Happy New Year!

It's the 1st of January 2012 and it's nearly three weeks since I had my stomach removed (total gastrectomy). I decided to start this blog because since having my surgery I have found it incredibly hard to find any helpful information about how having no stomach is going to affect my life, especially when it comes to eating. When I was in hospital I saw a dietitian who gave me a piece of paper detailing things that I should eat and how I should eat, but so far that piece of paper has proved pretty unhelpful. The info is often contradicting  saying things like avoid sugar and fat but then tells me to eat sweets and chocolate for the extra calories, and add butter to everything? Kinda confusing. The doctors also gave me some advice, and although they obviously know a lot about gastrectomies from a medical point of view, in reality none of them have ever had a gastrectomy so there is only so much they can help me with. Prior to my surgery I had the opportunity to speak to a lovely lady who has also undergone a full gastrectomy and the information she gave me proved to be invaluable. So far she has been able to tell me more than even my doctors about what living with a gastrectomy is like. So far, I have figured out that you just have to take it day by day and see what works for you. Most days I eat what ever I want, and apart from some nausea it hasn't caused me to much grief. I was so terrified the first time I ate, I wasn't sure what to expect. Would I feel the stitches joining my esophagus to my small intestines, would it hurt, would I vomit.... The first thing I ate was yogurt, 3 days post surgery and I felt nothing, I was honestly a little disappointed! Since then eating has become easier and easier. The first few weeks I would often experience quite severe pain, predominantly on the lower left hand side of my abdomen, which I later found out is where your small intestine fills up. Now that things are nearly healed as long as I eat slowly and chew my food I don't experience too much pain. Last night I ate grilled venison, salad, coleslaw and potato salad and felt fine. The one thing I do feel after eating though, is exhausted!! At the moment eating makes me very sleepy, I'm sure that will improve though once I'm healed. My would site is starting to feel tight which apparently means everything is knitting back together well. Hopefully my abdominal muscles will stop hurting soon cause, sneezing, coughing and even laughing hurt so much it feels like I'm going to rip  in half. My lack of abs also makes it rather hard to pick up my 5 month old daughter. Anyway I really hope that you find this blog useful, I wish I had a something like this to read before I had my surgery because I really had no idea what to expect and to be honest I still don't I am still taking every day as it comes.