Hello

I had my sleeve surgery on March 21. Lots of stomach cramping afterwards so I am on an anti-cramping medicine. Started on full liquids a few days early because I was so hungry for something other than protein shakes and crystal lite. Now I'm worried that I may have stretched my stomach from drinking soups. When I take the anti-cramping medicine, my stomach feels okay and I can sip liquids easily. But I may have overdone it. There wasn't any limitation given for the soups. I figured my stomach would let me know. But I would drink a third of a cup of soup and a half hour later be ready to go back for more. Is this too much? Very confused.

Don't rely on your stomach to tell you anything legit for a couple of months at least.  The nerves are shot due to surgery, so it is not recognizing and sending valid signals both in terms of fullness and hunger.  Don't trust it.  

I would urge you to stick to whatever your doc's office told you to do in terms of how much and what to drink.  Make sure your soups are totally liquid with no chunks, and please don't take any chances with rushing your allowed foods during recovery. Docs usually have good reasons for having the post-op diet and you need to be kind to your poor stomach and let it heal.  Good luck! :)

Usually liquids flow thru the stomach fairly quickly, so I doubt you've stretched your sleeve. When I started eating after surgery, I could not tell if I was full from my stomach, but my nose would run when I was full.  If I ate too much, I'd get lots of mucus production in my throat that was really annoying (people call it the slimeys).  So I weighed and measured my foods and tried to always eat less than my capacity.  I'd recommend this approach.

I could drink a cup of broth at one time when I was on liquids.  I didn't feel any hunger for several months, but I know others do.

Are you keeping a low carb diet?  Carbs will cause food cravings that mimic hunger.  So if you are getting too many carbs, that may be contributing.

Best of luck,

Carol