What do you eat in a typical day?

Hi, Guys!  I need some advice.  I have had such a hard time eating for about 4 or 5 weeks now.  I need ideas, advice, suggestions, but most of all I need some reassurance that what I'm going through is not how my life is going to be forever.  First, I'm 8 weeks post-op today.  I realize that I'm still healing and that I haven't had time to get to a full, regular diet yet.  I get that.  But add to that the fact that I have had a stricture, and am possibly still having issues with that.  I am throwing up 3 or 4 days a week, sometimes more.  I don't know what foods I'm not tolerating, and which ones I'm having trouble with because of the stricture.  I am still pretty much sticking to soups most of the time.  I feel like I should be eating more solid foods now, but find that I'm scared to try anything.  I just don't know what I should be eating.  I am down 43 pounds, and am thrilled with that.  But I don't know that I could tolerate this semi-liquid diet for the rest of my life.  Help!!

Morning Stephanie,
first Congrats on the wl..doing a great job!   Second~call your doctor tomorrow morning a schudule and appointment to see him...you need to get your problem under control BEFORE you start anything else...imho

My days when I was frist out like you were like this

B~protein shake
L~meat and cheese roll ups
D~what ever my family was eating; but I just ate smaller portions; to this day I still eat on a salad plate, small fork and no drink at the tabel

Always think protien first; I still say that almost every time I eat...protien, veggies, starch (if I even get that far)..LOL
I also would eat small baked potatoes because of their potassium, I would put some light sour cream and some cheese and call this a meal, today I still have BP just now I throw some meat BBQ on it and it is a meal for me, I still eat small to medium potatoes a couple of times a month....

Good Luck Stephanie I know these first couple of months are trail and error, but first things first go see your surgeon; you should not be throwing up at all!!!

OXOX
Mel

Mel,

I tried to call my GI doctor on Friday but he was out until tomorrow.  I am definitely calling him in the morning.  Both he and my surgeon told me that I may have to repeat the EGD to repair the stricture 2 or 3 times.  The weird thing is that not everything makes me throw up, so it's hard to determine if it's the stricture again, or if it is a tolerance issue.  Every time I eat chicken or eggs I throw up.  Other than those two things I can't seem to see a pattern.  Just weird. 

No Stephanie that is not weird...Chicken is very hard for us to eat sometimes, I can only eat mine if it is moist, and even at that I still at times get a "stuck" feeling~Eggs are just as hard for some, I personally can eat eggs, they just do not taste good to me anymore..LOL
I right now until you see you doctors would just eat liquid/soft diet, drink protein shakes, and have some soups, I know lental soups are packed with protein and so is split pea soup....
It will get better
M~

I cant   do  eggs and i am  five months out ..........and its the top  item on my doctors  list of foods  argg

Do you eat cottage cheese, ricotta cheese, yogurt, protein shakes.  You might try staying on foods that are soft stage right now.  Refried beans with cheese and even Wendy's chili might be good options also.

Stephanie, sorry you are having problems with vomiting, I'm so thankful I've not had much problem with food.  Definitely call your doc on the possible stricture, yes it takes 2-3 times sometime to get it resolved.

I noticed in your reply to Mel you said chicken and eggs give you problems.  Both of those foods are hard on some post-ops.  I think it's the density and that they are both heavy.  I can only do boiled eggs or eggs in a salad (chicken, tuna) still.  I cannot eat scrambled eggs, they sit very heavy.

Deli meat and cheese works pretty well it seems for most.  Also tuna, fish, shrimp, dark meat chicken (moist).  This shouldn't be forever, the early days can be challening, hang in there.

Congrats on the 43 lb loss so far, you are doing fabulous.

Peanut butter has saved me many days.  A lot of people don't like the calories and fat in PB, but there have been days that if I hadn't had it available I would have been miserable.

Deli meat and cheese rollups, taco meat and refried beans, cheese sticks, Carnation Instant Breakfast, SF fudgesicles for snacks.

I'm a sleever and (knocking on wood) haven't found anything I can't tolerate.

I really don't like cottage cheese.  I am okay with ricotta cheese, but what do you do with it?  I have only eaten it in Italian dishes (lasagna, manicotti, etc.) and can't think of another way to eat it.  I do eat yogurt, just getting kind of tired of it.  I also eat peanut butter.  Still haven't found a protein drink that I like, but I do drink milk with Carnation Instant Breakfast.  I don't think I'm getting in all the protein that I should, but I'm coming pretty close. 

Thanks for the responses.

At 8 weeks out you should certainly be able to eat things like tuna, chicken salad, egg salad on crackers.  Also a meatball covered with spaghetti sauce, deli meats, cheese slices, mashed potatoes, baked potatoes.  I also made a pot roast and ate the carrots and potatoes with gravy on it, also the pot roast meat too cuz it's very tender.  A homemade hamburger patty with lots of ketchup or gravy on it to moisten it.  If you can't eat any of these things then you definately need to call your doc.  I would suggest you keep a food diary for a few days and write down what you ate, quantity and if you vomited it or not.  That way your doc can see exactly what you're doing.

As far as protein drinks go I have one that everyone loves.  I've never had one person buy it that didn't like it.  You have to come to the Rowlett GNC (Dalrock and Hwy66) next to Albertson's.  It's called Max Protein.  Buy the chocolate.  Take one cup Hoods Calorie Countdown chocolate dairy product (Walmart in the milk section), one scoop of chocolate protein powder, 3 frozen strawberries and mix in the magic bullet or blender.  Drink as is or freeze and eat it like ice cream.  I guarantee you'll love it.