Eating at home post surgery

Hi Geraldine, your husband will most definitely need soft textured food for a short while, but this doesn’t necessarily mean puréed, he should be able to tolerate most foods, just hold out on steak for while. 

The key will be eat small often and chew lots. 
I had trouble digesting some foods like mushrooms cooked onions and cooked tomatoes, but people are different there’s no one size fits all with oesophageal cancer treatment and recovery. 

Hope you and your husband a speedy recovery. 

Thank you …. that’s reassuring

I should add …. he will not have a JEJ feeding tube. 

• When you have been through that surgery the last thing you need is food that looks unappealing on the plate. Pureed food looks awful or at least it did to me. As Clive says soft foods are a must -in my case plenty of mashed potatoes, fish, soups, shakes.  Anything in fact that you can smash up with a fork or drink. 

Exactly what I was worried about ….. couldn’t agree more

Really? Why not? It's standard practice to have a feeding tube to aid nutrition for the first few weeks post surgery 

BRI no longer do it routinely. They used to but not now. I can’t remember all the surgeons explanations but their research made sense. Not all hospitals use them …. about half and half from what I’ve read. 

? Not that I was ever aware of Bob. Nobody had it in my ward. I had to have one later but for other reasons.

Hi Geraldine, as everybody says, its trial and error. I came out of hospital, after surgery, on the 22nd of December and had a full Christmas dinner. I was determined to eat as normal as possible when I came out, to live as normal as possible. I now use a side plate as my dinner plate with just a smaller portion. It got slightly harder to eat as my surgery healed and got a bit restricted, then had a throat stretch and I was back to normal. Meat, chicken mainly can be problem for me as it dries out when you chew it and clumps up when you swallow. Basically I think if you chew more than normal and you're ready to try then just go for it.

Best Wish's.

Pete

Thank you …… that is so encouraging …. I really hated the thought of puréed food …. soft is ok