Gallbladder surgery - need help with diet
20 days ago
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Comments (5)I had the laproscopic gallbladder surgery some years ago, had 3-4 tiny incisions, bandaids -no stitches- ?staples & went home the same day!! Was a bit of discomfort- not bad (& I do NOT like any pain!). Had years of 'indigestion' but no ultrasounds detected any stones; then the last ultrasound showed ? 'sand'. Surgery produced a big handful of small stones! Been find since & can eat anything! Didn't need a gallbladder-glad it is gone-no worry about emergency rupture! Had the appendix removed at time of another surgery much as the Dr. protested 'they don't remove normal organs anymore' (I won)! Well, the normal appendix was sent to pathology as usual.... & the report came back as having a carcinoid tumor inside the 'normal' appearing appendix! Am glad both are gome... didn't need either and am fine without either of them, thank you! Am sure you will be just fine & recover well & feel so much better afterwards! No, I wasn't allowed to keep any of the 'stones' as souveneirs!! Years ago... as I'm sure you had heard... most people were in the hospital; nearly a week after that surgery!...See MoreNeed help with low salt diet
Comments (13)Elisa, My DH has health problems and we actually have a slightly lower target than your brother's. It seems insurmountable at first, especially when it can't be eased into. If you've got a low-salt diet order, and judging by the ICD implantation, kidney issues, etc., I can guess what you're dealing with, you need to get it in place ASAP. Or your brother will be right back where he started from. The need for rapid change is one of the biggest challenges because it takes awhile for a lowered-salt diet to taste good again. It will get better as you will adjust, but most people eat four or five times that amount, daily. So even thogh 1500 mg/d doesn't sound much less than official ideal for non-impaired people, it's a huge functional and taste change for most people. I know, because we've BTDT. OK, here's some quick tips: almost all prepared food will put you in trouble, unless you only eat once per day. And if he's got diabetes that won't work. By prepared food I mean almost all restaurant food, especially fast food. Almost all canned and frozen prepared stuff, including most stuff marketed as "healthy" prepared food. (There are exceptions, you'll have to read label after label to find the keepers.) Often the lowered sodium product isn't either truly low (300 mg, or less, per portion) or they make it up by loading it with carbs. Here are a couple of good things that are mainstays in our house for fast eats: some of the Imagine Organic aseptic packaged LOWER IN SODIUM soups (corn or sweet potato=140 mg/cup). Other lower in sodium aseptic packaged soups may or may not work for you. (We like some tomato, some roasted pepper, etc. you have to read the labels.) Muir Glen makes a good line of no salt added canned tomato products which are great, esp. the fire roasted ones. Most commercial low or no salt bread sucks, to put it plainly. This is where making your own really is better. But salt has a functional role in bread-making, in addition to its taste role, so you will need to expect to have some trouble adapting "regular" recipes simply by leaving out the salt. Try some of the specifically low-sodium bread recipes for starters. Also if you buy unsliced bread, you can slice it thinner than normal and work the total sodium down that way, at least a bit. No-salt cheese is mostly bad; swiss is naturally low (60-80mg/oz) so it's a my go-to cheese. I do use (sparingly) higher sodium cheeses (e.g. Piave cheddar which can be as high as 500+ mg/oz when all I want is to grate some up as a topping. Then the portion is so small it's OK, and the sharp, rich taste really makes a difference.) You can make good grilled cheese sandwiches with Swiss cheese, too. Use a sharper mustard, for extra taste. For cottage cheese get some no-salt added tubs and cut it 50% with the higher salted product. That produces an acceptable level. Watch frozen veg. products, even some of the un-sauced ones often have baking soda (aka SODIUM bicarbonate) added to preserve the green color, which turns a nearly sodium-free item into something you have to "count". If you need to eat out, go to a restaurant and ask for plain grilled chicken, never seasoned and grilled on a scraped grill. Ask if the veg. were precooked, if so ask that they be rinsed in a hot water and then briefly re-nuked. Most pasta is out because it often has been parboiled in salted water. (You don't need to add salt to pasta if you cook it at home. Never mind what the cook books say.) For nation-wide family restuarant chains when ttraveling, we've had good luck with Ruby Tuesdays. They are usually quite accommodating, and the big salad bar is good, too. There are many, if not most, recipes that you will read in cooking