I'm two weeks post-op and feeling quite good. Have taken my kids to the beach, the movies, and even to the zoo. As far as "eating" goes, the full liquids have been going really well, and I'm tempted to go to puréed foods. I know I should stay on full liquids for another week, but I'm the type of person who needs to know WHY I can't. Please don't beat me up for asking, I just know I'll find it much easier to be compliant if I know the reason behind the timeline. 

 

Thank you you so much!

the simple reason and really the only reason is , because that is what your surgeon thinks works for ppl who have had abdominal surgery. 

It is simply his choice.

I followed my doctor's recommendations. This stage allowed for optimum healing.

It takes a few weeks for the swelling to resolve. Your surgeon is being cautious. Hang in there!

Because you are grateful that you are not one of my surgeon's patients - 4 weeks of full liquids, 4 weeks of purees, and 4 MONTHS of soft foods. And yes, I followed all my instructions -- I figured that as much as I like to research and understand things, I hadn't been capable of making healthy food choices for myself before, so I needed to do what the experts said and not be tempted to think I know better than them.

Because the only time you can really hurt yourself is during the healing period of your staple line. Depending on who you listen to, the "Danger Period" where your staple line is weakest is between 3 and 8 weeks.

Get tempted after you fully heal and can't hurt yourself, the worst that can happen than is that you won't lose weight. A leak in the staple line is about two months of NPO (nothing by mouth).

Not trying to beat you up..... just sharing with you what I know to be the truth.

frisco

Mostly it's an abundance of caution. Some don't limit it to liquids at all, just keeping things soft for the first weeks, and more are heading that way as they get more comfortable doing sleeves. Just as with the level of activity after any major surgery, there are compromises and a happy medium that may vary patient to patient and procedure to procedure - some activity is better than none in promoting recovery but there is also a "too much". That's why we usually are up and walking around within hours of surgery.

Because:

1. Your surgeon said so
2. Following your previous eating temptations got to the point where you needed WLS. Resist the temptation.

This isn't just you. We were all in the same boat. We all followed our own plans, and screwed ourselves royally. It became time to follow new rules, new plans, new temptations.

My surgeon has his patients on clear liquids for a whole week. He explained that he realizes it doesn't follow the standard program, but it's really to prevent vomiting, and he feels patients do better that way. Why pu****

Your stomach is still healing, and you've got at least 8" of staples holding everything together. Anything with a thick texture or chunks could irritate the staples/sutures/etc., or even cause a rupture if something makes gets stuck.

Each surgeon has his/her own timeline for patients to heal before advancing based on his/her experience. It sucks, but it's best to be careful, since the potential complications are a big deal.