David's Nissen Journey ~Surgery 11/1 Part 1 of 2 Closed

I'll give it a try.. I might try that baby oatmeal. Might as well be adventurous. I'm planning on going to the grocery store tomorrow, so might as well pick it all up at once. I've had another big breakthrough in my swallowing abilities today, liquids still get stuck, but I'm slowly able to have bigger sips. Less waiting for the liquid to get past my wrap! (You know how all this goes, it can be a roller coaster recovery) But the fact that I can swallow more at once is good news!

Thanks for the help with the coconut oil, I'm excited to try it out! I see that there are tons of uses for coconut oil, and as it turns out, is really healthy for you.

Today was some hot vitamin D milk with whipped cream and chocolate syrup. That worked out well.

I bought some instant packets of cream of wheat. I used milk instead of water, then added extra cream to thin it after it was cooked. I sweetened it with brown sugar. It was really good. You could try that instead of oatmeal. I tried oatmeal, even thinned out it was too gummy to swallow.

You will gain some of that weight back in time. I lost 11 or 12 in the beginning and at 2 months post-op, I'm down about 6 or 7. I'd like to lose some more.

My juicer should be shipped soon and I'm excited to try some kale! Check out the nutrition of this stuff..

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/30/kale-facts-nutrition-info_n_3671210.html

Seems most people agree that eating whole fruits is the best way to go, but in terms of vegetables, especially kale, your body is only going to absorb so much of the leafy greens nutrients until its in liquid form. Unfortunately, I cannot handle much beyond liquids, so my new juicer is going to have to do that whether we think its healthier or not to be in juice form. I'll definitely be picking up the other things we mentioned in the last posts, like the coconut oil. And maybe the baby oatmeal and cream of wheat.

Post Edited (Diaas2) : 11/15/2013 9:24:05 PM (GMT-7)

I'll be careful.. I may not be able to do much beyond liquids right now, but I do seem to be able to burp a bit. Not a lot but a little. Hopefully I won't get too gassy. I just got my juicer and took it out of the box.

One of the recipes in the book it came with was "sweet potato apple almond milk." With 441 calories, 10.3g protein, 12.3g lipid, some potassium, and B1. Supposed to help with gastro-intestinal functions, and prevent cardiovascular disease. Looking forward to making that in my new Hurom slow juicer. I'll let everyone know how it works out. (Need to go to the store to buy all these things first.)

Post Edited (Diaas2) : 11/14/2013 2:14:53 PM (GMT-7)

I'll put the GasX right next to the juicer..

Made some pineapple juice with a bit of apple juice. Really enjoying that. No gas issues so far. Still looking for that baby oatmeal, but I did find some instant cream of wheat with maple brown sugar. I've been taking really tiny bites just to be careful, even chewed up a few almonds quite a bit and all that managed to go down. The cream of wheat got cold and thick halfway through, so I stopped eating it, just because of how slowly I was eating , but I'll call this a success! I may be experimenting with some mushy foods, but I'm still making it a point of eating extremely slowly. Maybe the swelling is going down a bit. Nothing I've eaten this morning got stuck.

I'll share this link on the top 10 inflammation fighting foods, one of the reasons I chose it in my diet this morning. From what I understand, inflammation is a big reason why food has trouble getting past my wrap. All the swelling happening at the surgery site. They say that pineapple is one of the foods that is quite potent in reducing inflammation in the body, while reducing pain thereby expediting recovery.

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/top-10-anti-inflammatory-foods.html

Post Edited (Diaas2) : 11/15/2013 1:12:04 PM (GMT-7)

No problem! I hope some of that can help you out, I know you tend to avoid the fruits, but maybe the almonds, walnuts, ginger and sweet potatoes can help out. Me too, still baby steps, but good none the less.

Did you eat the lettuce, too? I guess it wouldn't have been very much. See, you can eat that stuff as long as you chew it like crazy. Yeah!

I had about a 1/3 cup of creamy coleslaw last night - had my gasx ready and waiting and I never needed it. Woot!

I finally regurgitated what was stuck at my wrap. It seems I'm going to need to slow down my quest in eating bigger and tougher foods. I literally spent all day trying to figure out how to get rid of that sensation of food being stuck, for a while, it seemed like maybe I was just imagining things considering how hard it was to get rid of what was there. There were three rather large chunks of food that came up, I have no idea how such large objects can just sit there at the wrap site like that. Took 12 hours for all that to come back up. In other words, don't try to eat fruits whole, especially those clementines.

Post Edited (Diaas2) : 11/16/2013 10:26:13 PM (GMT-7)

Definitely no fresh fruit. I really do feel a thousand times better, all things considered. I just can't wait to eat like normal again. It really sucks not being able to eat. Everyone else seems to be able to eat sloppy foods at this point. I was able to once a little bit, with the taco I ate, but even that got stuck and I needed to eat it for at least an hour, chewing extremely slowly.

I did wake up with a little bit of reflux. Not a lot, but that worries me a bit. That's normal, right?

Post Edited (Diaas2) : 11/18/2013 5:13:16 AM (GMT-7)

Yuck...its like we are at the opposite ends of the spectrum here, I felt like mine is too loose and you felt like yours is too tight. I wonder how difficult it is for the surgeon when they are in there when they decide how tight to make a wrap. I think each surgeon has their own technique.

I am almost wondering if you had more swelling than the average person. Do you notice any inflammation problems otherwise? Just pulling strings here wondering....

You did say your manometry was fine right?

That is quite a bit of weight. I know you are still in the healing stages...so try to hang in there. I know they can stretch your wrap if they need too, but man, When they say loose, I think of my wrap, or Lauries wrap. I think we were eating fairly normally pretty quickly. I never really had any trouble getting liquids down either, but I know everyone is different.

Your swelling will go down, just try to wait it out. :(
have you been having any protein shakes or anything like that?