mags and books that will have a sodium content that's way out of your range. But you can always bring that salt way down by not adding it, or adding a lot less. You will have some big recipe failures this way but you will learn what works for you. Your brother's Dr. probably told him this: DO NO USE LITE-SALT or SALT SUBSTITUTES. These usually contain potassium "salts" instead of sodium and they will mess things up on the other end (as well as possibly interfere with some of his meds - ACE/ARBS, diuretics, etc.) These products are meant for people who are just "cutting down" salt, not for people at risk of CHF. It's no picnic dealing with a low-salt, most likely very low-fat, diabetic diet (And maybe also low Vitamin K, as well?). It takes a huge , constant vigilance to put it in place successfully. Your brother will need a lot of help, especially if these are sudden changes, in order for it to not become overwhelming. As JohnLiu says most things that are "too salty" can be made at home. But it's a completely different culinary regimen, because even many certifiably homemade dishes contain ingredients that are very salty to begin with. And it takes a lot more time and effort. Can you give me some idea what you're trying to accomplish, right now? What sorts of meals are you trying to prepare? I may be able to make some specific suggestions. In the meantime, you can't go wrong with broiled chicken or fish, steamed veg, small baked sweet potato and salad for dinner. For lunch a truly lower-salt soup (or big salad), and an egg or tuna or chicken salad sandwich, and fruit for dessert. And maybe regular oatmeal and fruit for breakfast. This would leave you some pretty useful lee-way to add some other tasty, higher-salt add-ons: cheese, lightly salted pop-corn, regular (not homemade low salt for the time being) whole-wheat bread, etc. Possibly some diabetic-OK cookies or icecream; prepared chocolate soy-pudding is a nice snacky-thing, but I'm not sure if it fits with diabetic diets. I remember standing in my supermarket when this was a new thing for me and feeling that nothing I could make would be safe for my husband. I actually cried right in the aisle, I was so upset. We ate pretty simple, even primitive, meals for awhile early on - and I've thrown out a lot of tried-but-turned-out-to-be ghastly recipes. But it does get easier when you learn how to cheat out the excess salt and still go for the familiar flavors. While the prospect of learning a whole new taste-profile can be interesting, in the abstract, familiar tastes and dishes are very comforting and even necessary, IMO for healing. You just need to keep tweaking it until you've got it right. It does get better. L...See Moregallbladder surgery, a newborn and Doctors visit oh my!!
Comments (13)My husband and dd both had their gall bladders out in the past 4 months. You'll feel much better after the surgery. I will say this--dd's dr. didn't tell her not to eat for 24 hours after the surgery; DH had a different surgeon who insisted that he'd feel better if he refrained from eating until the next day. I don't know if that made the difference or not--but DH's recover was MUCH easier than DD's. Could have been other factors involved, of course, but I throw that out, just in case you're interested. In both cases, though, they recouperated pretty quickly. Another thing DH's dr. mentioned--which was helpful to know, was that the day after the surgery, he'd be feeling pretty good, because they sort of 'wash' your insides with an anasthetic solution (at least that's the way he explained it) and it's still helping the next day, but the day after that, you'll feel a little worse, then after that, you recover at a pretty rapid pace. That was true for both DH and DD (although her dr. didn't warn her about it). But it was interesting that the 2 surgeons didn't both tell the patients the same stuff. And neither of them needed the prescribed pain meds--both got by on the occasional tylenol (as approved by their drs.). Hope your recovery is just as easy as both of theirs. And that you feel as well afterwards as my DH has--he'd had stomach problems for years--which had been diagnosed as irritable bowel, but since his GB surgery, those have ALL CLEARED UP--he's been able to eat anything at all, with no problems. Good luck! and get better in time to enjoy the holiday....See MoreGallbladder woes
Comments (80)Saw the surgeon for follow-up, and everything is looking good. I still have another week of activity restrictions before I can head back to the Y. I lost a few pounds, but there's better ways to do that. I have flexibility to work from home when needed. Classes started yesterday. Here is little girl kitty from Sunday morning helping her mamma feel better. Love her beautiful face. Yes, I have on flamingo pajamas....See More- 20 days agolast modified: 20 days agosushipup2 thanked morz8 - Washington Coast
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