Hi Raymond, Jack hated the drainage tubes too but they are helping your swelling too. You should see improvement within 4-6 weeks but it can take months to completely resolve. As long as it is getting better and not worse you are going in the right direction.

You're probably not restricted on trying any foods at this point - it's the consistency that will give you trouble. Ann Marie is right about soups and there are lots of choices there. You can put just about anything in the blender as long as you add water to get it to a consistency that you can tolerate. I remember blending up Dinty Moore beef stew for Jack just to give him variety. You will only be able to tolerate small amounts of whatever you're trying and that's normal too. The goal is to get nutrition. Right now you want to stick with liquid, blended, and soft foods but there are a lot of them. You can also make protein shakes, they sell protein powder that can be added to all kinds of things.

Early on we got the Easy to Chew Easy to Swallow cookbook from this website and it was very helpful in giving us ideas. Don't forget that you also need to drink 2 quarts of water every day, believe it or not it helps with the nausea. Dehydration causes all kinds of nasty symptoms.

You've had major surgery so being sore etc in the first 6 weeks is normal. Your body is recovering from a trauma and you can't get around that. It just takes time but one day Jack woke up and he wasn't as sore and he wasn't having any nausea - and that's what will happen with you. It's miserable but doable. Are you having radiation or chemo?

Glad to see your post,
JoAnne