Food!

Just thought I would recap my eating experience so far...

I was lucky enough to have an NG tube the first 24 hrs, so my first few "meals" were poured directly into my stomach. These meals were usually one bottle of isopure, which was about 10oz and had 190 calories. These were given before my pain meds.

Dr. Henry is anti-syringe, pro-slurping out of a cup. In ICU the first night he found a huge cup and let me try slurping down some diluted ginger ale.
This was not very successful. Most of it went down my chin. However, there was one spot on my tongue that could "taste" and the ginger ale was heavenly. But too taxing to keep trying.

On day 1 Post op they took the tube out, so I was responsible for actual eating. The nurses put together some syringes (even though Dr Henry frowned upon them) and off I went to my recovery room. I had met with the hospital dietitian and we created a menu. She was really nice and after the anti vegan fiasco with my nurse, I found dietary to be extremely helpful and accommodating.

My days meld together, but I know I started with broth from a syringe and eventually took my docs advice and successfully was slurping from a cup. This was so much better!!! It took me the same amount of time to syringe 2 oz of something as it would a half a cup while slurping.

Things I was eating at the hospital: cream of wheat, pureed veggie soup, smoothies.

I eat about the same now as i did in the hospital. Lots of puréed soups, blenderized oatmeal, cream of wheat with lots of almond milk as well as green juices (kale, cucumber, parsley, etc). I haven't been very adventurous in trying to purée something like spaghetti, but I guess when I'm sick of what I'm eating now ill give it a shot. I'm lucky, there are two restaurants within 50ft of my hotel that make two vegan soups a day. So variety has been aplenty;)

I don't know how much weight I've lost, but I will try to find out the next time I go to Dr. Henry's office. I imagine maybe 5 or 6 lbs.