Need advice, encouragement, a shrink??

Hi, I have not posted here for awhile, but after seeing Gina's post, I figured I would ask you guys, you have always been so helpful in the past.  I had RNY on 8/26, and for the first 2 weeks I was doing great.  Then the third week I developed pain in my stomach and was not eating or drinking enough, so I ended up in the hospital for dehydration and an ulcer.  I am on ulcer meds now and feeling better but I have absolutely no desire to eat at all.  I have to force myself to drink the protein shakes, I have tried MANY and just really cant find one I like, but I am drinking Unjury once a day, and I know I need to up it to 2 so I can get the 60 grams.  Nothing tastes or sounds good to me at all.  If someone would have told me that I would go from eating all the time to not wanting to eat at all, I would have thought they were crazy!  LOL...  but thats how I feel.  I called my NUT and she said to make sure to get at least the  60 grams from the shakes and work on eating more actual food, but....I just really dont want to.  Isnt that weird??  Has anyone every felt like this and does it go away??  I do eat greek yogart every day and I have had some small portions of meat (less than 1oz) and mashed potatoes.  So far nothing has really bothered my pouch, but I still dont want it.  Am I going nuts???                                                     Joan

Absolutely!  I was the same way.  No desire to eat, had to force myself, etc.  I could have written your post (except for the pain/dehydration). 

It DOES get better.  You definitely need to be sure you get your fluids, as you know now how awful dehydration is. 

One of my favorite foods early out was scrambled eggs with cheese melted on top.  Funny, I HATED scrambled eggs pre-op!  I made them nice and moist... I thought they were yummy!

Also - not sure if you're a coffee drinker, but I would treat myself to a decaf Sf vanilla (skinny) Starbucks (or equivalent at another place) and have them make it "warm".  Then I'd take some vanilla protein powder add it to it - it thickened it up nicely and tasted quite good. 

I know its hard - very hard, early out.  but you can do it!  It sounds like you're doing pretty good with the yogurt and attempting the dense meat.  Just keep doing that and it will get better and easier - I promise!

Oh - and be SURE you're getting all your vitamins - so important!

Sorry you are not having a good time right now!!!!

If you haven't tried EAS Chocolate Fudge (you can get it at Wal-Mart in a 4 pack) -- it tastes like chocolate milk...

Good luck!!!

I go thru phases where I don't feel hungry and don't want to eat.  You are not going nuts.

you are not going NUTS!!!!    Not wanting to eat is perfectly normal for a lot of us.  I actually use to set a timer every 3 hours and made myself eat.  Sometimes it was only a few saltines with laughing cow swiss cheese or a couple of bites of soup. I ate a lot of Wendy's Chili and Campbell's Bean/Bacon soup...still do.  I had trouble with cold foods so I ate a lot of soup and drank hot chocolate. I couldn't drink the shakes for about 6 months so I bought unflavored Protein and mixed it into a lot of the things I ate/drank (crystal lite).  I was a big meat eater before surgery but for a long time I couldn't eat it after.  Everything I ate tasted extremely sweet, sour, or salty. 

Now, I'm the complete opposite.  I want everything cold and I love my Protein drinks with lots of crushed ice in them. 

It is really important that you get your protein in.  I used to put the unflavored or chocolate in hot chocolate, pudding, jello, and  soups. That's great that you are using Unjury at least once a day and that you can eat the Greek Yogurt.  Try putting extra protein in them and even in your mashed potatoes.  Unjury has a really good Protein Chicken Broth too.

(((HUGS)))

Nothing crazy about that, Joan!  Sounds perfectly normal (though not fun) to me.  

I didn't want to eat a thing.  What I noticed was that once I actually met my water/protein/vit targets, I started to feel better. 

That should be the case for you, too.  It took me about 4 weeks to get there, though.  Week 3 was especially tough.  

It gets better!

Hi Joan, Itoo could have written your post. I had to go in the hosp about 5 weeks out due to an ulcer and dewhydration. I was afraid to eat, cause I did not want to upset my pouch, but as others have said, you're doing the right things, proteins, fluids etc. Hang tough,you will get there and this will just be alittle bump in the road! Brenda

thanks everyone for your kind and informative responses. Its really nice to know that I am not going crazy, but that this is just a phase and hopefully it will pass.  Once I get clearance that my ulcer is gone (hopefully next month), then I can add the rest of my vitamins.  I hope its true that once I get all the protein/water/vitimans in that I will feel better.  I really appreciate all of you that took the time to answer me back.  This forum is the best one at OH!                                                     Joan

Hang in there!  It does get better!  I'm about a month ahead of you and I still have days where eating is not fun!  I still struggle with protein too.....I mix 16 oz of skim milk with one packet of Carnation instant breakfast and one scoop of Unjury.....the Carnation dilutes the taste of the Unjury a bit.  It takes me a hour to drink it but that's about  50 grams of protein right there!   Also try the Unjury unflavored protein....I add it to oatmeal and plain milk...not bad at all!

Oh you poor thing!! It gets way better! The beginning is rough & it's perfectly normal to think "what have I done??"

My experience: I couldn't deal with plain water. Still can't really, so for the first year and a half I swear grape propel water kept me alive. Since then my stomach has decided it doesn't like Splenda as much as it did at first, so what I do is keep a big jug of water in my fridge and drop some fresh fruit (mostly oranges) in there. So my water always tastes like something.
The protein shakes bored me to death & while I could deal with Unjury at first, over time it made me gag. SO... I went to places like GNC or a local health food store & told them straight: "I need protein that doesn't make me gag." Try a bunch, ask VitaLady if she has any samples (if you order from her).
I also have a ton of smoothie recipes, some with powdered sugar free pudding mix that I love, and one that's great with Greek yogurt and fruit that basically replaces a meal. I'm happy to send you any/all of my recipes if you want them.

Honestly, I'd stay away from the mashed potatoes. They are not value added at all- or as my nut told me- there's not one good thing about them. At this point since you're not hungry there's no point in only sending down carbs and a high glycemic content into your pouch.

Hang in there. Try a bunch of differen****er tricks & find a good shake recipe that you like.
In the meantime, be really good to yourself & do your best to follow the "path." At first it seems like walking around in the dark, but again, it gets- and for me at least, it has stayed way better than the first few months.

xoxo