Liquid diet

It is quite straightforward that after you have surgery on your stomach, you will have to follow a special diet so that you don’t hurt yourself and don’t spoil the outcome. You started in the hospital and your new way of eating will follow you from now on till the end of your days. 

The very first stage after the surgery is liquids. To be more specific, clear liquids. Once you tolerate them well, you will proceed to basically anything liquid, without pieces of solid food inside. Sounds quite logical, right? But how does it actually feel?

Once you get home from the hospital, you must make sure that you keep hydrating yourself and that you keep putting nutrients into your body. Poor creature, it is in complete shock, still wondering where 80% of your stomach has gone, you are slowly walking off the rest of anesthesia, your belly is bloated and you have a few incisions there.

I was lucky that I was feeling very little pain. I was taking only nolotil, painkillers commonly prescribed here. For the first three days, only two pills a day was enough to be comfortable, and then I was taking one before bedtime to be able to sleep better for another three days. It is a no-brainer that I was sleeping on my back at the beginning.

We were given detailed instructions before the surgery about all the stages we would go through what is required and what is prohibited during each of them. I felt pretty well informed it seemed all quite clear to me and I was also investigating online on my own behalf. My body was just having a very different idea when it came to the realization.

I had a detailed plan with all the quantities and timing I was given by the nutritionist, so I started to follow it exactly as it was stipulated there. UGH!!! The intention was there but my body was miserably failing the quantities. I simply couldn’t stuff inside that much. At the very beginning, I was miles far away from my intake goal of whatever. I was drinking too little, I was getting too little nutrients, not only protein, and it was all a mission absolutely impossible. The plan fell completely through. I couldn’t make it at all.

I knew that it was more important to stay hydrated than forcing myself to eat. If I didn’t want to go back to the hospital to get some more fluids, I had to set priorities. The stomach became my new boss. I was busy all the time, I didn’t follow anything I was supposed to eat or drink and I was only having a glass and I was slowly sipping. All day and nonstop. It was a good ordeal. I was lucky it was in April, so it wasn’t too hot. I have no idea how I would have done this in the summer. Even like this it was all so so. I made it and I didn’t have to go back to the hospital. 

It dawned on me that this wouldn’t be as easy as I imagined. I could send down (without any major protests from my freshly cut stomach) only diluted juices and some broth. I was supposed to drink water but it was a huge no-no. It got stuck somewhere in the chest and it didn’t want to go down. It was pinching me in the chest and after a while, I felt as if a stone fell into my stomach. I gave up. They told us this could happen, so I was not panicking. Fast forward, two and a half years after I am still not able to drink plain water. It is still the same feeling. So I switched to teas. It works.

Another thing I was having a really hard time with was milk. It was supposed to be a good source of some energy and protein, but it was a good horror story. My stomach made me know very clearly after a few sips that this was a really bad idea. I was having nasty spasms in the belly, I felt so nauseous I felt like puking all of a sudden and it was physically painful. Nop! And it was the same with diluted yogurts. 

So I was left with broth and juices. I was doing my best and I was adding some protein shakes, but it didn’t go as well as it should. I was happy that I was able to stuff inside a small glass of it, aka one portion, a day. Everything was too much and I felt really nauseous after eating anything at all. This was not a good start. I was trying but it was not working for me. 

My nutritionist was a little angry with me because I was not even close to the numbers I should be able to eat. My body didn’t want it at all. I was sipping all day – broth, diluted juice, and a protein shake. After about three days it was pretty clear that I wouldn’t spend a week on clear liquids at all, it would be longer. I have nothing against it, but my body was starting to have small troubles. 

I felt weak and tired. And horribly bloated. And overeaten all the time. It felt as if you just finished your Thanksgiving dinner and they put another plate in front of you. Eating /sipping became a very annoying major activity of my days. I knew I had to eat, it was crucial, but my body didn’t want it. The problem is that if you overdo it, and it means at this stage one single sip more, you would feel like puking all at once. 

My life began crawling from my room to the bathroom. I often felt so nauseous that I thought that I wouldn’t make it. Salivating like a dog, bloated and overeaten, that was my new reality. No, it didn’t start well at all. 

Mentioning the bathroom here, it was another not-so-funny thing. They told us that we should have bowel movements at least every other day. If not, we should take some stool softener or laxatives to get things out. Thinking about it now… as I could get only liquids inside, there was obviously not much that could go out. And it was exactly my case. On the third day, I was still hoping, on the fourth, it was crystal clear that without any help things wouldn’t move. Sigh… ok, laxatives. If you do this while getting inside only liquids, you can (not) imagine the outcome… no, it was even worse and very explosive 🙁 nasty experience that made me very aware of how much of this thing I was taking. You learn pretty fast from your own mistakes. 

I was not taking any supplements at this point, only a multivitamin that was soluble. It came as a fizzy drink when prepared. The bubbles were making me nauseous as well, so I had a great problem getting it inside. I was depleted of all nutrients, I was barely eating, and I was not taking all of the vitamins I should have. It was complicated. I was able to get in maybe half of that. Luckily it didn’t make any impact on the future results. 

I kept trying to reintroduce the milk or soups that passed through the blender but it was all way too much for me. My stomach, the boss, was against it, and needed three weeks before I was able to proceed to this denser part. It was supposed to be a week, but I took three before I could make it. So I was running behind the original plan from the very beginning. 

The only thing I can say here is to listen to your body. It is great if they told you something and put it on paper, but if your body screams DON’T YOU DARE!!!, it is like that. Don’t force it. It will be you who will have to puke it out. And you don’t want this.