Hey thanks guys, I appreciate the support! I am getting a little nervous about all this. I guess that's to be expected, considering. It's just that I seem to get a mixed bag of opinions on this, probably because we're all different and it's not a cut and dry scenario for everyone, so the outcome post surgery is going to be a little different for each individual case. In general though, I've noticed most comments seem to indicate an "improved" quality of life after this surgery, so that's promising.
I had a good friend who had this done many years ago, I guess he was in his 30s then. He can eat just about anything now, and has never needed another surgery, so he's one of the lucky ones I guess! I'm hoping for the same.
Merv, sounds like you had a rough go of it when you were in the hospital, but again, you seem to think the surgery improved your quality of life at least, so that is encouraging, thank you for replying. Hope you continue to live as healthy as possible for a long time to come! Nice to know that the surgery doesn't promote further strictures, hopefully this is the only one for me. They didn't say they saw any additional blockages when they gave the test results, so....
DEmberton, you had a very good result with your surgery, that is also very encouraging to me, thank you also for the reply. And thanks for the rundown of what each passing day was like in the hospital, that helps a lot because those are the things I get concerned about, ie...what will I be able to eat, how long will I be in the hospital, etc....so thanks for the info! (lol, yeah I've eaten that "chicken and something" before, not food for the fittest by any means!) It sounds similar to how it went for me when I had the kidney taken out, it was rough for a couple days for sure, and as Merv mentioned there was some pain too. The first few days my abs felt like I had just done 1000 sit-ups at the gym or something! I could barely sit up in bed, so I suppose it's a similar situation with this one. Oh well, here we go again, not looking forward to it, but praying for improvement on the other side of all the trauma.
Can you tell me how long it was before you felt like you could start experimenting with foods that you were unable to eat prior to surgery? I'm just curious because I'm thinking I'll likely be uneasy about trying to begin eating foods that I've missed eating for so long now, like pizza, red meat, veggies, foods with a little fiber, etc....well you know what I mean. Were you guys able to expand your diets at all beyond the foods you ate before surgery that you knew to be "safe" foods, or is your diet still pretty much restricted?