3 1/2 weeks Post-op

My gastric sleeve surgery was on 4/4/16.  I feel great but I'm still struggling getting all my fluids in everyday.  I welcome any helpful tips on fluids.  Also, i am now on pureed foods.  I have no appetite and no desire to eat.  But i eat to get the protein in ans i also drink 1 or 2 Premier Protein shakes a day to hit my daily protein goals.  My smell amd taste buds have changed after surgery.  Is this normal?  Will it be like this forever?  And do we ever get an appetite back?  I love not being ravenous and hangry but i want to like food again (healthy food).  Thanks for any advice.

I looked at drinking water as my "job". I had a deadline of 8 oz per hour while I was awake. I did not always achieve that goal, but I sure did try. However, there was not a single day during my early post op  week (1-6 weeks) that I failed to get at least 64 oz of water in. I was terrified of becoming dehydrated. I had heard the horror stories. Since then I've witnessed two horror stories of dehydration in person. It's enough to make you drink, even if you don't want to. 

Your odor sense will level off and you won't get queasy/hyper sensitive to smell after a while. My tastes all returned. Some people's don't. There are things I don't like anymore though. I'm not sure if it's due to the sleeve or simply a change in diet. The one thing that leaves me totally cold now is pasta. To me it's a pointless, why bother food now. It's really just a vehicle for sauce. I can put the sauce on chicken and be far happier.

You will enjoy food once again. No worries there. There may even come a time that you look wistfully back at your lack of appetite and hunger today and think to yourself that these were the good old days. I know there are times that I wouldn't mind being an early post op again!

I never got any appetite back, but still eat and enjoy food.  I just don't care whether or not I eat. 

I'm about 3 days after you, and doing far worse with goals. Not making protein goals, not making water goals. It's a real struggle (the c.diff has made this undoubtedly worse for me, but...),, you're not alone in these struggles! 

And thus I shall be hanging out on your thread, glomming onto every response too :)

Thanks Darcy.  Before surgery i loved drinking plain water.  Now i just have this funny taste in my mouth and when i drink water it just doesn't taste right.  I'm still not getting a minimum of 60g of protein a day in.  My main focus is on fluids.  I'm here for you if you need any help.  We can help each other.

I'm the same with water. It tastes so funky it actually turns my stomach. I'm doing well with hot tea, so I'm going to try iced decaf tea tomorrow. My tastes changed immediately, can't stand my Crystal Light anymore. If you find a good low calorie drink that goes down well, please share! My main job is liquids too. Friending, WLS problem children:)

I'm doing so bad getting anything down food-wise, I'm thinking of just taking a few days to do the old sick-tummy diet(applesauce, mashed potatoes, bland stuff) just to try and teach it to have food of any kind in there again. I know it's not on plan, but I need to try at this point.

I'm no expert on this, but I seem to remember reading that when you go super low-carb, your body goes into ketosis (good fat-burning mode I believe), and this can cause a metallic taste in your mouth. Maybe that's what you're experiencing. Try different temperatures of beverages, and maybe a splash of juice to add a touch of flavor.  Sounds gross, but post-op, I can't drink "straight" juice anymore - way too sweet and strong.

Darcy, when I was in mushy-foods phase, I often ate mashed cauliflower mixed with a little bit of mashed potato, topped with a little bit of cheese. Went down great, but I had to be careful to eat slowly and little tiny bites.  I stopped with the potato part (carbs) and did just mashed cauliflower eventually, but it was nice really early on.

Regarding appetite and taste for food, my tastes have changed a little bit but not much.  True hunger almost never happens, but head hunger sure does! Such a struggle.  Minimizing carbs seems to be the key, because carbs make me crave more carbs. Those darn low-carb tortillas aren't so low carb when you eat more than one a day. :(  Food really is an addiction.

Thank you, that's a great idea! Will try that.

I can't drink plain water.. it tastes so metallic to me, even bottled water.. even with flavor enhancers. So far lipton diet peach tea (bottled) and diet cran mango - (both are 5 calories for 8 ounces) go down well.

Hi Michelle what other protein shakes have you tried? Try eating clean oatmeal with a scoop of protein powder for flavor; some ricotta blended with a teaspoon of coffee or protein powder for flavor.