Hi guys, I thought I'd update you on my progress because I've been having a few problems. I will be 3 weeks post sleeve op this Saturday and I started the puree stage last Saturday. I'm finding eating and drinking difficult for the following reasons: Eating - I hate the look and smell of pureed food. It just looks awful and the texture is horrible. I feel sick before I even start to eat it, so in desperation, I switched to mashing food with a potato masher and have been having mashed potato, banana, mince and well cooked veg. I still have problems knowing when I'm full and I've been feeling quite sick. The worst thing is the regurging, which happens often after eating. Drinking - everything I drink either leaves a nasty after-taste or tastes horrible or is too sweet. I've been very worried because I know I'm not drinking enough. I've also noticed that my tongue is very furry. I called the bariatric nurse at St. Georges today and she explained that my stomach is much smaller than I realise, plus it's still swollen, so if I over eat (which she thinks is the case), the excess food has nowhere to go but back up again. This would explain the regurge problem. She then put me through to Scott the dietician and he was very helpful. He told me that a lot of people cannot stomach the puree stage so mashing the food is fine. He also said that banana is heavy so it will sit in my stomach for longer. every time I eat something that needs more work to process, my stomach will swell along the cut line and the next time, I may not be able to eat as much. As far as scrambled egg is concerned, he said to cook it for as long as possible because quick cooking forces the protein to clump together and is therefore much harder for the stomach to deal with. Slow cooking (about 5 mins) will not clump the protein and will be softer on the stomach. Finally, he believes that I have excess bacteria in my mouth, which would explain the horrible taste, furry tongue and after taste and has suggested that I get an antibacterial mouthwash and use a small amount several times a day, plus chewing sugar free mint flavoured gum will help. So, to sum up, I'm going to treat the furry tongue, stop eating before I think I'm full, knock the banana on the head and have more muller rice, mince, mashed veg, mash and sliced tomatoes (not cherry as there's too much skin) plus drink lots of milk and I'll report back to let you know what progress I've made.
