2 weeks out and need some help.
I've been doing pretty good in the "healing" department but... recovery is another thing.
I am having a really really hard time eating or drinking ANYTHING. I try the sip sip sip all day but I am horribly nauseated. Everything I ingest seems to make me feel ill... I'm fighting it and doing my best.
I force myself to get the B12 sublingual (100mg), 2 Centrum Silver Multivitamins, Calcium Citrate Lozenge, and 4 chewable Pepcid tabs in. I always have a drink (Water or Crystal Light) and as I said I try to sip sip sip... My doctor told me I can move on to MUSH (Pureed foods) and last night I had some LIght and Fit PLUS yogurt... it was so yummmy... but like everything else it really upset my tummy (sugar content is 7mg per serving and I ate 1tsp)
as a result of not getting enough fluids in I am fearing dehydration is looming and also feeling very rundown and weak.
My plea here isn't for people to tell me what I am doing WRONG... I am aware I need to get more fluids in... My plea is for suggestions from anyone who dealt with this nausea early on.... did you take meds for it? I brought it up to at my follow up yesterday and she did not seem concerned AT ALL (so YES! I did talk to my surgeons office about this!). Were there foods that you tolerated better than others... I have to puree everything to the consistency of pudding or mashed taters... but I'm really willing to try just about anything to get through this without another hospital visit.
Cheers and Thanks in Advance!
-Betty
I am having a really really hard time eating or drinking ANYTHING. I try the sip sip sip all day but I am horribly nauseated. Everything I ingest seems to make me feel ill... I'm fighting it and doing my best.
I force myself to get the B12 sublingual (100mg), 2 Centrum Silver Multivitamins, Calcium Citrate Lozenge, and 4 chewable Pepcid tabs in. I always have a drink (Water or Crystal Light) and as I said I try to sip sip sip... My doctor told me I can move on to MUSH (Pureed foods) and last night I had some LIght and Fit PLUS yogurt... it was so yummmy... but like everything else it really upset my tummy (sugar content is 7mg per serving and I ate 1tsp)
as a result of not getting enough fluids in I am fearing dehydration is looming and also feeling very rundown and weak.
My plea here isn't for people to tell me what I am doing WRONG... I am aware I need to get more fluids in... My plea is for suggestions from anyone who dealt with this nausea early on.... did you take meds for it? I brought it up to at my follow up yesterday and she did not seem concerned AT ALL (so YES! I did talk to my surgeons office about this!). Were there foods that you tolerated better than others... I have to puree everything to the consistency of pudding or mashed taters... but I'm really willing to try just about anything to get through this without another hospital visit.
Cheers and Thanks in Advance!
-Betty
Betty - I was nauseous for the first 6-8 weeks. Now what I did to get fluids in (they are more important then protein at this point in time) is room temperature liquids. I couldn't drink water - made me instantly vomit. I would drink crystal light. When I was home I would drink off of a tablespoon. You can also try drinking out of one of those little medicine cups. Set up a routine - if you are watching TV have one of the little cups at the beginning of the comercials and another when the show starts back up.
As for the foods - I found "the wetter the better" moisten your foods with broth or low fat gravy. It helps them to not be so heavy.
Also - if you are using regular milk - try soy, many of us develop a lactose intolerance post-op.
Hope that this helps and keep us posted on how you are doing with food!
Liz
As for the foods - I found "the wetter the better" moisten your foods with broth or low fat gravy. It helps them to not be so heavy.
Also - if you are using regular milk - try soy, many of us develop a lactose intolerance post-op.
Hope that this helps and keep us posted on how you are doing with food!
Liz
forgot to mention - try switching the vitamin to a flinstones. I find (still) that the centrum is hard on teh stomach (I think that the Dr said that it is the iron) and it can be VERY constipating.
Like Norm said too - one morning you will wake up and it will just be gone and you will be glad that it is behind you for sure!
Like Norm said too - one morning you will wake up and it will just be gone and you will be glad that it is behind you for sure!
Well, probably not what you want to hear, but as long as your doctor isn't concerned, you're probably just going to have to ride it out, with the very real knowledge that it's going to get better very soon.
I was in the same boat as you. I was SICK SICK SICK for athe first two weeks or so, mostly because of gagging down all kinds of medicine. Even water tasted gross and awful. I grew to hate my favorite drink in the world - cherry juicy juice.
