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Thread: Post Operative Diet for recovery?

  1. #1
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    Default Post Operative Diet for recovery?

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    Robert,

    Soooo...I got diagnosed with a benign tumor of the skull about 7 weeks ago, and as such (when the insurance company gets out of the way) I'll be going in for some brain surgery. It looks to be a pretty extensive surgery (6-7 hrs) and involves the removal of a glomus jugulare tumor that about the size of a golf ball, on the right side of my head (tumor extends from jugular bulb, up into the ear canal, and down into the base of the skull). As a result of this tumor, I have lost function in swallowing on the right side, as well as the loss of the right vocal chords, right side tongue, etc. (shoulder/trapezius, mysteriously, still functions fine). That being the case, while they're in there, they're going to move my right vocal chords out of the way (inject a filler to the distal side, to shift them to the center, to make swallowing easier since just the left side is working now), as well as attempt to graft an "extra" nerve in my trapezius to the existing (dead) nerve ending in right side of my throat. Add to this that they'll also be placing a stint in my right carotid (at the base of the skull) allow the surgical removal of the tumor (it's currently wrapped around the carotid, and impinging the right lobe of the cerebral cortex...which explains my fatigue and degraded, or "slowing down" of motor skills). And I thought I was just getting old! LOL!

    All this means my skull's about to get opened up behind the ear (will have a conductive hearing loss as a result, but it beats the alternative), and they'll be rooting around in there, digging this turd out of my head.

    All this brings me to my question (sorry for the long diatribe and description); Is there an optimum diet for post operative recovery? Remain on a high protein diet? Decrease/increase carbs?

    The first couple of days will involve a feeding tube (temporary), but after I can swallow again, they intend to release me from the hospital for recovery at home. So, I'm trying to plan out what to have on hand at home, to ensure I have (1) an optimum diet, and (2) based on the diet, select food items that will be easier to eat until I regain a (quasi) normal ability to swallow again (think: soft, fairly wet foods, that'll slide easier into the gullet).

    As an aside, they figure this thing has been in my head for 20+ years, so that may explain some of the weight gain issues I have had (apparently these things cause a rise in catecholamines, which as I understand it, inhibits the uptake of glycogen into the muscles, as well as an elevated BP reading), regardless of past amoebic dysentery exposure.

    At any rate, was just curious as to your thoughts on a solid diet, tailored for repairing tissue damage to the body (not necessarily just muscle tissue).

    I tell you what; this getting old crap is certainly not for the faint of heart. Fortunately, all this strength training has taught me a lot about facing fear, getting aggressive about attacking the problem/challenge, and keeping a good attitude about it.

    Any ways, thanks for thoughts you might have on this.

  2. #2
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    Thanks for sharing man. First WOW, you are bold to sign up for that surgery. Moving nerves and cutting around the carotid is some serious business. Sending you good vibes for a speedy recovery. As with any surgery high protein is a must to facilitate wound healing. Then eat carbs and fats as tolerated to give you some energy to move around. It will mostly be trial and error so I'd just take it one step at a time if I were you. Getting from post-surgical to PO will be an undertaking in it's own. Then worry about the po diet at that time.

  3. #3
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    Robert,

    Thank you for the insight; it's much appreciated.

    As to being bold? Nah, just didn't like the prospects of living with this thing in my head the rest of my life (the result of the other option; radiation therapy), and possibly having it start to grow again. Like in 20 yrs, when I won't be able to tolerate radiation anymore. No, better to take the (minor) risks now, and get past this, than to live life with this constantly hanging over heard.

    Besides, the technology is improving daily for skull based surgery. While my Dr. has only done about 60 of these specific tumor removals (this type is actually REALLY rare), in 2017 the hospital (UCSD Skull Base Surgery Center) was celebrating him performing is 2000th skull based surgery. Glomus tumors are rare, like 1 in 1.3M. The juglarae kind (what I have) are something like 15% of that. The Dr. says they see one of these once every 4-5 years (and they cover all of SoCal as one of THE places to go; only other option being "The House Clinic" for this kind of expertise).

    The opinion on surgery versus radiation is beginning to shift to favor surgery these days, since the studies about radiation therapy success for these type of tumors has been called into question of late (since they are so slow growing, there's a lot of wiggle room for "interpretation" as to whether the tumor quit growing, and for how long). Effectiveness is hard to measure with radiation since the growth rate falls within the noise of interpreting MRI's of tumor growth. These things are highly vascular in nature (they swell and contract just with a change in BP), so size really isn't a straightforward way to judge whether radiation stopped the growth.

