when does NORMAL arrive? what about appetite? deprivation feelings same as if i were...

i know i posted this sort of post recently, but i am down. I had RNY (bypass) on 08-25-14, (This past Monday.) It is Saturday night. i have all week not felt ANY of my POST-OP WLS friends have said, such statements as: "I forget to eat" and "after surgery, It took me all day to get a jello cup down" and, " I am full after a few bites" UH>>>EXCUSE ME? I must be a freak, because i am hungry constantly. I feel like i could eat two whoppers,a large fry and a shake! My mouth is watering...WHAT GIVES? why hasnt my appetite disappeared? THIS, is my new norm? I still feel deprivation,hunger,thinking of food constantly....does it get better? I had high hopes of being satisfied after a few bites of healthy food....NO, i am hungry,hungry hungry.  Now, would i eat over about 4 ounces in one sitting? OF COURSE NOT! I had surgery 5 days ago! the last thing i want to feel is DUMPING....so here i am feeling like a" dieter," the same exact way i always have on Jenny Craig, Weigh****chers,Nutri System, DIET pills.....sad, and deprived of food. Going around hungry constantly....My new normal? please tell me SOMETHING, ANYTHING to hold on to....because i am discouraged....and did I say, HUNGRY? please dont fuss at me. i am sharing my raw,honest feelings here.

Are you on liquids?  Those don't stay in the pouch long so they don't really make you feel very full.  Also, they cut the nerves to your stomach during your surgery and they haven't healed yet.

You might feel like you could eat a Whopper and fries, but I promise you, you couldn't.  Your pouch is about the size of an egg.  You'd vomit and get very sick - that is, unless you actually ruptured some sutures in your pouch, in which case that Whopper would run out of your pouch, into your abdominal cavity, leading to a very severe infection that might well kill you.

You feel deprived because right now you are on a very restricted diet.  All you can eat is Jello and the like!  Who wouldn't feel deprived.  But that won't last forever.  This is a very temporary thing.

You just gotta get through this hard part.

thank you for encouraging words! I would NEVER attempt to eat anything i thought would make me sick, especially in these early days post surgery....just gonna keep waiting...~sigh~

I'm only 4 months out & I do mourn food sometimes too, in the beginning when all you're doing is liquids yeah you want all the foods that you shouldn't eat. I think once you're able to eat some food & get past the carb cravings you'll be ok. Now the head hunger thing is another battle. Me I told myself ok you want this kind of food, why?, is it comfort, stress, boredom, I'd wait awhile & then finally I'd tell myself ok you want it, then have it, just not right now. I found that the cravings would go away, not always, but enough where it didn't feel like my entire world at that point. Don't beat yourself up, you can get thru this! It does get easier. Good luck!

Not everyone goes through a period of no hunger, or of not wanting to eat, or of being full after a single spoonful of food.  On the positive side, though, not everyone has trouble drinking and can only drink an ounce at a time without feeling pain, or vomit from almost everything they eat even when it is soft foods, etc.

Your journey may be very different than what you expected based on what you have read. It WILL, however, get better once you can eat.  I was fortunate to have had a surgeon who put her patients back on soft foods on the third day after surgery (she found that people who were on weeks of liquids and purées had MORE trouble going back to soft and then solid food than people who ate soft foods soon after surgery), so none of us had to go through weeks of liquids and purées that don't really make you feel full.  Try to remind yourself that what you are going through now is temporary and it WILL get better.  what you are going through right now is the worst part of the journey.

Unfortunately, though, the deprivation you feel has nothing to do with your surgery.  You will read on here a lot that surgery was only on your digestive system, not your brain.  Some people lose food cravings for a while, but many don't.  MANY people find the first month or so post-op to be very difficult and filled with frustration because they want to eat, have trouble watching their families eat as they always have and not being able to join in, emotional responses to food commercials, etc..  

If it continues -- and even if it doesn't -- you may want to consider seeing a counselor to help you get through the adjustment to your new post-op life.  There are MANY things a counselor can help you with as you in-do old habits and re-learn to eat, and find a new kind of relationship with food.  Long term success really depends on truly embracing a new way of eating AND addressing the emotional/psychological/behavioral issues that contributed to the obesity in the first place.  Many, many people have found counseling to be immensely helpful after surgery.

Hang in there.  Now is not forever.

Lora

Really appreciate your post very true. I have struggled with this for four years. Lost 150 gained 50 back. Do not recall it ever really being explained to me that even though we fix your stomach this will not fix your brain. I have depression stiming from not being able to eat what I want and it has been a constant battle. I basically paid 12000 dollars to be put on a diet that isnt working.

I felt exactly the same way!! And now 6 years later I am still at goal.

Hang in there and just follow your plan.

  Excellent. 

what do you mean? you felt the same way? please explain. how did it get better? Obviously it did,or you wouldnt have met your goal. Congrat on that btw....

It gets better because in time you are able to eat more than Jello and you feel full when you eat denser foods.  That means you don't feel hungry all the time and you don't feel deprived.