Jumped in with both feet... sank right to the bottom

[BClarkIndy 0]

I was sleeved on 3/29, and was scheduled to start solids this week. Well, as luck would have it, that time coincided with some business associates coming in from out of town who wanted to go out to dinner. Being armed with my wealth of knowledge about the pitfalls of overeating, and after doing so well on the soft food phase, I figured "no problem". Damn, was I in for a surprise.

Of course the group vote ended up being Maggiano's. Man I always loved italian food... lots of wonderful carbs, sauces and huge portion sizes. I figured "who am I to disagree, I'm barely going to eat and I'll find something healthy on the menu". Well, that was my first mistake.

I heard great things about their lasagna. I love lasagna. My wife loves lasagna too, so I figured she could have my leftovers (or I could eat it myself for a couple meals after). So, lasagna it was. No appetizers, just a tiny bit of the lasagna and the rest would go home. I hadn't had much in the way of calories that day, so I figured I'd be ok. That was my second mistake.

The meal showed up and all sense went out the window. I tried to remember my training... small bites, lay your fork down, chew completely, savor every bite, etc., etc. Yeah I ate slowly, and yeah I savored every bite, but I had ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA when to stop!

After just a few bites I *think* I might have been getting full, but when I looked at the plate it barely looked like I touched it. There was no way I had overeaten yet, so I had a little more. That went on for a few minutes more until I realized I had this lump in my chest like I just ate a quart of ice cream too fast. No desire to vomit or anything, just pain. Uh oh I thought, time to stop. Except it was too late. That was my third mistake.

I spent the rest of the night in complete discomfort. When I woke up the next day, I still felt full. Odd I thought, but I went about my second day on solids and had (just half) of a small hamburger patty for lunch. More discomfort. I even ate a little dinner that night because I had very few calories that day, and again more discomfort. That's when I FINALLY realized I was outa control and paying the price from dinner the night before.

Today was the second day since the italian incident. I still feel full and crampy, even when I take sips of Water. My surgeon warned me that my stomach could launch a counterattack if I mistreated it, but who woulda thought it would happen to me on day one! I think I'll take his advise and go back to liquids for a couple days!

Sometimes the best lessons are learned when you experience them yourself. I think I'm going to stay out of restaurants a bit longer until I can adjust to this whole solid food thing.

[iegal 460]

Sorry you had so much discomfort and realize the error of your ways. Did you really try to eat lasagna as first solids? Where is that listed on solids? But at seven months I still have moments where i eat too much or do not chew well enough. This really is a journey of learning new habits.

Thanks for sharing.

[crosswind 134]

I was sleeved on 3/29, and was scheduled to start solids this week. Well, as luck would have it, that time coincided with some business associates coming in from out of town who wanted to go out to dinner. Being armed with my wealth of knowledge about the pitfalls of overeating, and after doing so well on the soft food phase, I figured "no problem". Damn, was I in for a surprise.

Of course the group vote ended up being Maggiano's. Man I always loved italian food... lots of wonderful carbs, sauces and huge portion sizes. I figured "who am I to disagree, I'm barely going to eat and I'll find something healthy on the menu". Well, that was my first mistake.

I heard great things about their lasagna. I love lasagna. My wife loves lasagna too, so I figured she could have my leftovers (or I could eat it myself for a couple meals after). So, lasagna it was. No appetizers, just a tiny bit of the lasagna and the rest would go home. I hadn't had much in the way of calories that day, so I figured I'd be ok. That was my second mistake.

The meal showed up and all sense went out the window. I tried to remember my training... small bites, lay your fork down, chew completely, savor every bite, etc., etc. Yeah I ate slowly, and yeah I savored every bite, but I had ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA when to stop!

After just a few bites I *think* I might have been getting full, but when I looked at the plate it barely looked like I touched it. There was no way I had overeaten yet, so I had a little more. That went on for a few minutes more until I realized I had this lump in my chest like I just ate a quart of ice cream too fast. No desire to vomit or anything, just pain. Uh oh I thought, time to stop. Except it was too late. That was my third mistake.

