch and kick inside of me instead of clawing  his way out. I don't eat mashed potatoes or anything anymore (frankly I wore those out about three days into week two), but I did make a couple of potato skins one night with taco meat, cheese and sour cream. I also have a piece of Ezekiel bread once a week or so with some natural peanut butter and sugar free jelly.

Thanks Elixir!  Where did you get all the protein food for your first two weeks?  Is it in the supermarket or did I need to go to a health food store?  thanks

The clinic my surgeon works at has a store inside that sells tons of supplements. Many of them are from the brand Health Wise. (http://www.healthwisenri.com/) I think you can order their products from a lot of places on line. The protein hot cocoa, the protein vanilla cappuccino and the protein strawberry-banana gelatin were my favorites and I still use them even now to make sure I hit 100+ grams of protein per day. I got a sample of chocolate protein pudding from somewhere that was delicious. The Health Wise protein pudding is NOT good, but YMMV. Also, the chili I pureed was the turkey chili form Health Wise. Most of their supplements have 15 grams of protein which made it easy for me from the beginning to hit my recommended protein requirements.

I also ordered a bunch of protein samples from Vitalady.com. Your taste buds change a bit after surgery so I didn't want to purchase tubs of powder that I might despise later.