Question:
7 days post op and breaking down

I am 7 days post op and slowly getting more depressed. I dont feel anything in my stomach, hunger, fullness, nothing. I eat the jello and broth until tommorrow when I can eat an egg and toast. Then what? How do I know enough is enough, I just eat and it comes up? Am I ever going to feel anything?    — gary viscio (posted on July 8, 2003)

July 8, 2003
Heyyyy!! you just had major surgery, you don't heal over night. it took me 2 months. Your stomach is still raw and swollen inside, that's why you can't keep anything down, stick with your jello and what ever until your doc tells you to go to the next stage.your proteins will help you to heal faster. I remember I got sick of the jellos etc and tryed a bananna, it stayed down and tasted ok. I told my doctor and he said stop it. I was surprised. I didn't think it would hurt anything. I did stop. LOL also when you eat a food to soon, you will have BIG TIME stomach pains, the kind that will make you cry, moan, and holler out. Im telling ya it's awful. so don't those head hungers get you in trouble. LOL. So we must follow what our surgeons say. he knows best. Hang in there and try to do the right thing. everything will get better in days to come.~*~Hugs~*~
   — Naes Wls J.

July 8, 2003
Maybe you should rethink eating bread at this early stage (I know different doctors say various things). Go for the pureed food for a few more weeks to allow for proper healing. Our dietician instructed us to eat 4 tbsp at first. Two tbsp of protein and the other two of vegetables and/or fruit. Many websites have sample menus for newbies. Call your dietician or doctor and tell them if your depression increases (don't wait for depression to linger). If you need sample menus send me an e-mail and I'll send you some suggestions from the nutritionist -- you can run them by your medical team for approval. Good luck and be gentle to the tummy!
   — Starrlina

July 8, 2003
Hi Gary Hang in there! I also didn't feel anything as a new post-op. I had to guess at how much broth was enough. I found that if I really paid attention to my new plumbing, I could figure out what was enough based on how much I burped. I'm 3 mos out now, and I still don't have a feeling of 'full' like I used to; I had to learn to interpret new body signals. I don't feel hunger in my stomach area, now I feel it in my body. I hear that this will change in a few more months and hunger may resume--I'll be waiting to find out what that feels like. Many of us who are/were MO loved that feeling of fullness to provide us with satisfaction, soothing, anxiety relief, etc. When we felt hunger, we knew we could do something about that. Now that there is no familiar sensation in that area, it can be very disconcerting because we feel all the emotions we used to stuff with food. Hang in there, find a good therapist if you don't have one already, measure your food intake, and know that this is just an adjustment that you're going through--you will be OK!
   — Judy M.

July 8, 2003
Broth and jello are liquids that go through your pouch very quickly. I doubt you could ever get FULL on them. I was never hungry so I ate on a schedule. I couldn't tell when I was full either but I ate too much a few times and puked it right up so it gave me an idea about how many ounces I could eat. Then I measured what I ate. I occasionally eat a little more to see what happens. Usually I feel very tight in my chest and I know I must be full, but I'm still measuring what I eat because I being too full is very uncomfortable. Laura, 4 weeks post-op
   — Laura K.

July 8, 2003
Judy has an excellent answer - us MO people gauge so much on our eating - this surgery helps us to separate food from the other things it has been to us (basically our everything!)- at least for a while. I have heard that at 6 months or so your triggers starting coming back on line in terms of hunger - but everyone is different. To know how much to each, find a nutritionist if your surgeon hadn't already given you the info about this - it is VERY important to be careful. Toast is definitely not on my approved list at one week postop. The doc and nutritionist I see have a program for RNY patients of liquids for 2 weeks, then purreed foods for another 6. The surgery sites will definitely be healed by the 8 week point, and that is why they want us to baby it at first. As for when to stop, how about a measuring cup - or should I say 1/8th of a cup. I was told to have 1 ounce at a time - numerous times throughout the day (about 6) - for 500 calories, 60 grams of protein for the first 2 weeks. Perhaps you should call your doctor's office for some input.
   — bethybb

July 8, 2003
We went over this in our last support group meeting and I was feeling it terribly while on liquids stage too. He called it a hibernation stage. Our body is rejecting that we are not getting the food that we used to get, so it is starting to slowly go in hibernation. You feel like you don't want to do anything but stay in bed, do the oposite, get up and do a quick walk. Get out of the house for a little while. There were days when I never got dressed and never planned to leave the house. My husband would come home from work in the evening and make me get dressed and go for a walk. This is a stage and you will get over it if you can hang in there.
   — Heather M.

July 11, 2003
Does your surgeon KNOW you ate bread? My God, stay away from bread as an early post op! It's a gut killer. Most of the time I puked was when I ate bread. You probally should stay away from it for at least 2 months, and then eat only a couple bites, not even a half. Bread sat like a stone in my gut the first year. It tied my stomach in knots. DON'T EAT IT NOW! :)
   — Danmark