Surgery Dream Wish List

[jaime]

Last night I was thinking about all the things I would get for post-surgery next year if money were no object. Thought it'd be fun to see what other people think, too.

Here's my list:
1. Ultramatic bed (sleep sitting up!)
2. A servant to get me fresh ice packs and fluff my pillow.
3. A chef who specializes in gourmet liquid and no-chew foods
4. TV goggles so I can watch TV at any angle

So what would you get for post-surgery if you were filthy rich?

[sirwired]

On the bed... I know this is an infinite-money wishlist, but if you would like to sleep sitting up, cruise Craigslist for a used recliner. I don't know what I would have done without mine.

[macve004]

A personal maid.

Why? Here's my girlfriend on day 3, when my head was the size of a bowling ball:

"Go get your damn self some ice and syringe your own meds, you lazy bum."

Ah, true love.

[boodles8]

Personal chef! I think I ate the same four foods the whole six weeks because I'm just not creative.

[jaime]

Sirwired: that's a good idea! I think I will probably do most of my recuperating at my boyfriend's place. He has a leather recliner but it's not decent for sleeping on.

Macve004: Uh oh, and day 3 is generally the worst, too!

Boodles, what were those foods? I have no idea what I'm going to eat. After SARPE, I relied on Atkins meal replacement shakes until I couldn't stand them or any other mushy food. I ended up just forcing myself to eat other stuff that wasn't soft enough.

[sirwired]

My "go to" dish was corned beef (the minced kind from a can) mixed with mashed potatoes (made from flakes for convenience) and cheese, and topped with Sriracha and ketchup. I usually ate it alongside a couple scrambled eggs.

It's savory, flavorful, and pretty high-calorie. You don't realize until it's gone how much texture matters with food... you have to make it up with flavor, which most processed foods have in abundance, since their texture is often sub-par.

Really, you are not going to do much damage to your arteries and other vital bits in just a few weeks (nor have I ever heard of anyone gaining weight), and you can go back to a healthy diet after you can chew again.

[sparkles]

I'm 10 days post BSSO + wisdom tooth extraction and I would say the things I'd want the most:

1. an ice pack maker. Ice packs got me through the first 2 days (didn't really need them after day 3) but I got to feeling like I was Father Jack from the TV show Father Ted and was always shouting 'Ice!'

2. some sort of tissue maker and thing to hold the tissues on. By day 4 I felt like I was drowning in a sea of tissues because of the drool.

3. a chef to make me lovely food aside from soup. I'm not a picky eater and I generally like soup but for the love of me the smell of soup was making me heave so much I just couldn't get it over my mouth. I especially need help for breakfast because I don't like milk in cereal so it is hard!

Foods I have eaten so far:

yoghurt (if I ever see an apricot yoghurt again it will be too soon...think I had 5 in the space of 2 days in hospital)
soup (I could stomach tinned soup ok, now day 10 I have taken homemade lentil soup out of the freezer to try tomorrow)
jelly (couldn't manage it day 1 but by day 4 I could)
custard
angel delight (a pudding mix from a packet you make up with milk)
porridge / readybrek
cheesecake (can eat the flavoured cheese part but not the biscuit base). Cheesecake is my go to when I find myself wanting chocolate/candy/sweetie. If you get plain cheesecake, you can easily mash up raspberries to top it yourself to get that bit of extra fruit in).
peanut butter and banana milkshake (1 banana, 3 tbsp peanut butter, 1 cup of milk blended)
oreo cookie milkshake (3/4 cup milk, 3 scoops ice cream, 6 (crushed) oreo cookies blended)

After my first checkup I was told I could move up to foods that were thicker than liquid but still no chew.
I have tried:

scrambled egg (scrambled 1 egg with plenty of milk, cheese and pepper; could only eat half before it got all cold and rubbery though).
poached egg (with tiny bits of bread in it)...didn't work, you really need a proper slice of toast to eat a poached egg.
fish, mashed potato and sweetcorn with LOTS of cheese sauce. I made the cheese sauce with a fruity jerk cheese which gave it some brilliant flavour.
Mince and mashed potato and green beans (chopped the green beans up into tiny pieces so they were no chew and made sure there was plenty of gravy with the mince).
curry sauce and rice
chicken and bacon pasta bake (chicken, bacon and sauce blended up and instead of using normal pasta, I used the tiny wee pasta you get for throwing into soup).
sweet potato and tuna (bake the sweet potato, remove skins and mash with plenty of butter. Cut tuna up into tiny little bits. If you have enough butter and your potato cooked enough, the tuna will go down without you having to chew it).

[sirwired]

Salty-salt-salt! Your nose is probably still a little stuffy, which means your foods need lots of flavor that doesn't rely on smell. Salty processed foods are ideal here.

One dish I made a few times was a can of green beans (I usually NEVER eat canned green beans) along with a couple of hot dogs, minced in the food processor (don't process until it's complete paste though). It looks more than a bit icky, but is surprisingly tasty.

[needabsso]

A fridge full of premade foods from the soft diet!