Eating "Food" Too Soon?!?!!

I'm 8 days out from my VSG and I'm going nuts. Hunger, head hunger, you name it. The past few days I've cracked and minced up some real food into tiny, tiny pieces and then chewed them into mush before swallowing. Protein, meaning deli ham and cooked chicken bits. Nothing happened other than I got full fast. No pain, cramps etc. In fact this morning, the morning after I ate a soy yogurt cup, I had the first, non-liquid diarrhea stool since surgery! It was soft, but normal. Sorry if that's TMI.

So please remind me why, with a VSG are we on 2 weeks of liquid protein and then another 3 weeks of baby-food consistancy mush? I'm not even supposed to eat a scrambled egg for another 4 months. I don't get it and that makes resisting the temptation even greater.

Because of some food allergies, there are only 4 products at the doctor's office that I can eat, 2 soups and 2 jellos. I can also have unsweetened soymilk with rice/soy powdered protein. I've been drinking these things for almost a month when you count pre-op prep, and I'm getting kind of crazy about it.

I'd like any and all information on why sleeve patients have to stay on such yuck for so long, especially if it's scientific in nature. I understand I have a suture line to heal and that it should not be stretched, but other than that, WHY so much liquid protein followed by mush? I'm not even supposed to get the mush/baby food until 3/3. Like I said, I'm getting a food version of "cabin fever".

Thank you everyone for your thoughts and information.

You need to be careful. You are putting your STAPLE LINE at risk. Do you want a leak? That is why you are suppose to be on liquids and then full liquids. Go slow and easy. It is not worth getting a leak. Skye

I am 13 days out and I feel like I could eat anything, I have had not problems with the mushy/ semisolid food I have been eating (except for cramping when I take bites that are too big or too fast) so I felt confusion about the food stages as well. My dr. gave me the good ahead to eat yogart once I was discharged from the hospital (5 days) and then gave me clearance for scrambled eggs at day 8 ( and he is Mr. Careful when it comes to the staple line; he reminds me all of the time about being in the "danger zone" 7-10 days out).  The nutritionist gave me the ok to move off of liquids to mushy stuff at day ten. I found that once I could eat eggs, mashed potatoes ( I like sweet potatoes, no dressings!), jello and yogart, my dissatisfaction with food disappeared.  I am going to try cream of wheat tomorrow.  You should call your dr. and nutritionist and get some clarity

Exactly what is "the danger zone"?

Aloha Kathy- Blunt respnse here.

You get one shot at healing correctly post op. One. If you disrupt a healing suture line, you are at risk for leaks, abscesses, and other issues such as inflammation at your staple line, which can lead to strictures later if adhesions form. Then you get to heal multiple times while they try and surgically repair the aforementioned problems.

Most stomach surgical incisions will be completely healed within 14 days. But you can develop small leaks that then abscess and those may not be detected for weeks or even months- novascotiadawn had her leak diagnosed flipping six months after her VSG.

Your best friend while healing is protein- bodies heal faster with it, and some of the DSers have a J tube ( a feeding tube placed directly into their jejunum=small intestine) to trickle in liquid protein while their stomach sleeves are healing- that's how important it is to heal your stomach completely before "testing" it with mushies.

Your choice. I was on clears for 3 weeks post op and full liquids for another 3 weeks- didn't even get to try mushies til then. But if it's a choice between healing right the first time or possibly undergoing multiple procedures to fix something I was contrary enough to cause, I choose the first option.

XoLori

So true Lori! And here I am at nine months out and my Jackson Pratt was taken out the other week. I think it might of been a little too soon. I think the leak is still there personally. Going to ask for a CT scan. I will freak if I get sick after my move and not have my doctors!!!

Hugs

Donna

PS...It's soooo important to follow what they say. Because, we don't know if it was the surgical team, me, a pill or what caused it. It's a one time deal. You can die with a leak and we don't want that.

Interesting, Lori!  My surgeon/dietician was happy for me to move onto mushes (blended food) from day 4 past surgery.  There does seem to be quite a range of opinions amongst the professionals as to when to start blended foods (including soft scrambled egg), rather than an all-liquid diet.  However, the best thing to do is to stick with your own surgeon's advice.

