How do I eat after digestive tract surgery?

@lilbear About 8 months I started feeling better but still eat half of what I used to eat. Now,Greek plain Yogurt with berries and soups are my go to along with protein chix,fish,tuna,eggs,nuts lots of veggies . Protein drinks plant based(Vega berry) fruit helped me at first but I don’t drink them now. No dairy with lactose, I am lactose intolerant. I still eat small meals,no fat or meat because it Bothers me. I enjoy eating morefoods now and eat slowly and chew.,chew,chew.I walk daily and take a probiotic which helps a lot. 🤸‍♂️💕

@cj16 how long did it take to get better?

It is so good to read your post, @cj16, and to hear how you managed foods after surgery. I was also told that protein was most important and to add in other foods groups as I could tolerate them. The small portions are also very helpful.

How long ago was your surgery? Have you been able to increase the portion size yet?

Great topic. Most foods were trial and error. I told my doctor I was rarely eating. He said just double up protein drinks. I started with small portions every 2 hours. Applesauce,yogurt, eggs,veggie soups like squash,carrot,minestrone,pastina with butter, sugar and dairy bothered me . Lactose intolerant. Good luck. It does get better. 🤸‍♂️💪👍💕

Entirely agree, especially with the trial and error. I have migraines, and I've never been able to persist with a trigger diary or app, which is pretty much similar. To make it really work, you need to capture too much data about both the food/beverage intake and symptoms, and even then, you need to move on to trial and error to confirm the statistical results. As annoying as it is and how much time it takes, I found an elimination diet much easier: you start with a handful of whatever foods/drinks you find "safe", and add new foods/drinks one at a time, with at least a couple of days in between each new item.

The virtue of using the FODMAP pattern for me -- aside from determining whether the problem really was FODMAPs -- is that the food pattern came pre-clustered. If you don't cluster somehow but instead do foods entirely one at a time, an elimination diet goes on forever. However, you can create your own clusters to add back in. Start with a week eating only the foods/drinks that you know are "safe", ignoring everything else you care about in your diet -- heck, you can do it with Ensure. Once your system has calmed down, then you can say, hypothetically: "On Monday I'm going to add back in foods with gluten. If I don't react by Thursday or Friday, I'm going to add back in cruciferous vegetables. If I do react by Thursday or Friday, I'm going to have smaller amounts of gluten foods, or just white toast, or whatever, until I nail the gluten food situation down. After that, I'll move on to cruciferous vegetables." (I invented those examples -- you get the drift.)

That way, it's just a day-to-day dialog between your GI tract and specific foods, not something you need to sort out statistically from weeks or months of a diary or an app. Because, ugh.

@hopeful33250
Life saving burst ovarian cyst- cut horizontal by gyno then and vertical for exploratory by general surgeon. . Doctor was amazed I lived.
Then scar revision - similar to abdominoplasty. Hemorrhaged after. Two years PT.
History of blockages and hospitalizations for 17 years.
Then adlysis surgery to clean out scar tissue.
Researched different Gastro‘s and got many different opinions. Very important to get a handle on your diet and what affects your digestion. It has to do with how much scar tissue is in your intestines because the tube is narrowed. It’s important not to eat something heavy over and over and over several meals perhaps eat it once or twice and then go back to a soft diet. I have learned the hard way that certain foods can start a blockage. I go to Pelvic physical therapy and I get my facial release deep scar tissue release and dry needling. It’s important to keep the abdominal intestinal area open and get the intestines to slide the best they can
I keep different medications on hand for nausea and Gas and acid. It’s all about having the constriction not allowing food to pass through..

@resilience and yes, I made a lot of mistakes. My rule of thumb is chew food very well. Spit it out if you can’t chew it up. No embarrassment no apologies.
Think “ density”
My go to is avocados, and try to have olive oil now n then.