I am loving oatmeal right now! To add calories, I put two creamers in and to sweeten it up, I add Splenda.
Oatmeal always goes down well and it’s good on iron content.
The packaging on the Splenda made me laugh though. Thinking it’s customers want to watch their weight, it has little phrases on the packet. Tonight’s said, “Eat meals frequently to stave off the munchies.” I’m kind of chuckling away. Wanted to tell Splenda that that is what I do all the time! 🙂
Have a great night!
Hey Marne!
I’m day 6 post-gastrectomy and I’ve already been struggling a lot with my diet. Twice yesterday I got really sick from two foods: cream of wheat cereal in the morning and a sugar free pudding that I used to mix my protein supplement with. Besides a full liquid diet which has gone great so far, I haven’t been able to eat much else. I was wondering if you have a little menu of items you stuck to directly after surgery (like within the first couple of weeks) specifically?
Oh and I forgot to ask: did you suffer with this feeling like your esophagus was spasming sometimes? Thoroughly uncomfortable. Let me know, maybe it’s just me.
Hey Steve!
The first days are super tough. I was always told the key is to take it slow…very slow. Tiny bites, chew a lot and break in between. Yes, you will eat a lot of cold food for a while.
I didn’t do any protein supplements while I was on the feeding tube, so I wouldn’t worry about that while you have the feeding tube going. I’ve found the protein supplements are a bit tough on my gut even to now, so I still take those slowly.
As for spasms, immediately after surgery my throat was very sore from the tubes that were down my throat during the procedure. Afterwards my throat still feels like there’s a lump. It just feels different for a while. I wouldn’t classify mine as spasms, but everyone reacts differently.
Take it slow and just keep trying. A food that doesn’t work today, you might retry later and see how it goes. Your body is constantly healing and adapting.
It’s so encouraging to go back and read you old posts, seems like food just gets easier. Right now, I haven’t had too much luck with a lot of grains, I tried a piece of white toast the other day and it made me feel terrible, although, Kate made me a “box” sugar free brownie by Pillsbury and it was delicious! At this point anything that goes down and stays down is a victory. I keep getting food “stuck” in my esophagus and my body REALLY does not like that and it hurts like a beast! Happens about twice a day. How long did this stage last for for you? Also, how long did it take you to start getting active and running again? Thanks for doing all you do!
Food does just take time. That’s why I tell people to just keep trying… Easier said than done when you’re throwing up food again or in discomfort from a food. Just remember why you did the surgery!!
Breads are very tough. That goes for pita bread too. I’ve found there’s water crisp crackers that are really easy.
My food does still get stuck every once in a while, but he way my body reacts is by salivating, then I force it up until I get rid of whatever bite I didn’t chew enough. My brother hasn’t thrown up like me…instead he gets more discomfort and his body keeps the food down. It seems like everyone has food get stuck, just the reaction is different.
Keep trying to hold food down. It was frustrating at first wondering how many calories were actually staying down!! Add fat, butter, oils, whatever to add calories. Small volume. High calorie at first.
Keep it up.
Oh yeah, the running question. I was fighting so hard to maintain my weight, my biggest delay in my return to running was just not being able to keep up with calories to run & continue to work full-time. I think I started back up at 12 weeks post op. And I kept my running distances fairly light for a while since I was still healing and adjusting.
I returned to work around 10 weeks post op. And it took all my energy get kids up, get to work, work all day and get to bed. My husband had to get the kids bathed so I could get ready for bed at the same time. I would go to sleep almost the same time as my kids for a while! 🙂
Stomach removed in Dec, 9 weeks of chemo before and 9’weeks of chemo afterwards
Any advice about eating would be appreciated. Everyone says small meals and often, but no specifics as to how small or how often. Experiencing gut pain a lot .
Thanks
Hi Roger,
Everyone is different. I “spit up” any bites I didn’t chew well enough. My brother gets gastric discomfort, but doesn’t throw anything back up.
The best example I can use about portion size at your stage post op was one of those little lunchables with just cheese, crackers and ham. I could eat half of one package, wait a half an hour, then eat the other half. I could eat one scrambled egg in a sitting, but not two. (I have had a bad experience with eggs once, but it’s usually not chewing enough.) Spaghetti with meat sauce has usually gone well. I can eat half a kid’s portion. For portion size, another good reference was that I can eat half a McDonald’s kids 4-piece nugget kids meal. At chick-fil-a I order just the breaded chicken patty and it took me 30 min to eat 7/8 of it.
Strip breads out of your diet because they’re too filling.
As for frequency eating…because it took me so long to eat at the beginning, not an hour went by during the day where I didn’t eat some nuts, have a small meal or drink some water. It gets better, but at the beginning to try for 2000 calories, it took focused attention from the time I woke up until right before bed to get my calories in small enough portions that I wasn’t uncomfortable.
My portion size has increased tremendously now that I’m almost a year post-op, so keep that in mind. I still have trouble with hamburger meat sometimes. But I can eat a healthy portion now. I still supplement one protein shake a day. It’s my mid-morning snack and causes me to eat lunch a little late. In between meals, I drink water.
Think of your diet as grazing all day.
Hope that gives some insight.you can read my posts at 9 weeks post op and other ones I wrote my food log. Also there are fellow cdh1 bloggers who have posted and there’s a Facebook group called “partial and total gastrectomy support”. A lot of good examples from our fellow stomachless crowd there.
Marne
Thank you for your response, very helpful!