So I have been struggling with major hunger since day one of my surgery and it has been incredibly frustrating. I kept wondering if something was wrong with my surgery and it wasn't going to work, or if something was wrong with me and everyone else was tougher than I am... something like that. As you know I was on one ounce of select soft foods every two hours. I was still hungry ALL the time.
Well yesterday as we were getting ready to leave the hospital, I had a stroke of good luck. Kim came in to talk to Ian. She is the head of the entire bariatric program at the hospital. She was asking us questions about our experiences and how everything went since doing the VSG (Sleeve) is still such a new thing there. Funny she made a comment about always going to see each patient, cuz I never saw her! But that's okay, she redeemed herself! I mentioned to her that I had been hungry this whole time, that I was on the restricted soft foods, one ounce every two hours, etc. She told me that was way too restrictive and that if I was experiencing hunger, I should advance to the full soft foods diet... and ALSO I could have anywhere from 1 to 4 ounces every 2-3 hours!
I asked, how can I advance to the next food stage when the class isn't until Wednesday? I don't really know what I can have. She took the time to write down some notes for me!
So as of now I can have:
- Any meat that I can mash up to a mushy consistency. The easiest things are tuna salad and chicken salad but I can do other things too.
- Some fruits and vegetables that are soft and chewed well
- Any kind of fish
- Peanut butter
- Soft cheeses, white cheeses are preferred because they have less fat
- Protein bars, the more dense the better, no hard crunchy ones
- Soups and Chilis
Each meal should be at least 90% protein, only 10% complex carbohydrates from fruits and vegetables.
She also said that even though they usually do not crack down on the 'no drinking during or after meals' until you're on completely solid food, that I should start now and see if it helps with my hunger. So I am not drinking after my meals for an entire hour.
I started that yesterday, and also had some tuna salad that I made up, which I was able to eat 2 ounces of. It helped, but I still felt hungry sooner than I should. The next meal was more tuna and I had 2 1/2 ounces, and this time I felt full the whole rest of the night.
Today has been great - no hunger bothering me today!! This morning I had egg beaters with cheese, diced onions and red and green peppers, of which I ate 2 ounces. My next meal was more of the tuna salad - 2 ounces. My third meal was 1 ounce chicken salad with a 1 oz mozzarella string cheese. My fourth meal was 1 ounce chicken salad and 1 ounce edamame (soy beans). The only time I've felt hunger today is right before I go to eat again, and most of these meals have lasted me 3 hours, not just two!!
I am feeling SO RELIEVED. Nothing is wrong with me, I just needed more substantial food in a larger amount. The thing is, the Sleeve is a 3-4oz stomach right off the bat, whereas gastric bypass patients have a 1oz stomach to start. Since the sleeve is new and not popular yet due to no insurance coverage, they group us with the bypass people. We have their nutrition classes, their instructions and guidelines... but a bigger stomach!!! I mean I can't even eat the 3-4 ounces yet which is great, but I can eat 2 - 2 1/2 so no wonder I was fricken hungry all the time... I was never filling my stomach more than half way with each meal! Kim said they have a lot of work to do developing the program for the sleeve, and this is obviously a major oversight right now. My surgeon was just telling me "the hunger will go away." Kim is a Dr. as well as the director of this whole program so I trusted her too and obviously she was right. I feel so much better and finally feel HAPPY that I did this instead of worried that something was wrong.
Cheers to no hunger pains!!!
Sounds good! Glad you don't have the hunger pains anymore!!
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