I've had six surgeries for chronic small bowels obstructions since 2002. My intestinal tract shuts down after the surgeries for 3 to 4 weeks. The doctor said that it's my body's reaction to the trauma of the surgery. It's a natural body reaction. I've seen dieticians at three different hospitals. They all say basically the same thing of what to eat or not to eat. They say a soft food diet. No raw vegetables at all. I can have vegetables that have been thoroughly boiled to almost nothing. No nuts. No course cereals. I can have cream of wheat and small amounts oatmeal. No vegetables like cabbage, celery or lettuce or corn. There's more food that I like, but can't have.

I can have soups, mashed potatoes. Well mashed squashes. I love butternut squash. I can't have steak. Even prime rib is out. I can have pudding, jello and all the yogurt I want. I've been eating microwave dinners like Stoffers meatloaf, mac and cheese, rice with chicken, spaghetti and ravioli type of meals.

So It's basically everything I like to eat. I can't have. One doctor said I can have everything that goes in soft, that comes out soft. Gross, but more or less true. Icecream doesn't like me and pastries for some reason doesn't like me. I've been trying to deal with all this for about 5 years.

After my last bowel surgery in 2023. The doctor put me on TPN, or Total Parenteral Nutrition. Intravenous nutrition for 3 months. I won't do that again. I had constant diarrhea. It was bad. I really try hard to stick with a soft food diet. Like I said. There seems to be more food that I shouldn't eat than what I should be eating. I'll try other foods in small amounts. But I don't know what's going to upset my bowels from day to day. My bowels do some pretty strange things almost every day. It makes me crazy and it's depressing and very frustrating.

I hope you find some of this helpful. Best of luck to you.