cheat a little?

[Clairabellleee 0]

will it hurt to have a tiny bite of food first day post op? IM SO HUNGRY

[Oregondaisy 2,021]

Yes! Your stomach is not supposed to be digesting food. The stomach moves during the digestion process. The band needs to heal properly on the stomach so you don't have a slip a few years from now. You can have Soup. That seemed to fill me up better than Protein Drinks. Put it in a blender so there

aren't any chunks in the soup.

[girlinnyc 0]

do you have any? get some!! those will definitely kill the hunger. follow exactly what the dr. says--you don't want to have MORE surgery to fix something--do you??

soon you'll be eating again--don't worry. give the whole process a chance to work--and you'll be happy with the results.

meanwhile--get some chocolate Protein shakes--like optifast--mix them in the blender with ice--very filling.

good luck!

girlinnyc

[faithmd 14]

Clairabellleee, this is something I posted in another thread where someone was asking about eating four days out, and it may not all apply to you, but I think a lot of it is helpful information you may not have gotten. Hope this helps you!

WARNING, this is very LONG, but if you are cheating and eating when you shouldn't be, it's also very IMPORTANT.

Oh for goodness sakes, people!!!!! There is a REASON that you are told not to eat, it isn't to make you miserable. I will explain why below. Some docs are advancing their patients faster, but those numbers are VERY few. I don't think the data is there yet saying it's okay to eat more solid food so soon post-op, maybe there is, but I haven't seen it yet so I will do what my doc says and that is what makes sense.

Here's my tough love speech:

I remind myself of this everyday. It is NOT easy to stick with this diet, especially when so many other seem to be moving faster through the food stages than I am. But I do remind myself that moving slowly MAKES SENSE and my surgeon's group has had NO SLIPS (other than one that was totally the bandster's fault-eating things he really shouldn't a few days out). Ready?

I am a person who wants data to back up most things a health care provider is doing to/for me. The Allergan website (the folks who MAKE the LapBand) says this about food stages:

Post-Surgery Nutrition

After surgery, you will need a new nutrition plan. Your surgeon

and/or dietitian can help you learn about and get used to the changes in lifestyle and eating habits you need to make. It is very important to follow the eating and drinking instructions beginning immediately after the operation.

In the first few weeks after your surgery, you will be on a liquid diet since only thin liquids will be tolerated by your stomach at that time. As you heal, you will gradually progress to pureed foods (three to four weeks post-op) and then soft foods (five weeks post-op). Finally, you will be able to eat solid foods.

Granted perhaps there is new research that says prolonged periods on liquid diets are not necessary and the Allergan site just hasn't been updated yet. I would wonder what a surgeon who advances quickly's complication rate is and more specifically what their SLIP rates are? Are they advancing people faster because of the AP band and the selling point that it's less likely to slip because of it's width? Is there a study they can show you to support the shorter move to soft foods? Has surgical technique changed and is there a way now to access the back of the stomach (not previously accessed because of it's proximity to the spinal nerves) and suture the band (I haven't heard of it)?

The reason for the liquid diet is because the band gets "seated" on the stomach and held in place by scar tissue that forms during the weeks we are taking in liquids. The stomach is a muscle, and that muscle has to churn and undulate to digest and move food through. Liquid requires little stomach movement to process. When we start to chew something, that lets our digestive system know that food is coming down, fluids begin to be secreted to aid in digestion and the stomach starts moving in preparation to start the breakdown of food. The band is held in place on the front of the stomach by sutures in the stomach where it is pulled up and over the top of the band, then sutured to itself. There is nothing holding the back in place, the surgeon tunnels behind the stomach to pull the band around and then scar tissue forms to hold it. That scar tissue can't form properly or as well if the stomach is churning and moving to digest. Kind of like pulling a paper cut on a knuckle apart every time you bend your finger, it takes forever to heal.

At least that's what the band folks have said for years that is how it all happens. Perhaps someone somewhere has done a new study and what we've always believed is actually not right. It's possible, but not likely.

Do you see now why I'm hesitant to eat early?

Of course, if someone can show me concrete good data (not just a study with a sample of a few patients) that the longer liquid stage is not necessary, then I'll be happy to change my thought process.

