Marianne G.
Post Op Update
Aug 03, 2012
16 Days post up and I thought it was time for a quick update. I made it through the first couple of weeks of eating cottage cheese, yogurt, creamed soups, oatmeal and protein shakes.So I'm supposed to be on pureed foods now. I've tried a number of things and they've gone down well and stayed there and I've tried a couple of things that didn't sit so well. I haven't been sick but it's just uncomfortable with the food just sitting and reminding you that it might not have been a good idea. My first properly cooked meal consisted of a chicken breast, a cauliflower dish baked in the oven and mashed potatoes.
The chicken was a Blue Menu product, it already had a some seasonings on it. I sliced it up into strips and cooked it in a frypan. The cauliflower was first boiled and then mixed with some other ingredients including low fat cheddar cheese and then baked. I decided for the mashed potatoes that I would try including greek yogurt instead of butter the way I used to make it. I had a couple of strips of chicken and my heart sank as I put them in the blender. I hit the button for a few seconds too long and it turned the chicken to a very smooth paste. I did the same thing to the cauliflower and it was a smooth paste as well. Hubby did a good job with the mashed potatoes being very smooth and creamy so no need to put those in the blender.
Apart from the consistency of the chicken, it actually tasted great! I ate a little and waited. I ate a little more and waited. This is great, it feels fine and I think I'm going to keep it down. I waited 15 minutes and decided to try the potatoes before they got too cold. I can't say that I really cared for it, it tasted like mashed potatoes with a sour cream taste overload. Good try for incorporating extra protein but I'll have to work on that. Maybe using greek yogurt on a baked potato might be a better choice. The cauliflower dish was excellent and I will make it again. Even hubby loved it and he doesn't like cauliflower. I won't put it in the blender though. After boiling and baking it, it was already soft enough and a little bit of chewing was enough.
The only problem with the meal was the colour. I didn't plan that out very well because everything was this creamy white colour. But it was delish and it all stayed down.
I didn't expect to have any problems with scrambled eggs but I was unpleasantly surprised. I put just a little bit on the end of my fork. I did that twice and couldn't believe that I felt really full already. I mean it wasn't even a teaspoon of scrambled egg. I had to eat, rest, eat, rest and so on. It took me a long time to eat but at least it stayed down and didn't upset my pouch.
It's been about 6 weeks since I've had a really nice meal and I was dying for one. I decided I was going to make a roast beef in the crockpot along with carrots, mashed potatoes (no greek yogurt this time) and some creamed corn. The house smelled delicious all day as I was cooking it and hubby and I couldn't wait to taste it. I figured if the meat was fall apart soft, I could get by without putting it in the blender. Since I'd already tried the other foods I thought I would eat the roast beef first and then rest to see how it was sittin. I ate about a teaspoon of beef and really, really chewed it very well. Hmmmmm, not so good. I could feel it just sitting there. Kind of like Christmas Dinner when you know you've had 1 too many slices of pie on top of that huge meal. Only I hadn't had anything to eat before the beef. That was it, 1 tsp of beef and it just sat there. I had to wait it out, I had no choice. I never did get to eat the mashed potato or carrots or corn. About 2 hours later I had my old standby; low fat cheddar melted on a couple of melba toasts. That satisfied my hunger and went down just as it should.
I was reading through some older posts on this website and quite a number of people mentioned having Wendy's chili. I laughed when I first read that but as I thought about it, I decided to give it a try. It's high in protein and right now of course I'm concerned about getting enough protein. While it cannot become a way of life for me, it makes sense to get a small serving and have that for 2 or 3 meals.
Last thing I wanted to mention for now is protein powder. I bought this stuff tonight that cost me $30.00 for a huge tub of it. I brought it home, mixed it as per directions and took 1 swig and just about spit it out. Yuck! So I tried mixing a little bit of instant decaf coffee into it. Double YUCK! Now I have to figure out a way to use this crap up so I that I'm not throwing money out the window. Why don't any of these sell sample sizes? I can't be buying 50 million different kinds until I find something that I like the taste of.
That's it for now. Will update again after I've tried some more new things!
