Recently re-sleeved and need post-op diet refresher

Hi all,

I haven't been active on the board in a while...I had a DS in 2005, and went from 301 lbs, to around 150.  I had babies in 2007 and 2010, and my weight always was between 140 and 160 both before and after each.  After I stopped nursing my last child in 2011 I started rapidly gaining.  I did all I could to adjust, going back to basics, upping exercise, but I continued to gain.  My hunger was just out of control, and even if I'd eat nothing but protein, I could still eat way too much of it.  Last summer I started investigating a lap VSG, which my original surgeon doesn't do (my DS was open).  

The new surgeon did an endoscopy and saw that there was a large protruding "flap" at the very top of my sleeve, no doubt catching a lot of food and also contributing to my reflux which was off-the-charts bad at this point.  I was waking nearly every night aspirating on food that I had eaten hours and hours before.  I was even aspirating nighttime meds and vitamins.  The doc felt a re-sleeve could potentially help my terrible reflux, and also help me lose the 40 or 50 pounds that I'd gained.  That was last August, and I finally was able to schedule the surgery for this past Monday (6/24/13).

So I'm 4 days out from a pretty straightforward laparoscopic VSG re-sleeve.  This new surgeon of mine isn't a huge proponent of the DS, but I didn't feel like arguing with him about it.  My labs have been good, but I had Calcium & D issues a couple of years ago which have been resolving with megadoses.  I haven't needed an Iron infusion in years, and since I eat so much (I mean like easily 200-300g protein a day) my labs have been good.  I'm monitoring my labs more often and adjusting my supplements as required.

That's the background.  SO, MY QUESTION: What the heck should I be eating 4 days out?  My surgeon says "full liquids for 2 weeks" so I'm making all these protein powder infused soups and smoothies with more cream than a VSGer would be supposed to use, I'm pretty sure.  Then in 2 weeks its soft/pureed foods for another 2 weeks.  I seriously can't remember if I ate this way in the beginning last time.   My allowed foods list is all sugar free jello, fat free yogurt, vegetable juice, strained soup, hot cereals, all with added whey.  I've been easily hitting 100g protein adding powder to every liquid I consume.  But I'm bored and running out of ideas.  It's also harder to avoid carbs when I have to steer so clear of meat, and even cheese.

I don't want to follow a VSG diet if I don't need to, but I don't want to follow a new DS diet if my sleeve is not as tight and my malabsorption not as severe as a newbie.  I DO want to heal properly, of course.  And maximize any chance of weight loss.  I'm down 5 pounds from pre-surgery and finally had a BM today.  

Thanks so much for reading and catching up with me :D.

Annie

 

As long as you still have the "switch" you really should eat high protein, high fat and low carb. It's the carbs that you absorb, remember.

I would not eat fat free anything. I would eat refried beans before I would eat any kind of cereal. Veggie juice has to many carbs in my opinion. 

If you can eat cereal you should be able to eat pureed things.

Hi Annie,  Hope you are feeling well.  You said:

I don't want to follow a VSG diet if I don't need to, but I don't want to follow a new DS diet if my sleeve is not as tight and my malabsorption not as severe as a newbie.

Why wouldn't your sleeve be as tight?  That was the whole idea behind your revision.  Right?  (did I miss something?)  Anyhow, the basic idea behind the liquid or soft diet, post- surgery, is to give your stomach time to heal, so I think it's a good idea.  You can make home-made egg drop soup.  Just warm up some broth in a pan, scramble and egg in a separate bowl and drizzle it slowly (very fine stream) into the broth.  You're still a DSer so you don't need to worry about fat restriction.

Hi J.G., thanks for the feedback, I realize what I said is probably confusing.  I'm trying to figure it out myself.  I'll see my surgeon for a 1 week checkup on Monday, but from what I gather from our conversations, I think he just stapled off the part that had outgrown the original staples.  He actually showed my husband the portion he removed while I was in recovery and my husband said the staple line was about 3 inches long.  

Dr. Pleatman, my new surgeon, wanted to be "conservative" and not have me lose too much weight due to my malabsorption still being in play.  When I awoke from surgery and he checked in on me, I remember him saying "I put you back the way you were" so I'm guessing he returned me to somewhere between the 3.5 oz I was after my DS and the huge size my stomach stretched to (I could eat as much as I could pre-surgery).

I'm definitely restricted right now (lost over 8 pounds this week) but I have enough room to breathe a bit.  But yes, I know I must heal.  I'm more of a wonton or miso gal, and you reminded me to tell my husband to bring home some tofu and miso paste from the store tonight, so I'll give that a spin.  Liquid diets just drive me nuts!!  I'm trying so hard to be good...

Annie :)

Congrats on the surgery. Scrambled eggs are great once you're a little further along. You can make them quite runny if you don't overcook them. I'd try and hold off on them for another week though.