Aloha Andy- That's because no two bodies are alike and no two surgeons are alike- sure there are standards, but there are differences within each VSG surgery in regards to gentleness of tissue handling, materials used, methods of cutting and stapling, oversew or not, bougie size, etc etc etc. And within each patient- health or viability of gastric tissue, presence of inflammation or ulcers, liver size resulting in ease of visualizing stomach/spleen, variation in anatomy or previous abdominal surgeries causing adhesions, etc. Most VSGs take about 45 minutes- I had a healthy stomach but one that was adhesed to the back of my abdominal cavity, probably from a prior gall bladder surgery or bout of pancreatitis- it took my surgeon 1 hour and 45 minutes to do mine, and with all the tissue handling I had a tremendous amount of swelling such that I flunked the leak test the next day- simply because I could not swallow the contrast material. Not even saliva went down for 5 days- I was a spitter.
So the best plan is to follow what your surgeon tells you in regards to diet staging. That was my point, and again I didn't mean to be harsh, but I'd say it again the same way- you get ONE chance to heal. Do it right. XOXOLori

Hi Kathy

You know  - there are so many different post op dietary requirements imposed by our surgeons that it is hard to know what to do.  Everyone on the forum says to follow your surgeons orders to the letter so that there is little pressure on the staple line for the first couple of weeks at least.   

In my own case, I was allowed to go onto full liquids after the first couple of days - as long as they were blended and very runny - so this included lump free soups.   My surgeon's mantra was....if you can get it up a straw, you can have it!    After about a week I could have runny, lump free mashed potato and gravy, smoothies, yogurt, custard etc and I stuck with those foods for a while, because I was mindful that my stomach needed the best chance to heal.  I did not have serious problems with hunger at all I am sure, because I didn't have to do the clears like many in the USA have to do. At about 3 - 4 weeks out I could start adding other foods like scrambled eggs etc. By my 5 week check I was able to start adding real food into my diet, so I followed my surgeons instructions to the letter, and considered myself very lucky at the time.   One thing I did do was have six small meals a day early out - I would make myself a banana chocolate protein smoothie and sip on it throughout the day if I felt hungry.  

I think you do need to be very sure and careful that you are not going to harm your tummy if you start eating solids at this stage - it is only a few more weeks and then you can do what you want.  Are you getting plenty of water in?   Sometimes we think we are starvingly hungry when we are actually thirsty..............Hang in there.

Marion

Marion and everyone else, thanks for the firm but supportive notes. I'm realizing that what I did last night was actually very selfish and self-destructive. Will I do it again? I don't know. I do know that the next time that urge gets so overpowering I HAVE to find something else totally different to engage in so that I won't eat. Having another glass of water or decaf tea might be a good idea too (it's so cold here today:-)

I have been so obscessed with food since I got home. I think I've read more recipes online in the last weeek than in the last 3 years. I love to cook and I'm a good cook of healthy foods. I stopped cooking, thought, about a year ago when I started commuting such a long distance to and from work. I realize now that I was declining in cooking over the last few years anyway because of my stomach. I couldn't stand close enough to the kitchen counter to work comfortably without straining my back when I leaned forward to chop, stir etc. Cooking was an exhausting pastime, not fun anymore.

I knew after 20 years of therapy on and off relative to food and diet, that I had some heavy duty issues with food and how I used it. Anyone else out there get strapped into their dining room chair for hours until they "finished" their caned vegetable soup at luch? I hate vegetable soup to this day, even homemade. Food is control. Food is comfort. Food nutures. Food feels good in your mouth. Food keeps you safe. Food is control.

My 81 year old Mom, who is terrific, came last Tuesday to help out and be around when my DH went back to work. I loved having her here. I noticed at family meals, though, that she urged my children to take more food just as they were finishing their meals. "There's more, don't be shy etc." She also bought cookies and instant hot chocolate for them for afternoon snacks. I was astounded. Her undergradutate degree is in diatetics, so she should have known that was a crumy snack. What about fruit, a whole wheat bagle with low-fat cream cheese, baked chips and fresh salsa? ? ? . . .The kids were starving in less than 90 minutes from the post-sugar plunge.

You are all so correct. What crazed and/or crazy, over rationalizing thinking I was having yesterday. I kept thinking that if my pills are going down just fine, why not some cut-up, mashed up chicken? I think the answer is that a pill can disolve should it happen to lodge temporarily and pills don't fill you up and put pressure on the incession line. I have no idea what my capicity for thicker food is and wouldn't know if I'd filled up my stomach until it was too late to do anything about it. Of course I don't want a leak, now or ever! Please cross your fingers for me that I haven't caused any problems! My tummy does feel a little tender this morning, so I've sipped my liquid breakfast slowly, spaced out my AM meds and will take my water with me on my trip to get my bike. I will rest this afternoon, pay attention to how I'm feeling, fever?, pain, stools etc. for the next wee****il I have the next pos-op test a week from tomorrow.

Hindsight is so 20/20 and my stupidity is coming into such sharp focus this morning.

Thanks again ladies, and, I finally found a recent (by my standards) photo of myself and made an avatar for this site. Now you know what I look liked last summer, about 30 pounds below my highest weight.

Hugs and thanks to you all,