So how am I doing... really?

I've had people ask me "So, how are you really doing?" I thought I'd share some of my day-to-day life as a WLS patient. I am in the trial-and-error stage, where I can eat soft foods (no celery! lol) but am having to learn what my stomach can hold by looking at a quantity on my plate. I guess this is what skinny people do; I have no idea. But I am now having to do it.

Protein intake is very important. I need around 60 grams a day. One ounce of meat, one egg, or one ounce of cheese all have about 7 grams of protein each. So to get 60 grams a day, I'd need to eat roughly 9 ounces of meat a day. Considering my stomach now holds only about 2 ounces volume, getting that much meat in is difficult. So I usually rely on a sugar-free Carnation Instant Breakfast at least once a day, either as breakfast or a snack in-between meals. I've tried protein powder mixes and they are horrid. I've heard of a 3 oz. "protein bullet" drink but I have to order it online. I'm reticent to spend the money if they are going to be nasty, too.

I'm finding fluffy carbohydrate foods do not sit well: bread or buns, biscuits, soft flour tortillas, cornbread, pancakes. Even chewed very well, they just seem to swell in my stomach and make me feel bad. So I leave them alone, or maybe take one small bite after I've eaten my meat for the meal.

Crispy carbohydrate foods seem better tolerated: crunchy pretzels, saltine or Ritz crackers, oyster crackers. I've heard toasting a thin slice of bread makes it go from intolerable to acceptable, but I haven't tried it yet.

I was instructed to not drink liquids and eat solid foods at the same time. I just thought it was to make sure I could eat enough. Yes, that, and IT HURTS to drink while eating now. I can feel the water running past the food to the bottom of my stomach, and it makes me feel queasy, and even a bit painful. I usually order water in a restaurant to have just in case I choke or scald my mouth. But I'm learning to not drink even a sip of it. One thing I do miss is chugging a big glass of water. I physically cannot do it. So I sip, sip, sip all day long, stopping 30 minutes before and at least 30 minutes after meals. But I'm probably staying hydrated sipping all day long, so I have less of a need to chug large volumes of water.

I'm also off caffeine and carbonated drinks. I managed to avoid the caffeine withdrawal headaches, I guess because I had anesthesia. I don't miss the caffeine, and rarely drank soft drinks anyway. I still enjoy the smell of coffee, but I tried a cup of decaf the other day and ti didn't sit well since I followed it with a meal. I've been warned that the carbonation will make me sick as well. Since I'm a water and iced tea drinker, that didn't hurt my feelings much.

Sweets... those are pretty much out. Quick anatomy lesson here: now that my guts have sort of been re-routed, the part of the intestine that is hooked to my new, smaller stomach is not equipped to handle concentrated sweets from sucrose, dextrose, honey, or corn syrup. So the body's response is to try to balance that high concentration of sugar with water. So water gets rushed into the small intestines. Well, it's got to exit somewhere... and I'll leave the rest to your imagination. That is called dumping syndrome, and it's actually considered a benefit of this surgery, as it deters falling back into old eating habits. Calorie-free sugar alcohols, like mannitol or xylitol, found in sugar free gum or candy or Atkins products, are ok in limited quantities, but they too can cause "looseness" in anyone, not just the person who's had WLS. On the bright side, fruit sugar (fructose) and milk sugar (lactose) do NOT cause dumping syndrome, so I can safely eat fruit and milk. It's amazing how sweet fresh fruit tastes when you do not eat sugar.

I discovered yesterday that whipped cream does not sit well, and in fact, will come back up. It did not seem especially sweet, but I think all the air whipped into it (see "fluffy" carbs, above) was rejected by my stomach, just like carbonated drinks are.

So I'm a couple weeks into my trial-and-error period. Lately it seems like I've made more errors, eating 1 or 2 bites too many, whipped cream, drinking while eating out of sheer habit. But I"m really paying attention to my body, so hopefully that will pay off soon. My clothes are still fitting looser.

And I discovered a new thing I can now do! When I'm lying on my back in bed, and I lay my hands on my abdomen and I can intertwine my fingers. I could never do that before. :-)