Protein powders after surgery

hi rich, they should have given you a dietician as part of the plan, i am currently on liquid feed via  a j peg, but previously before i had trouble swallowing anything, i had various high protein calorific drinks,  milkshakes or soup form, but are calorific, might be worth getting in touch with the team, hope this helps, i also need to get some weight on before the op after chemo/radiotherapy.

all the best

jules

Hi RichH,

 Sucessful Ivor Lewis op earlier this year , 4 pre op FLOT chemo and 4 post op FLOT chemo.

i stopped the j peg side feed a few months ago it had helped maintain my weight after surgery/chemo , and on stopping it a I lost 13kg , but i prefer expanding my eating .

I found some of the “ health” drinks from the major supermarkets good like “ Arla” & “Huel” etc and sip them over a few hours.

Maybe try out a few , post chemo i found what tasted ok one day didnt go down well the next.

I also added quality honey to all drinks like tea / diluting juice to get my cals up.

Also your GP can prescribe a variety of Ensure supplement drinks - milk or fruit based or shakes.

Good luck

Hi RichH 

my husband (already slim) lost a similar amount to you and soon after the operation he went right of the fortisips that he’d been using to top up the calories. He found them too sweet and he found them really difficult to drink when he was feeling a bit nauseous. We bought some organic whey isolate protein powder that tastes of nothing and gradually introduced that to smoothies or to mix with yoghurt or kefir and fruit. It was slow progress but he increased his weight a bit post op before the last rounds of chemo and then only lost a small amount during the chemo (though he only managed 2 sessions as his toes started going very numb!).