Gas and Milk

So I am very gassy.  It seems that as soon as I move around I burp and apparently they are stinky.  Hubs is not a fan. Seriously I am burping sooo much.  I am 6 days out from surgery.  

The nurse at my doctor's office thought it might be that I am using too much milk in my protein shakes.  I've been using Fairlife skim milk, which I thought had less lactose in it.  I bought a carton of unsweetened soy milk to try. 

Can you guys share your experience with gas after surgery and with lactose sensitivity?  I really want to be able to have greek yogurt and cheese when I progress in diet.  

I'm just 3 months out. I remember early out some smelly burps, but I thought it was more due to the newly formed pouch and healing incision (staple) lines. Mine were more like a raw wound smell.  ?TMI  I don't have any problems with lactose intolerance.

Are you having abdominal cramping as well?

Thanks.  Raw wound smell may be what they are.  They don't seem to reflect any particular food flavors that I've had.  

I haven't had any problems with milk before.  I am not having abdominal cramping, or the runs, or N/V.  Just burping and a bloated feeling.  It may very well still be air from surgery working its way out.  I also make my shakes in my blender, so I wonder if more air gets trapped in them that way.  I would think that if it was really milk related there would be something other than just gassiness.  

But I suppose using soy milk for a day or two will let me know if milk is involved in the gassiness. 

I'm pretty lactose intolerant and use those tablets even with Greek yogurt and especially Premier protein  RTD shakes. I guess after surgery I'll need to chew the tablets, after I speak with Doctor. In my area there is a local dairy who produces milk pasteurized and low temps, perfectly legal and I can drink it without any tablets. Called Hartzlers Dairy in Wooster, Ohio. Otherwise I drink lactose free milk from Aldi. Do I just drink fat free milk or is 2% allowed?

I don't have an answer for that since I've never had lactose problems before.  I'm pretty sure fat free is recommended.  I looked at the Lactaid milk but decided to try soy milk first because Lactaid had a much higher sugar content.  That's interesting on the low temp pasteurizing - I wonder how that decreases the lactose.  For me though, I need to be able to pick it up at the grocery store or order it online, or I won't get it.  Combo lazy/ busy.

The low temps doesn't refuse lactose, it just makes it easier to digest.

From their website:

Hartzler's uses a low temperature vat pasteurization process where the milk is gently heated to 145 degrees and held in a vat for 30 minutes. This method kills harmful bacteria but leaves enzymes and amino acid chains and other nutrients intact.

   So the enzymes are present and I can drink their milk with our any problems. I told the NUT this as well. Also I heard the Fairlife mild was good for me as well. 

Some NUT recommend fat free milk, but my surgeon and NUT both suggest that we use the 2%.  So....couple days ago, I send DH to grocery for the milk "with the blue lid."  He came back with the milk with the blue lid, but it was fat free.  I've had more trouble with the fat free milk than I have had with the 2%.  Just my two cents here, and we're all different and on different plans, but here it is for what it's worth.  Good luck! 

Lactose sensitivity changes for a lot of people post-RNY, so you may be having that issue.

But I would be more concerned with the consumption of milk.  There is a LOT of sugar in milk, and only slightly less in soy milk.

Heavy whipping cream on the other hand is very low in sugar/carbs and can mix with a lot of things just like milk.  It has the added benefit of being lower in lactose than regular milk (the general rule of thumb is the higher the fat content, the lower the lactose content).    It was a main go-to for me early on. 

Remember: fat does not make you fat, just as low-fat diets did not make us thin prior to surgery.  Otherwise we would all be thin from the various low-fat diets we tried prior to RNY.  Unless you have gall bladder issues or other medical reasons, don't be afraid of (healthy) fats.

Audrey

How did you use the heavy whipping cream?

Mixed it with Diet Root Beer for a "float", made soup with it (a fav was cream and bits of ham/turkey), mixed with mashed cauliflower, butter, sour cream, cheese ("faux-tatoes"), mixed in a bit of splenda and cocoa and froze for "pudding" or heated for "hot chocolate", whipped into actual whipped cream and flavored with various things, made a really tasty meringue once with whipped egg whites and heavy cream, added to my tea as I am not a coffee drinker, made an alfredo-type sauce for my chicken with it.. you name it, I did it :)

It worked in well with my goal of 20-50 g of carbs a day, and even now it's a go-to for various recipes that otherwise need milk, as I have found my tolerance for dairy has declined post surgery, like many others have found

Audrey