I look at it this way, if I were pregnant and my doc told me I had to be on liquids to keep my baby healthy, I cannot imagine being desperate enough to put my unborn child's health at risk. I'd be on that liquid diet PAST the date the doc told me to just to be on the safe side, wouldn't you? Why won't we protect OUR OWN health with just as much vigor?

Why do we risk our own health when we know that being in liquids is for a finite period of time (two weeks, four weeks, six weeks, whatever)?

Why on earth are we "cheating" and risking our bands? Just because something goes down okay doesn't mean it isn't setting us up for damage later. Damage we do now freshly banded may not show up until a year or two down the line. Maybe we have a bad episode of vomiting and because we just couldn't wait to chew, we didn't get good adhesion of scar tissue early on, it may slip.

Really think about it, folks. If it were to protect an unborn life, we'd do anything. This band is the key to our new lives.

I truly hope that no one thinks I am speaking down to them or judging them because they have slipped up. I certainly am not! I am trying to point out the reasons why it is so important to try to get back on that horse and toe the line as long as possible.

I would never dare to say that merely being banded would end years of food issues. Lord knows if I could make it to 371, I have had some food issues, and continue to have them.

I am posting my tough love because it is (as I said) something I have to say to myself every day, if not more often than that. I am by no means perfect. If we screw up, we screw up...Hopefully no harm done. Take the time to evaluate what happened and get back on the path you should be on. My concern is not so much for those who make a mistake once or twice, my concern is that there are so many out there who say, "Oh, it's okay, it went down fine so I guess I can do it." Or those who look at what other's diets are and advance theirs faster than their surgeon or nutritionist reccommended.

But of note, the granddaddy of the band in the Western Hemisphere supports three weeks of liquids before moving to solids. My belief is that chewed really well most solids could be considered mushy so I totally understand the jump over mushy to solid.

I post this because I truly do not believe that everyone got a good education about WHY they should be sticking to whatever liquid stage their surgeon or nutritionist wants them to. So often physicians have a tendency to say not to do something, but never explain the how and the why behind it. If you can give me a good reason for something, I'm much more likely to accept it. It somehow makes a tough thing a little more doable if I know that reason for it is important.

I am not comparing being banded to being pregnant in any way. However, I am pointing out that we would all do the very best we can for a child, yet we tend to be lax when it comes to our own health. Perhaps we should have lots of counseling before we have a bariatric surgical procedure. I know that it is impossible to just say STOP and then do it. If we could say STOP to ourselves, we wouldn't have been fat. But the band requires so much from us, I think (or at least I hope) that we were all fully informed about the changes we were going to have to make after banding. It isn't easy. I knew it was going to be damned hard so when I got closer to being banded I started to practice behaviors that I read about here and other places. I started eating Proteins first, I got baby utensils to eat small bites, I stopped drinking with my meals, I tried to get used to chewing, chewing, chewing (the hardest for me to do). I obviously could not have handled decreasing my intake amounts pre-band, but I did the best I could. I researched, researched, researched. Am I tooting my own horn? Am I the poster child for bandsters? NO! I am pointing out that I got to that "place," I came to that magical moment where I just couldn't take it anymore. I decided (as we all did) to have SURGERY to lose weight. What a crushing blow, to admit that I just couldn't do it alone. Well, I could probably lose some, but I knew it wouldn't stay off. I needed this tool, so I learned as much about it as I could, I learned why we do things. I think if you are going to go so far as to have surgery, you should take some accountability and not say, well, I couldn't do it before, so the band will just stop me. How many threads have we all read where someone thinks it's okay to be so tight they PB on just about everything because that's how they are losing weight? That is NOT good. That's not protecting the band, or ourselves. I am only trying to catch us (and myself) and support us being as healthy and proactive in this journey as we possibly can be. I want every single Bandster to be successful and healthy in their weight loss as they can.

[Ja9 0]

How did you get a Dr. to band you at 17?? Please give me your info, as I need it, thanks.

[Marimaru 7]

Well, after Faith's post, this may be overkill, but I thought I'd add that one little bite leads to just one more bite leads to more.

If you are on Clear Liquids, you should still be able to have Jello, or fruit juice that isn't pulpy (no oj, or Tomato juice). You could always call your doctor and ask if he has any advice. He may have some liquid idea we haven't thought of that would help. Also, ask him about Protein Shakes. Some doctors don't allow them on the clear liquid diet, and some do.