It's too early for meatballs (even tofu ones)

So my doctor is very laid back when it comes to eating guidelines and introducing new foods. The words that are written in my packet are as follows:

"For the first month following surgery, make sure to drink at least 2liters of fluids/day and get between 60-80 grams of protein from soft vegetarian sources, eggs, fish and seafood."

This is followed by a list of acceptable foods (i.e. cream of wheat, mashed potatoes, eggs, beans, veggies burgers, yogurt, soups, fish, rice, egg noodles, etc.

So my tummy was making this weird rumbly sound today and I thought "gas? hunger?" Trying to expel the gas in my tummy didn't work, so I thought, "Maybe I'm hungry? After all, I haven't eaten in 5 days..."

I tried 2 very tiny bites of a veggie meatball and my stomach started screaming at me and throwing lightening blots through my digestive system.  Clearly, it did not want food. So went to the message boards to get some advice from one one of my sleeve sisters out there in WLS world, and got the following reply, which I thought was uber helpful and plan to discuss this with my surgeon when I meet with him on Friday.

"Golden" wrote:


At this point, your stomach probably isn't doing a great job of communicating with you at all because it's so traumatized! Nerves have been cut and it will take time to get proper full signals, or any signal really. At four days out, I would chalk it up to shock/gas/healing gurgles rather than hunger. But if you're sure it's hunger, I would check and make sure you're on a good PPI - acid can make your feel hungry when you're not - and then ask your doctor what you're allowed to have. Request a list of foods and drinks you're allowed if they didn't give you one and then stick to it - you don't want to risk hurting yourself!

I'm 14 weeks out and just feel like I'm actually starting to understand my new stomach. There's some trial and error to be expected, just don't push too hard. If it helps at all, this was my schedule, which I've found to be pretty similar to many people here:

Week 1: I was on clear liquids (water, crystal light, diluted fruit juice, chicken broth and jello) for the first week after surgery. 

Week 2: Started full liquids, which is typically defined as anything that can go through a straw (milk, cream soups, protein shakes, yogurt - often the latter two can be thinned with water in the beginning). 

Week 3: Purees (same stuff as week two but adding some pureed soups like lentil or potato, thinned refried beans, well blended). Purees for two weeks.

Week 5: Soft foods, which is where ground meat started (soft boiled or runny scrambled eggs, refried beans with melted cheese, maybe some soft white fish, mashed banana, ground meat, spoonful of smooth peanut butter). Two weeks of that.

Week 7-8: I was finally allowed a more "normal" type diet, although some things like raw veggies, fruits and nuts had to wait a while longer, until week 12 or so.

GOOD LUCK, you'll do great!