Sense of smell

[Koofka 59]

Hello all - new poster.

11 days post op for my gastric sleeve, spent the first seven days post op on liquids only and have been on a pre-select soft food diet for the past 5 days (oh what fun). Coming up with more and more odd combinations of refried bean, greek yogurt, egg white, sugar free pudding, and cottage cheese. Sad what passes for an "omelet" at the moment.

Something odd I noted almost immediately upon arriving home was my sense of smell, particularly with regard to how foods smell, seem particularly altered. Have a household that has always enjoyed cooking and have done so several times for my lady as a thank you for how well she has been nursing me and the aroma of the foods is just nowhere near as full as pre op.

Is this common? At least one other full bypass patient at my 1 week check in mentioned a similar change. Is it permanent or something that changes over time?

Thanks all - and best of luck to all those on or getting ready for the same journey.

[Madam Reverie 2,958]

Yep, it changes... Smell being intrinsically linked to sense of taste, too...

What you loved before, may turn your stomach for a while.

What you avoided before, may turn out to be your new 'best' food.

I have a man who is performing the function of 'human dustbin'.

As I try things and feel they're 'not right' at the moment - it's passed over to him to finish off.

He's put on weight as a consequence (he's 6ft 3 and weighs under 80kgs, so it's no major hardship)

There is also a fair amount of medical research with lab-rats, which showed post bariatric surgery, they avidly avoided 'bad' things and went for the 'better things' in preference.

I guess it's our body's way of saying 'Yeah, you've just had major surgery on your stomach, I'm going to mess with your hormones and senses for a while'...

Not a bad thing - on balance. Stopped me from eating cheese for the longest time. And cheese. Was. My. Nemesis....