3 days post op

Hi all, I'm 3 days post op and have a question for this 2 week liquid phase. I'm supposed to drink 4oz of liquids each hour I'm awake, which is 1 oz every 15 min. I find that I feel thirsty but too bloated to drink. Do you push to drink? I'm afraid to overdo but don't want to get dehydrated either. Any tips greatly appreciated!

Hi there!

10 years out here. Sip. Sip. Sip. It's going to feel continuous, but that's really all you can do. Just simply sip through it. Try as hard as possible to hit your goal, but if you miss an oz or two here or there, just keep trying.

As everyone who has been there will tell you "drink like it's your job" Congratulations !!!?

I kept a water bottle next to the bed and sipped when I woke up during the night. I was getting very dehydrated during the night so added that to my daytime sipping.

Glad to see you here -- I think it would be really hard to "over do it' that early on! I don't know if it's true but I've heard if you are thirsty, you are already dehydrated so definitely important to keep sipping.

Try different temperature liquids and see if that helps. My plan only had one week of liquids but it was 64 oz a day of normal gatorade (and then if I wanted I could have water or broth; it was horrible week but I got through it!). Good luck and walk walk walk, sip sip sip.

You can't hurt yourself or stretch your pouch by drinking too much. Do as much as you can!

I know exactly what you mean by that "bloated" feeling because I had the same thing. I didn't know after those first few days how I could get it all down. Looking back, I think that bloated feeling that I had and the pressure that I felt was actually gas from the surgery. The more I walked, the easier it got to get more fluids down. Try walking more and see if that helps. Good luck!!

Thank you all! Any advice for this newbie throughout this journey is greatly appreciated...it takes a village!

I used to set an alarm on my phone to remind me to drink, take vitamins, and eventually eat. It went off every few minutes for the first month, I think, lol, but I needed the reminders!

Congratulations on your surgery!

Yes, you need to push yourself to drink. You are very unlikely to hurt your new stomach by drinking too much water. One thing that I find that helps with the "thirsty but too bloated to drink" feeling is to add a bit of acidity to the water, like a splash of lemon or other citrus. Maybe it's my imagination, but it seems to lower the surface tension of the water, making it better at thirst quenching but less "bulky". Another favourite of mine is to put a tea bag in a bottle of water and leave it in the fridge for a few hours... effortless iced tea. I use a variety of herbal teas for this purpose, to get the variety. Lemon-ginger tea is particularly good for an upset tummy.

My surgeon explained to me that a normal stomach holds a certain amount of fluid which your body can draw on if it needs more hydration. But after surgery, that ability is gone, so you have to drink more water than someone who hasn't had surgery.

Getting enough fluid is what you need to worry about now. It's far more important than the protein drinks. Even though you can't get many calories for the next couple of months, you won't develop a protein deficiency or get malnourished. But you can easily get dehydrated. I found out the hard way when I became dehydrated while checking out in the supermarket and had to sit down immediately on the floor and start drinking water. Rather embarrassing!