I spent the rest of the night in complete discomfort. When I woke up the next day, I still felt full. Odd I thought, but I went about my second day on solids and had (just half) of a small hamburger patty for lunch. More discomfort. I even ate a little dinner that night because I had very few calories that day, and again more discomfort. That's when I FINALLY realized I was outa control and paying the price from dinner the night before.

Today was the second day since the italian incident. I still feel full and crampy, even when I take sips of Water. My surgeon warned me that my stomach could launch a counterattack if I mistreated it, but who woulda thought it would happen to me on day one! I think I'll take his advise and go back to liquids for a couple days!

Sometimes the best lessons are learned when you experience them yourself. I think I'm going to stay out of restaurants a bit longer until I can adjust to this whole solid food thing.

Oh Indy what a drag! Even without the sleeve I've never even *entered* maggianos; it just seemed like there was a hulking carb monster inside the doorway who'd been waiting to meet me my whole life.

Maggianos, out to dinner, lasagna, with people you don't know very well...holy macaroni talk about a trial by fire! I don't think I would have survived that without a belly ache the next day either. Sorry that happened to you, you know Italian restaurants have been trying to kill us all for many years. I had a similar thing happen to me the first day of mushies -- I made and ate way too much food and felt completely sick all night long. I felt okay the next day though and made a point of being careful and backing off.

I'm glad you shared Dr. A's advice. I'll remember it if I'm ever the victim of a lasagna bomb.

[samantha209 19]

that sucks....i was told no Pasta for 3 mos....

[wishes 125]

Oh yikes, good tip for post op. Avoid lasagna and measure. Gotcha!

[sychadelic 10]

I can so sympathize, but it is so true, you don't really get it until you experience it yourself. It's too bad though, nobody should have to go through that, it just makes you miserable!

[Coookies 13]

Wow!! That sucks!!! It was a terrible lesson to learn, but necessary too I guess!! At least you didn't puke in the restaurant!!! My doc says I can eat anything I want after the first month... I think I will be avoiding pastas though...

[Beadingnurse 116]

I SO empathize as I had a long post last week that I won't bore you with here but I did basically the same thing in the comfort of my own home (with cottage cheese) and end up vomiting in the neighbor's yard. :crutch: Aren't you glad you DON'T live near me??? It is a miserable, miserable feeling to be so overfull but the good news is....we can LEARN from our mistakes and I have had a much more careful week since my episode. I even went out and bought the darn toddler utensils that the nutritionist recommended even though I didn't think I needed them.

Here is how I rationalize it...I have been eating this way for many, many years and I feel so darn great that my brain does not recall that I have a tiny little tummy now! I still believe that I can and should eat like I always have. :crazy: I am learning to recognize that slight pressure in the chest as my signal that I am full. I am sure that we all have different cues but it is definitely a learning experience! Good luck!

[bilka 6]

I agree with Crosswind, Italians ARE evil...

Anyway it still happens to me too. I discovered that I don't tolerate meat anymore, I have to throw up every single time I eat it (except for baby food, which I am getting tired of).

Sometimes I get carried away, don't think about what I am doing (eating) and end up feeling nauseous all day, even if it's not meat.

I guess lasagne aren't the best choice for the first day of solid food, I'd give it another couple of months before trying them again!

Don't worry too much about it though, as you can see we all had similar experiences, it's hard to get to know the new stomach and our new relationship with different food...

[FindingMe75 9]

Sorry for your bad experience, but thank you for sharing it. It's a few more weeks before I graduate to any solids, but this story will be in the back of my mind when I do...

