Preparing For Gastric Sleeve Surgery

I just had my first visit with my nutritionist. We talked about how my diet will change after the surgery, and she sent me some more reading material. I have to admit, I'm a little nervous about how my hypoglycemia is going to handle the full liquid phase. There are protein drinks and powders I will heavily rely on during this time. So I'm hoping to do okay.

Immediately after surgery, I will be on a clear liquid diet. I will be in the hospital for this part. The stay is usually only for one day. If I'm going to have a problem with my blood sugar, it will most likely be during this time.

After I am home, and for the next four weeks after, I am going to be on a liquid diet. Just liquids, nothing else. After the surgery, my stomach will swell and only liquids can pass through. Some people have trouble keeping anything down and experience vomiting right after surgery. I am hoping I don't have the vomiting. I hate vomiting.

It will be a challenge for me not to drink too much. I get dry mouth from medicines I take. And that makes me drink a lot. If I drink too much, it will make me feel pressure in my chest from being too full.

My diet for the first four weeks will look like this.

If I have been able to tolerate the liquid diet and have been able to keep everything down, I will switch to the pureed diet. Everything I eat during the pureed diet will be the consistency of applesauce. I'm glad they have suggestions for this. Because in my mind I'm thinking, put it in a blender and hit puree? The pureed diet looks like this.

After week seven, I will move on to soft foods easily chewed things. Things you can squish between your fingers. If you can cook it until you can smash it with a fork, you can eat it. My mind went directly to bananas, acorn squash, and potatoes. Three of my favorite things to smash before I eat them. I will find new things to smash and eat during this time.

There are still a lot of foods you can not eat because you are only eating soft foods, a whole page full of do not eat foods. It's no wonder you lose so much weight after getting this operation. You need to be extremely careful of what you take in until your stomach heals.

The soft solids stage will last several months. I am going to miss eating cashews, pistachios, and macadamia nuts. I love them. According to the reading material my nutritionist sent me, regular food cannot be added to my diet during the first seven months following surgery. This is what they suggest to eat when you are back to eating regular food.

It will always be necessary to chew my food until it's mush. That sounds disgusting, but it's what I was told. I'm missing a few teeth, so I will have to improvise with this one. I guess that's what blenders and food processors are for. I had to blend my food before. After I had a cervical fusion, an operation fusing an area in the cervical area of my spine. It swelled my throat from the surgeon pushing my esophagus out of the way so he could get to the bones and operate. I couldn't eat solid food for a week.

I'm nervous but also excited. The biggest challenge that I see directly in front of me is losing 5% of my weight. If it were easy for me to lose weight, I wouldn't be taking such a drastic step.

Please keep your fingers crossed for me.

If you are a praying person, I would appreciate it if you add me to your prayer list.

I need to lose 20 lbs before they will do the surgery and I've only lost two.

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