First post-surgery solid food

Not sure if it's considered a solid, but I had Cream of Wheat. For the first real solid food, I believe it was a plain chicken breast with mashed potatoes.

Thanks, Marianne. Mashed potatoes sounds like what I'll probably have first. I'll probably hold off on the chicken until later, that way I can measure the "success" of the potatoes.

Bay Area Guy, did you have any pain or complications getting back to solid food?

Summerstorm, did you have a problem passing any of it?

your reaction to the first meal is normal/very common. the whole digestive system is very sensitive after a surgery like this. after all it's been invaded and cut, so for a while the contractions won't be regular/systematically normal.

for some ppl it all works out faster than others and they can eat anything, or almost anything pretty early post op. it could be that it's not really the chicken it self, but just that your digestive system was not ready for food yet, and it wouldn't have mattered what you would eat. i had my colectomy 4 yrs ago with ileorectal anastomosis. a yr later had a loop ileostomy created, which i have till today. i got the most excruciating pain just from a sip of water, when they asked me to drink day after ileo op. so at first it doesn't matter what you put in your mouth, your system is just not ready yet, and it can react badly even to water.

so take it slow, very small amounts, chew each bite as much as you can and experiment what's good or not good for you. i stuck to soft-solid low fiber diet for the first 6-12 mons post colectomy. chicken was one of the better foods for me actually. it is low residue and supposed to be safe. but everyone is different, so it's more of a trial and error thing. my first meal was mash potatoes and chicken. went through just fine.

feel better soon. all will work out for you with time.

I had some wee complications at first, but not from the food. I had a small bowel obstruction that caused nausea and dehydration from vomiting and that sent me back to the hospital for another week. Once I got over the small bowel, things went fine food wise. Of course, the next "wee" complication was caused by the NG tube aspirating some gunk (yeah, I know, a real technical term there) into my lung and causing pneumonia, which got me back in the hospital for another ten days. But, like I said, after the small bowel was taken care of, I didn't have any food-related problems. One thing that I think helped a lot was a daily yogurt. I still do that and haven't had any stomach issues for quite some time (knock on wood).

potatoes do slow down things, but still they are not too hard on the intestine to digest. if you find it is slowing you down too much, better avoid. it is recommended for those who have too much output to it slow down, but not if it slows the output down too much.

i have a slow small intestine so slowing down foods are not good for me. i try to eat foods that cause a bit of diarreah, like fresh squized pear juice first thing in the morning on an empty stomach, eggplants, cooked tomatoes - wonderful in excelerating things in there, yogurt. i also drink prune juice regulary. my small intestine is kind of inert, so it needs help. i do combine small amounts of stopping foods, like potatoes, crackers, pasta, but just very small amounts.

Penny,
My surgery was more than two weeks ago, and I had been on clear liquids until today (with the exception of my first failed attempt).

My other problem is that I have PSC messing up my liver (I'm on the transplant list) and it caused ascites, excessive fluid built up in my abdomen that had to be drained (4.5 liters was taken), and now it's coming back, but I need high protein foods to combat it.

Eggs have always been easy for me to eat and are very soft. I'm thinking of trying those soon.

Never eat solids if your stoma isn't outputting. Try drinking warm liquids and/or juices, using a heating pad, walking, lying in different positions (e.g. on your side, knee to chest, etc), and gently massaging the area around your stoma until you start to see output. Your system is probably still in the process of waking up. Eating more solids when you aren't outputting will just increase your pain level, unfortunately.