[So Cal Kurt 32]

Pasta of any kind and soft breads had been the hardest to tolerate at first. bread gave me more pain than anything else. pizza was also incredibly difficult. I can tolerate pretty much everything at this point. One of the things I learned early out is to just get an appetizer for an entree. At that I can usually only eat half. Stay away from fried and high fat foods, they tend to go right through you (that can be a good thing) because I can't tolerate them anymore. Or ask if you can order off of the kids menu. Yes you will get the ," do you want crayons with that?" smart ass comment once in a while. Don't be surprised at how little you can eat. Lasagna would have been my first choice, not because of the calories consumed but the ratio of carbs to Protein.< /p>

[grannyk 58]

I SO empathize as I had a long post last week that I won't bore you with here but I did basically the same thing in the comfort of my own home (with cottage cheese) and end up vomiting in the neighbor's yard. :crutch: Aren't you glad you DON'T live near me??? It is a miserable, miserable feeling to be so overfull but the good news is....we can LEARN from our mistakes and I have had a much more careful week since my episode. I even went out and bought the darn toddler utensils that the nutritionist recommended even though I didn't think I needed them. quote]

I'm 2 days behind you, Bead. I will start mushies on Monday. However I have been eating small bites of avocado which I chew and chew and squish through my teeth (gross, huh), but it tastes good. No problem. Then the other day I took I bite, chewed a couple of times and swallowed without thinking about it. Oops!! I felt it go down and stop. Not pain really, just an uncomfortable feeling and felt it coming back up. I thought "UH OH!! Swallowed, it went down and back toward the top. I just decided, I'm getting this outa here right now and I hocked it out into the garbage disposal. Lesson learned. I will be glad to start mushies for the variety, but I will always remember the first "oopsie".

[BClarkIndy 0]

Thinking about all this in retrospect, I doubt my problem had anything to do with lasagna specifically (it didn't help!) but was more about getting used to how different it is to eat denser foods.

I read somewhere (maybe in my post-op literature?) that graduating from liquids to mushies to solids not only helps with the healing process, but it helps us learn how to eat with our new stomachs. While this may be partially true, I've learned it's a huge difference when "graduating" to solids.

Since liquids pretty much slide right through, it was tough for me during the liquid phase to get an *overly* full feeling as long as I didn't gulp it down. The responsibility to my stomach and body was much easier to deal with. As long as I was watching the calorie meter each day, everything was fine.

Solids brings in a whole new dimension, especially the dense stuff. All of a sudden you gotten PAY ATTENTION to your BODY rather than just watch some food log on a web site. Sounds easy enough, except you immediately realize that old habits are hard to break.

For all the newbies out there like me who just can't wait to get on solid foods, take your time and pay attention to your what your body tells you! I thought liquids were tough; I'm now realizing that may have been the easy part.

[dlflightgirl 2]

I'm sorry you had such a bad first experience. I've been super lucky in that the only thing I can't eat is scrambled eggs. Ive had everything from chicken to steak with no problems and go out to restaurants all the time. My trick is to convience my husband that he wants what I really want to eat and have a few bites off his plate. Our bills are cut in half and I don't worry about the waiters strange looks when I say I don't want anything. As soon as I think I might have had enough I stop eating. I don't second guess myself and after a few minutes I usually start hiccuping which means I've had the perfect amount of food. Good luck as you move to solids and remember to take it slow

[Rev Me Up! 75]

So sorry to hear about it, but chalk it up to experience :-)

I always think of my experience with the sleeve as bio-feedback. You can make yourself really uncomfortable and you will NEVER repeat the offending action again. For example, I tried rice pudding early on in my mushies and it made me feel like crap. To this day I can't even look at a serving of rice pudding. I'm sure it would be fine at this point, but my body/mind remembers and I can't do it.

I find it harder to regulate my consumption when I am talking during a meal. My trick - slice of the portion you know you can eat as soon as the plate hits the table. SLice it and move it to the side so you know what you are supposed to eat. It takes some of th guesswork out of judging the portion.

You'll do better next time!

Lara