I’ve had a lot of people asking me “ok, what now” in regards to how the surgery works. I’m posting this as information, not as a request for help! When I get to the various stages I don’t need friendly reminders of what I can and can’t eat. I will be the one who knows what I can tolerate and what I can’t.
Here’s a description of the diet:
The first two weeks (14 days) is a clear liquid diet. For me, a clear liquid diet means: sugar free popsicles, sf jello, broth, protein drinks (only time I can have skim milk at this point), sf drinks like Crystal Lite and kool-aid, and of course water. It isn’t bad though because I’m having to force myself to eat three “square” meals a day. Ironically, my weight loss could be hampered if I don’t get ENOUGH calories.
After two weeks of the clear liquid diet, I can be on soft foods. Combined with how my new digestive system works and the smallness of my stomach, I am pretty limited on what I can eat. I can’t think of the full list now but basically everything on the clear liquid diet is fine and I can also have full soups (not stuff with chunks…think like tomato soup), INSTANT mashed potatoes, plain yogurt, sf/fat free pudding, etc. The interesting thing is that many patients who have this surgery become very lactose intolerant, which would be a bummer for me.
After a few weeks of the soft/pureed food stage I can have regular food that is very moist. At that point, whatever I can get down that won’t make me sick or in pain I can have. It’s interesting because a lot of the normal diet advice is completely reversed with gastric bypass. For example, I’m not supposed to drink 30 minutes before or after I eat solid food and I am not supposed to drink during meals. They want as much food to stay in the pouch as long as possible so I can get the nutrients.
I don’t know if this helps envision the size of the new stomach but it’s one ounce. Think of the little cups they give on top of cough medicine like Robitussin. That’s about how big my pouch is right now. It will stretch some and it’s supposed to stretch, but my meals will hopefully never get to be more than a cup in size. I have to spend at least 30 minutes eating. Eventually I expect to be able to eat a meal the size of a small hamburger.
Jamie