A question for people who have had their surgery

As I prepare my kitchen and pantry for the post-surgical diet (RNY), I would like to know some things from your experience!

1) Was there anything you wish you'd stocked, or stocked more of?
2)  Was anything you got or made not as tasty or useful as you thought it would be?

In other words, what would you have done differently to meet your needs if you had to do it again?

I wish I had not gone crazy buying samples of post-op soups, protein powders, snacks etc.  Most I tried but have not finished.  I bought tons of protein powder samples from Vitalady that I never used.  I've really ended up eating fresh, real food mostly after the first few weeks - very similar to prior to surgery.  Thus, my advice is consider your pre-op style, make adjustments (exclusions) as needed, try to add some variety and wait to see what makes sense. 

You will learn to love "new" foods - in my case cottage cheese.  And, find suitable replacements for others. 

i would have to say ditto...

i gave away about a hundred dollars of protein mix..(they all sucked after surgery..) before surgery..i could guzzle them..

one thing very fresh post op that was really good..was the broth off chicken noodle soup..for what ever reason it did better than just broth..

when you are on the post op liquid phase..and the both start to taste nasty..rembember you can boil the crap out of something and make your own..with the spices you like..

best..

Being just a few days post surgery - my lesson so far is that stocking up really means like just one container of something.  What really got me through the first couple of days with my clear liquids was this broth that my wife picked up for me from a local chinese restaurant.  Really good, homemade, clear broth - Best thing ever!

I threw away or gave away a ton of protein powder...bags and samples. I could never get the smell of powdered milk past my nose. Stocking up for you post-op really does mean 1 container of this or 1 container of that. About the most of your stocking up will be water or Crystal Lite type drink mixes for the water. I did use Unjury mixed in instant mashed potatoes and it was a big old ewwwww!!

You really don't need to stock up on anything because you will be up and around in a few days.  Hell, I had surgery on Wed., got discharged on Sunday, was teaching on Tuesday.

I ate a lot of chicken broth.  I used those box broths.  But, I, too, made my own soups and drained the broths for just me and gave the soup part to DH.  Potato soup broth and chicken soup broth were my favorites. 

Everyone of us is different and you will find that what one eats, others cannot tolerate. 

Good luck

Ditto to everyone else pretty much! Don't stock up. You probably won't need/want/use half of what you buy. Just make sure you have all of your vitamins.

Almost everyone says their taste buds change one way or another so something you may like right now ...you won't like after surgery.

I love GNC for the simple fact that you can return opened items within 30 days with a receipt. So I've tried a few proteins and vitamins and took back what I didn't like or didn't agree with me.

Thank you so much, everyone, this was the kind of feedback I needed. I, too, have my box of Vitalady samples and right now, they all taste pretty similar when tossed in a blender with skim milk and half a banana, LOL. And when I look at the box, I keep thinking, "do I really need more than that?" But some savory broths sound like a good idea, in case "sweet" doesn't suit my new palate.

If all goes well with my insurance company, I will be going on on Sept. 14.

I can't have sweeteners so I wish I had stocked up on more unflavored protein powder. I killed the tub I had at first.

I had chicken broth and hated it! Milk was my worst enemy. Not my best friend before but even worse after the fact.

One thing that helped me was homemade chicken soup that my partner made which was his Jewish mother's recipe.  You put in a whole cut up chicken with 4 extra thighs, cut a couple onions in half, add some large peeled carrots cut in half, salt, and soft boil the crap out of it for four to six hours - pepper to taste.  Remove the onion chunks, skin and bones.

It was heaven and when I moved to soft foods, the boiled chicken and carrots were easy to keep down.

My biggest regret was the $200 in protein powder shakes.  I threw them all out.  Stick to the sugar free jello puddings.  The best thing I got was this high protein water drink at the health food store.  I could drink that as my water (grape flavor was okay but all of them are truly not enjoyable).  Once I drank one of those first thing in the morning, I knew I could get my protein from the pudding.  It was hard to get to 60 - 90 grams of protein but tha****er was absolutely key for me.