Confused Newbie

Rania Sherif · Sep 11, 2017

Hello everyone
This is the first time I post here. I had my surgery VSG done on my 16 July 2017 in Egypt. I am 8 weeks post op and I still cannot tolerate any solid or soft food. I am literally living off of 2 glasses of protein shake, my vitamins and sometimes a cheese stick. That is my diet for the day. Other foods make me feel sick and end up throwing up anyways. I m tired of vomiting so I am just avoiding food in general. Lately I took a chip (cheetos) from my daughter and found out I tolerated it. So now unfortunately I started eating cheetos or rice crackers as these are the only solid food I can tolerate. I m really feeling the guilt but at the same time I don't know what to do. Every time I try to eat any protein, 2-3 bites and I feel like these bites have just been stacked and I get pain and within 15 mins, I will throw up.
My water intake is also very low. If I drink 24 ounces, I consider it an achievement!
Today, I started an alarm on my phone to remind me to drink water. But I really need to stop eating cheetos and crap.
Can anybody encourage me / give me options.
Was anyone like that 8 weeks postosp?

galaxygrrl · Sep 11, 2017

Well, everyone is different. I had a lot of problems with solid food for 4 or 5 months. I threw up all the time. Here is what I did for the first four months.

(1) I had protein shakes for breafast and lunch.
(2) For dinner, I lived on cheese and soft fish. Fresh mozzella worked well. It's super soft. shrimp and white flakely fish worked. At month 4 or 5 I started to be able to eat fatty pork and then, at month 6 ot 7 I could eat chicken and fish.

It's easier for some than others. It took me a while and people said it gets better. For me it got much better, but it was a rough start. Cheetos are not your friend, alas, I love them.

It does get better and lots of people have a rough start. I found the first 6 months really hard. It took me a year to kind of adjust to this new body.

Think about the weight lost snd keep focused on that and that it will get better.

Clematis · Sep 12, 2017

I'm sorry you are having this. That pain is the worst! The first time I thought I was having a heart attack. That will pass, though.

I too vomited dense protein every single day, sometimes multiple times a day. I had a red rash around my eyes from the blood vessels breaking from all the vomiting. Nearly 2 years later I STILL have trouble with dense protein, although I no longer vomit. I lived on yogurt, cottage cheese, refried beans with cheese, and 2-3 Premier Protein shakes. I progressed to chili as the soupy ground meat went down easier... but still I was only able to SLOWLY eat a couple of tiny bites. Thinly sliced packaged ham was sort of ok. Nuts were easy to eat -- although very hard, they pulverize when chewed and slip on through the pylorus. And I will confess I ate crackers too. In fact I believe I would be dead if not for the crackers as I was not consuming enough calories to survive, long term, without them. (I couldn't tolerate most breads and still struggle with them -- it's like they create a dough ball that just won't pass through the pylorus.) Fatty, slippery meats are easiest to get down but we are DSers and malabsorp the fat in it; you do not so there will come a point when you will have to carefully watch that consumption. But right now, just do what you have to do to stay alive.

You must get your fluid intake up! You will feel better. Set Waterlogged app to remind you every 15 minutes. It's really annoying to hear the alarm's "swoosh" but you will soon make drinking a little bit all the time second nature.

Baby steps every day -- it will get better!

Larra · Sep 12, 2017

I struggled after my DS for about 8 months. We never figured out why. I got through it by focusing on protein, whatever protein I could handle. As others have suggested, things like cottage cheese, cheese sticks, shrimp, scallops, soft fish, thin sliced deli meat (try different ones) worked best. After about 3-4 months I could handle steak (rare) but not hamburger. A few crackers are ok, especially first thing in the day to sop up any acid left over from the night and to get the day started (maybe put a little cheese on them if you can handle that).
Do work on your water intake, and that will help you feel better in general. Eat just a couple bites frequently, don't even try for a real "meal". Eventually it WILL get better!

southernlady · Sep 12, 2017

Welcome @Rania Sherif

galaxygrrl · Sep 12, 2017

Well, the other thing to note, is now for me at a year out, it's fine, I can eat anything and I'm comfortable doing so. It just took a long time and I was losing weight, so I was like, well, it's OK and everyone says it gets better. I do have problem with pure sugar OJ and gummy bears - gives me bad washing machine tummy, but otherwise, it's fine. I think I will do protein shakes for the rest of my life for breakfast. I just want to get my protein in and I don't want to cook.

It really does get better.

Rania Sherif · Sep 12, 2017

Thank you everyone for your replies. I am thankful I Found this group. I will try to up my water intake and just take two bites at a time. I am just tired of the heartburn. It's literally killing me and the mess work for only a little bit.