But the good news, is one day, it just kind of stopped. It didn't gradually get better, just one morning, BAM, everything was fine.
Suggestions:
Low sodium broth (you'd be amazed what a new "flavor" can do for you)
Spaghetti Sauce (watch the sugar)
SF popsicles (helps with hydration)
Keep fighting through it, and hopefully your BAM moment is right around the corner
I was in the same boat as you. I was SICK SICK SICK for athe first two weeks or so, mostly because of gagging down all kinds of medicine. Even water tasted gross and awful. I grew to hate my favorite drink in the world - cherry juicy juice.
But the good news, is one day, it just kind of stopped. It didn't gradually get better, just one morning, BAM, everything was fine.
Suggestions:
Low sodium broth (you'd be amazed what a new "flavor" can do for you)
Spaghetti Sauce (watch the sugar)
SF popsicles (helps with hydration)
Keep fighting through it, and hopefully your BAM moment is right around the corner
Betty, how sucky. sorry to hear things are crappy. I am almost 6 weeks out and while i was "good" for the first few weeks, i am now starting to experience frequest nausea and general yuckiness.
for me early on it was just doing the best i could do. At 2 weeks i was still very tired all the time, but i chalked that up to recovering from the surgery itself. It took me until 3 weeks before I didn't HAVE to take a daily nap.
just focus on water/crystal light fluids in general for now.
for me early on it was just doing the best i could do. At 2 weeks i was still very tired all the time, but i chalked that up to recovering from the surgery itself. It took me until 3 weeks before I didn't HAVE to take a daily nap.
just focus on water/crystal light fluids in general for now.
Hey there Betty,
My surgeon had me on a week of clear liquids and then 2 weeks of full liquids - and then pureed food. Even then I wasn't quite ready for the pureed foods to much and stuck with full liquids. You may just need more time.
For me, something that helped with the nausea was peppermint tea. The nurses gave it to me in the hospital and I swear - I drank that and crystal lite most of the day after I got home. However, I could only drink the lemon and the iced tea flavor of crystal lite for the longest time. The other flavors were way to strong or tasted nasty to me (Now I drink almost all their flavors except orange)
The light and fit plus yogurt by the way....yes it's 7gm of sugar but there is NO SUGAR ADDED it is made with I believe splenda....the sugars are from natural sources like the milk....which in general people are allowed to have and tolerate well.
Liz's suggestion trying soy milk or something is a good one - lots of problems w/ lactose intolerance after surgery.
Liz did best w/ room temp liquids. I could only do ice cold or hot liquids. luke warm and/or room temp liquids didn't sit well for me. Go figure.
And I do have to agree w/ norm....one day I woke up and I felt GREAT. I mean....like...what surgery? It took some time for that.
If you take 1 medicine cup (marked w/ a 30ml mark on it) every 15 minutes you will hit your 64 ounces within 16 hours (assuming you sleep 8 hours a night) I did that for a few days to get into a habit.
Also experiment with the size glass/bottle you are using to sip. Nan told me that one, and I didn't think it would make a difference....but it did. As she told me "A regular drinking glass makes me feel like I'm drowning and a little 20 ounce water bottle makes me feel like I'm not getting enough at one time" She ended up using an old snapple bottle. I personally drank more from a used 20 ounce water bottle...just the opposite of nan.
Hang in there - this WILL pass and you WILL feel great.
Pam
My surgeon had me on a week of clear liquids and then 2 weeks of full liquids - and then pureed food. Even then I wasn't quite ready for the pureed foods to much and stuck with full liquids. You may just need more time.
For me, something that helped with the nausea was peppermint tea. The nurses gave it to me in the hospital and I swear - I drank that and crystal lite most of the day after I got home. However, I could only drink the lemon and the iced tea flavor of crystal lite for the longest time. The other flavors were way to strong or tasted nasty to me (Now I drink almost all their flavors except orange)
The light and fit plus yogurt by the way....yes it's 7gm of sugar but there is NO SUGAR ADDED it is made with I believe splenda....the sugars are from natural sources like the milk....which in general people are allowed to have and tolerate well.
Liz's suggestion trying soy milk or something is a good one - lots of problems w/ lactose intolerance after surgery.
Liz did best w/ room temp liquids. I could only do ice cold or hot liquids. luke warm and/or room temp liquids didn't sit well for me. Go figure.
