Posted 2/2/2015 5:20 PM (GMT 0)
Welcome to the forum, fbr.
Wow! You were lucky to get surgery soon enough to save your life.
You are still in the early stages of recovery, especially from such an extensive surgery. The swelling and pain may be at it's worst about now. It takes a lot longer than most people expect for more involved surgeries. At least you avoided a thoracotomy! It's standard to retract the liver, but things can happen. With stomach in chest, like mine was too, they have to do a lot of work above the diaphragm, right next to the heart and up into the area of the esophagus. I was informed before surgery that there was a possibility of having to go open, but I got lucky.
Don't worry about getting off the pain meds right now. This is when you need them. You had abdominal surgery plus chest surgery, after all! You'll recover, be able to function, much better if your pain is tolerable. The docs want us to walk, but you can't do that if you're in pain.
I didn't lose any weight, although I had some to spare, because I tried to swallow liquids every hour or two. It was at least a couple of weeks before I could get down more than 1/4 cup at a time (after a GPEH, about 4 1/2 - 5 hr surgery). I have a lot of food intolerances, so I had made my own meat and veg broths and frozen fruit juices. I am lactose intolerant, for one, so I had lactose-free milk when I was allowed, after 2 weeks.
Those "nutrition" drinks are nothing but milk with corn syrup and vitamins, and thickening agents. Same thing with sports drinks - water with corn syrup and artificial flavor and not nearly enough salt to keep your levels up. I found tea and coffee with milk and my own broth with some salt was better. When you get to it, smoothies might be nice.
Best wishes!