Suggestions/tips

[beege 8]

Hiii everyone. My surgery is scheduled for July 19th. I have time for this but I am totally a planner and need to start planning things. Does anyone have any tips or tricks they can share? I need to start making a grocery list for my pre and post op diet so if you have low sugar baby food suggestions or just any type of suggestion in general i would greatly appreciate it. I am starting to get nervous about it and need to focus on getting things prepared lol. Help mee

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[PatientEleventyBillion 851]

Go to the store, spend time looking at foods and nutrition labels, decide which best suits your diet plan.

[teacupnosaucer 445]

I had a lot of those cartons of creamed Soup post-op, which I often added milk and unflavored Protein Powder to. I also used a lot of Protein powder (both unflavored and sugar-free flavored varieties) and smooth greek yogurt. I bought oatmeal but discovered I could only stand the unsweetened stuff immediately post op, the normal stuff was WAYYYYY too sweet for me to tolerate. High protein milk (Fairlife in the USA, Natrel in Canada) was a great way to get in some more protein and a hundred or so more calories a day, as well as upping my fluids when Water was weirdly awful to drink. I think I had some unsweetened applesauce, but not often.

Basically my rule for myself was if it wasn't a source of protein, I didn't eat it those first couple weeks. There was just so little room in my tummy or will to eat, I needed to make every single bite "count".

I think the biggest surprise was how much sweetened stuff in general disgusted me and tasted bad though. pudding cups, popsicles, Protein Shakes, oatmeal... I had absolutely zero interest in sweet things. I lived off of savoury for at least a week before introducing limited amounts of sweeter foods. (AKA going from plain oatmeal to plain oatmeal with half a teaspoon of raspberry jam VS the high protein maple brown sugar oatmeal I'd been suggested to buy).

I know some surgeons include baby food in their post-op diet plans, but I can't imagine myself eating that post-op. If it's not specifically recommended for you, I would like to say it really isn't required. I was kind of emotional and crotchety after surgery and was even resentful of the pureed Soups, so I can only imagine how crabby I'd have been to be eating food meant for a baby LOL. Your mileage may vary on that one.

I think my biggest piece of advice from one planner to another though... is DON'T OVERBUY. I was totally like "oh yeah I'm gonna stock up on all this stuff and it'll be perfect!" and then things I stocked up on... I ended up not wanting to eat and not liking. Stuff like said high protein oatmeal which I had always enjoyed before suddenly tasted terrible and now I was stuck with four stupid boxes of the stuff.

Buy enough for a few days so you're not stuck with stuff your new belly/tastebuds aren't digging. Yes it means you're a little less prepared for the post-surgery apocalypse, but there's always online shopping and grocery delivery if you don't have enough of something. Post bariatric surgery is the one time I'd actually advocate "better to need it and not have it than have it and not need it". Also, I really looked forward to grocery shopping post op because it was a great way to get out of the house and do some limited walking

[teacupnosaucer 445]

Oh and other preparations I can recommend: an electric heating pad (so amazing for pain and gas post-op). That thing was a friggin' life saver! I also had one of those microwaveable rice bag things to put in the small of my back, which was hurting quite often too. High waisted leggings were the only pants I could wear. Anything that sat below my belly button and especially my jeans were incredibly uncomfortable. You may be quite swollen after surgery too, so something with a decent amount of stretch is a good idea. (I looked about 7 months pregnant after mine, oof! thank god for stretchy costco sweatpants!) I also recommend some kind of compression garment. Some people get actual post-surgical compression band things like people wear after a c-section, but I just had some nice compression athletic wear. I felt a lot more comfortable with the tightness against my belly holding me in. for the first week or so I felt like my organs were going to fall out every time I stood up and walked. (they most certainly did not do that, everything was COMPLETELY FINE.) the compression against my belly helped me feel a little more secure and comfortable.

[shan0520 241]

My only suggestion is bring chapstick!!!

[nomorefattypatty 329]

Hiii everyone. My surgery is scheduled for July 19th. I have time for this but I am totally a planner and need to start planning things. Does anyone have any tips or tricks they can share? I need to start making a grocery list for my pre and post op diet so if you have low sugar baby food suggestions or just any type of suggestion in general i would greatly appreciate it. I am starting to get nervous about it and need to focus on getting things prepared lol. Help mee
Sent from my LGMS330 using BariatricPal mobile app

I used premiere Protein Shakes before surgery and Atkins shakes for my prop diet, I would put nutmeg and cinnamon in the vanilla shake with a little splenda, tastes just like eggnog. I got some baby foods like sweet potatoes, a little peaches but most of all we just need to use these until we can eat regular foods and then we just need to always remember Protein. You can purchase "six star protein powder unflavored you can put into yogurt, drinks they sell it at Wal- mart. Its also good in SF, FF, pudding.< br>
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[beege 8]

I used premiere Protein Shakes before surgery and Atkins shakes for my prop diet, I would put nutmeg and cinnamon in the vanilla shake with a little splenda, tastes just like eggnog. I got some baby foods like sweet potatoes, a little peaches but most of all we just need to use these until we can eat regular foods and then we just need to always remember Protein. You can purchase "six star protein powder unflavored you can put into yogurt, drinks they sell it at Wal- mart. Its also good in SF, FF, pudding.< br>
Sent from my N9519 using BariatricPal mobile app

Thank youu so much!!


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[GrrlAnn 177]

On 6/3/2017 at 9:34 PM, teacupnosaucer said:

Basically my rule for myself was if it wasn't a source of Protein, I didn't eat it those first couple weeks. There was just so little room in my tummy or will to eat, I needed to make every single bite "count".

I think the biggest surprise was how much sweetened stuff in general disgusted me and tasted bad though.

This! Protein only - don't start eating fruit or anything like that out the gate. You need the surgery to kill any sugar addiction you have.

I also recommend getting lots of types of broth. After a few days, when I started to feel better, I started to miss having dinner with my family. I would heat up broth and add unflavored protein powder. I bought every option I could find - chicken, beef, vegetable, mushroom. After awhile, before I was put on soft foods, I got really, really bored of eating liquids. I started mixing the broths together to make them more exciting. LOL!

Buy enough to get you through the first week or two. Your taste buds will change SOOOO much - mostly disliking just about everything you taste. So don't buy a lot of any one thing. You are going to want to get out of the house after feeling cooped up.

Best of luck!