And I do have to agree w/ norm....one day I woke up and I felt GREAT. I mean....like...what surgery? It took some time for that.
If you take 1 medicine cup (marked w/ a 30ml mark on it) every 15 minutes you will hit your 64 ounces within 16 hours (assuming you sleep 8 hours a night) I did that for a few days to get into a habit.
Also experiment with the size glass/bottle you are using to sip. Nan told me that one, and I didn't think it would make a difference....but it did. As she told me "A regular drinking glass makes me feel like I'm drowning and a little 20 ounce water bottle makes me feel like I'm not getting enough at one time" She ended up using an old snapple bottle. I personally drank more from a used 20 ounce water bottle...just the opposite of nan.
Hang in there - this WILL pass and you WILL feel great.
Pam
Instead of complaining that the rosebush has thorns, be happy that the thorn bush has roses. 
Thank you all so much for the information and great advice. I will experiment with the bottles (I agree the big glasses make me feel like I'm just not doing it right!) and I think I will stick with the Crystal LIght and water... The pureed and whole liquids are causing me more aggravation than anything at this point. I also only like REALLY cold liquids... luke warm and warm just tastes AWFUL to me right now. ICK.
I tried Flinstones vitamins but they weren't any better than the Centrum as far as upset tummies go. I also have some of those hospital cups... I will start with the 30cc's every 15 minutes as soon as I get off this idiot box tonight... for now it's a tall glass of Orange Crystal Light and a popsicle slushie that my wonderful husband made me. (he's the bestest!) ... I think I might eat those too fast though... but I have discovered that my old habit of sucking on the popsicle causes me some tummy issues as well, the air I am taking in... I assume.... so it must be slushies.... which are very very yummy.
and just to correct myself the B12 is actually 1000mg not 100mg. Stupid type-o's.
So... yeah, thanks again for all the great advice... if anyone else has any please don't hesitate to offer it up. I'll take all the tips I can get.
Cheers and Many Thanks!
-Betty
I tried Flinstones vitamins but they weren't any better than the Centrum as far as upset tummies go. I also have some of those hospital cups... I will start with the 30cc's every 15 minutes as soon as I get off this idiot box tonight... for now it's a tall glass of Orange Crystal Light and a popsicle slushie that my wonderful husband made me. (he's the bestest!) ... I think I might eat those too fast though... but I have discovered that my old habit of sucking on the popsicle causes me some tummy issues as well, the air I am taking in... I assume.... so it must be slushies.... which are very very yummy.
and just to correct myself the B12 is actually 1000mg not 100mg. Stupid type-o's.
So... yeah, thanks again for all the great advice... if anyone else has any please don't hesitate to offer it up. I'll take all the tips I can get.
Cheers and Many Thanks!
-Betty
Hi Betty, I want to say that I was sick for the first 2 months, I mean nothing would stay down. I went to the Drs. and they told me to sip but get the fluids in and forget about the protein, so I would take sips of water and I drank alot of juicy juice deluted with water, and this helped me. I got on the puree foods and the only thing that I could eat was mash potatoes with a bit of fat free gravy, sugar free puddings, sugar free jello, . I couldn't eat meats at all or drink the protein shakes. Now that I am 71/2 months out I still can't eat chicken, hamburger , or fish. I eat alot of veggies steamed, tuna salad with fat free mayo, or egg salad with fat free mayo. Everybody is different, just try different foods, till you find something that you can eat. I do eat Wendy's chili, and taco bells refried beans, they are high in protein.
I took the flintstone vitamins for the first 3 months now I take a multivitamin . I still have to tell myself to drink lots of water., to stay hydrated.
I still get nausead and I puke when something doesn't agree. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't get nausead. You are doing good and if you feel you are dehydrating keep calling your surgeon and tell him you need to talk to him.
Like the other folks said one morning you will wake up and feel good.
Tomygirl (Betty)
Newport News, Va.
I took the flintstone vitamins for the first 3 months now I take a multivitamin . I still have to tell myself to drink lots of water., to stay hydrated.
I still get nausead and I puke when something doesn't agree. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't get nausead. You are doing good and if you feel you are dehydrating keep calling your surgeon and tell him you need to talk to him.
Like the other folks said one morning you will wake up and feel good.
Tomygirl (Betty)
Newport News, Va.
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