eating after surgery

I am currently waiting for my last test results so my dr's office can fax eveything to Dr Allen's, hoping to have surgery in Dec. But I wanted to know, what will I eat after surgery, that for 6 weeks. I have no idea what foods count as what, liquid, mushy, soft?

Hello,  If you are going through Norton Bariatrics you will get a packet from them when you go in for your actual pre-op testing with a list of what's in each category.  Basically, they will tell you that the post-op diet will be 2 weeks liquids - 2 weeks mushy/soft foods - back to reg food on 5th week (as tolerated).  The dietician at the MDs will office may tell you something slightly different though!  I think Dr. Allen is in the same office as my MD so if you haven't met the dietician there yet her name is Sara.  Having sources of slightly contrasting info got confusing even though the info was in the same ballpark so to speak!  To make it even more confusing Dr. Larson advanced my diet quicker than I'd expected.  He put me on mushies at my first post op visit which was at 5 days!  Then I had to go in yesterday due to some GERD issues and they gave me the green light to slowly advance to regular foods as tolerated and this was just day 11!!  According to the printed material I should still be on fluids!?!  OK, so the liquid diet they told me was anything that would easily pass through a straw without using the actual straw.  I can not stomach broths so I stuck with very thin blenderized tomato and bean soups.  S/F popsicles, warm/cold drinks and the dreaded protein drinks.  Main thing is that whatever you have is to be pulp and partical free. The soft/mushy food stage is basically anything fork mashable and moist.  I stuck with instant potatoes, cream of wheat, applesauce, puddings, scrambled egg, refried beans, etc. Each MD does things a little differently though and each type of surgery has it's own set of rules.  I hope my info can get you started but rest assured they will make sure you have the info you need.

Best of luck!

Becka

Thanks Becka, I'm glad I get to talk with someone again about the food. I've already been and seen the RN and dietican, but I felt I didn't know exactly what was ok and not ok to eat. So are the protein shakes that bad? What about the unflavored mixed with other foods?

I could not tolerate the protein shakes-but I found that Slim Fast,  Low Carb type, Vanilla Creme, is fantastic.  It has 180 calories and 20 g of protein and is wonderful! My surgery was October 12th, 10 days after that I was on mushies and then 4 days after that I was able to eat pretty much anything.   I'm still disheartened because I do not have restriction, nothing makes me sick, and I feel like I am failing at this miserably now.  I can't get my band restriction until after Dec. 18th because my doctor is not going to be around.   People bring so much food to work during the holidays and I am terrified because I have NO self control or will power when it comes to certain foods.   I can't eat as much as I used to eat, but I am not limited to a mere 2 ounces yet  either.  Hopefully things will look up when I get my restriction.  Good luck!

I've tried the vanilla unjury in flat orange soda and flat rootbeer.  While it wasn't something I'd seek out if I didn't need it it wasn't too bad.  I do have a can of the unflavored unjury mix but haven't worked up enough nerve to try it yet!  I've been told it's pretty good when hidden in foods like soup and oatmeal.   Right now I'm using a case of EAS Myoplex protein drinks that I bought at Sam's Club (my local super walmart has it too).  It's not bad at all but it's still not something I'd pick to drink unless I was required to have it.  My five year old took a swig of it yesterday and said Mmmmm.... so maybe i'm just being picky.  What I like best about this though is that it has 42g of protein, 2g sugar and 300 calories for 17 ounces.  I like it really cold and right now I can still chug it as my first fill won't be until mid december.  I usually start my day off with it and get it over with.  Once I run out of it i'll give the unflavored stuff a try.   Oh yeah, it was $26.00 for a case of 12 drinks.  Kinda pricey but my husband put it into perspective for me when he said "That's less per day than a 16oz bottle of soda and a snickers at the Thorntons!"  I decided he was right and anyway I'm worth it!  So for right now it's my splurge!