Good and bad.

Haha, I feel like I only come here to whine - I promise I'm still  positive about this surgery!

So I'll start off with this - I went for my first doctor's visit this week post-op (a week and a half later), and came to find out I've already lost 25 pounds. Which was a super pleasing thing to see. I was told to head to the heart doc I know just to check out my pulse, since it's fast, but besides that, it's a pretty clean bill of health. I'm healing well and everything. This, for obvious reasons, pleases me.

Now the questions/gripes:

First, to start simply: how long between bites did you guys take when you first started out? Because I know I'm eating fast, or I think I am, but I am never sure how slow I'm supposed to go. My doctor basically just gave me the "Eat slow" advice and that's it. I'm a fast eater, or I was, and I think I've kicked every habit BUT that. Ugh.

I've been on stage II, deligently eating what I've been calling cat food (what, that's what it looks like, hah!). Annnd the stomach pain has started. It doesn't last, and it's kind of crampy after I eat, but it's enough to be annoying. I'm not entirely sure what's causing it, but it's usually lower on my stomach (bellybutton area). My initial thought is gas, but I keep reading about hernias and getting nervous. Does that sound like anything you guys experienced? it's almost 2-weeks post-op for me. I'm still going to bathroom regularly, though it's soft (as an FYI, my gallbladder was taken out with it).

And here's the really fun TMI stuff:

At times my stool smells a little like eggs. People describe rotten egg smell, but it doesn't smell rotten. It just smells like eggs, like the eggs I ate for breakfast. Not really sure what that's about, either, but it makes me worried I'm not digesting this stuff right. I'll be calling my doc on Monday, but I figure I'd poke here to see if any of you have dealt with this.

I sure wish I could sleep until I'm back to 100% and mostly pain free.

Hope you all are doing ok!

Pain from a hernia is almost never tied to eating, so that is unlikely the problem.  It could still be gas.  I would just give it a little while and report it to your surgeon if it continues.  It might be related to the way your stool smells (which I have no idea about).  Do your stools LOOK normal?

As far as HOW slow to eat, I was only told to be sure to put my fork or spoon down and to chew everything to mush before swallowing.  I followed that and had no problems.

Congrats on the 25 pounds!

Lora

Thank you. :)

And they don't look any different than they did last week, at least. It's been runny since day one, which we're working on fixing, but checking, I didn't see any sort of bits of undigested food or anything like that. So I'm at a loss.

Agh, my body is out to drive me crazy by the end of this, I just know it. :P

I think the stool thing is basically you are what you eat. as far as eating my NUT told me to chew for 30-45 seconds and wait 60 seconds between each bite. COngrats on the 25 lbs

I ate really fast at first too. Then I saw a post where someone on here said they take a bite and while they're chewing, they pick up a word search and find 3-4 words before taking another bite. Hopw this helps!

Congrats on the weight loss!

I too was a fast eater.  I bought a pair of coctail fork and spoon, they are much smaller and forced me to take small bites.  And I would set the utensil down after each bite to make sure I chewed before putting any more in.  Now, I don't have to think about it as much.

Sorry, I can't add anything to the other issues, I didn't experience any of that.  Wishing you the best.