I am officially on the Stage III Diet. What does that mean?

To start with, things aren’t that much different. Now instead of x ounces of puréed food we can start having x+y ounces of soft foods. Think seriously boiled veggies or meatballs or canned chicken or tuna without the extra step in the blender. The values of x and y are dependent on the patient. For me, x was about two ounces. Y will eventually be about a cup.

For my first meal I stayed purée but I increased the amount. I scrambled two eggs. That came out to about four ounces or half a cup. It was by far the biggest meal I’ve had since two days before the surgery.

Going forward I will have to take very small bites, about the size of a pencil eraser, and chew each bite at least 25 times. I will also need to take short breaks between bites. A one cup sized meal needs to take about 40 minutes. Yikes.

I’m also back to the 60 minutes between eating and having a drink. That is going to suck for me getting my fluids in, but they did up the hourly fluid goal by two ounces. That should help.

Okay, my 60 minute post-scrambled eggs timer just went off. I need to go get myself a protein shake. Talk to you later.