    Hence, I just want this cut out. No sense in wondering or questioning every ache and pain that develops over the years in my head (has the tumor started growing again? Is it just a strained muscle or the nerve being compromised by tumor growth?).

    Best to just get after it.

    At any rate, thanks again. I'll keep with the high protein diet, and continue training once I get past the initial recovery (Dr. says I can lift "whenever you feel comfortable doing it"). At least now (hopefully) post work out recovery won't be so harsh (for awhile, I was literally hitting a wall 4-6hrs after, and needing to sleep a few hours, before being quasi functional again).

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    Hey man I'm glad you found someone who appears to be competent and has experience with going into a human's skull. I'd feel more at ease about it under those circumstances. Sending you good vibes for a safe surgery and speedy recovery. Keep us posted on what happens and hopefully you can train properly sooner rather than later!

  5. #5
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    Hey, I wanted to chime in as I had skull surgery a month ago. Probably an order of magnitude less involved than yours. They also went in behind my ear. Mine was for moving a blood vessel away from a facial nerve that was causing it to fire and made my face spasm. Anyway, I was on 3 weeks of nothing aerobic and started back with NLP this last week. Before then, restriction or not, lifting above my ability to do it easily set my head to pounding something horrible. To that end, most untrained individuals are told nothing over 10 lb. My surgeon was completely familiar with lifting and gave me the instruction instead of starting at an empty bar, to go about 30-40% my x5 ability and that worked just great.

    Hi protein worked great for me. I just have mainly had to keep the calories restricted so as not to balloon up since my activity was way down. Oh, I also did LOTS of walking per post surgery 'rehab'. Again the untrained suggestion was 10 minute walks 4-6 times a day. Once I was out of bed, I started at a leisurely and light 4 miles and worked up to 10 over the next week, with my Dr's blessing.

    Good luck on the surgery and recovery.

  6. #6
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    Thanks Alchemist,

    Than jives with what my surgeon has been telling me. Nothing lifted over the weight of a gallon of milk (8-10lbs) for the first two weeks (and no driving). Walking as soon as able is recommended. I'll keep in mind those recommended weights of yours (empty bar, etc.) as I go back into training after surgery.

    I'm cycling off creatine for now (no surprise, my creatanine levels were pretty high on the 24 hr urine sample), but keeping a high protein diet, and cutting back on the fat a bit. Still training, but at an 80% level due to fatigue and recovery issues. Funny, but I remember when these 80% numbers would have killed me. Now, even with this tumor thing going on, it's like "Meh. Quit complaining and lift the weight, its not that heavy".

    Hope to be back at full training again about 6-8 weeks afterwards. Hopefully, taking care of all this will cure some of the recovery issues I have been seeing over the last year or so.

    Thanks again for your insight.

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by MarinePMI View Post
    Thanks Alchemist,

    Than jives with what my surgeon has been telling me. Nothing lifted over the weight of a gallon of milk (8-10lbs) for the first two weeks (and no driving). Walking as soon as able is recommended. I'll keep in mind those recommended weights of yours (empty bar, etc.) as I go back into training after surgery.
    I'll clarify and I would NEVER go against what you Dr says. Mine too had the gallon of milk thing in the general recovery restrictions. My Dr said basically due to training, don't be overly concerned by it and let head pressure/pain be my guide. For me it was about 35-40 lb. I 'accidentally' moved a 50 lb keg with no ill effects about 10 days out.

    Again, really good luck.

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by Alchemist View Post
    I'll clarify and I would NEVER go against what you Dr says. Mine too had the gallon of milk thing in the general recovery restrictions. My Dr said basically due to training, don't be overly concerned by it and let head pressure/pain be my guide. For me it was about 35-40 lb. I 'accidentally' moved a 50 lb keg with no ill effects about 10 days out.

    Again, really good luck.
    What was said keg being used for?

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by Alchemist View Post
    I'll clarify and I would NEVER go against what you Dr says. Mine too had the gallon of milk thing in the general recovery restrictions. My Dr said basically due to training, don't be overly concerned by it and let head pressure/pain be my guide. For me it was about 35-40 lb. I 'accidentally' moved a 50 lb keg with no ill effects about 10 days out.

    Again, really good luck.
    Yeah, after the quoted weights and such, I asked "When can I start strength training again?" to which he responded "Whenever you feel up to it". Essentially, like you said, let the head pressure/pain be your guide. He made the comment that recovery (shocker I know) is so varied by person, that it's really hard to nail down a set timeframe. And that with my age (which apparently is young for this type of tumor) and health (which everyone has made comments of "for your age you are in remarkably good shape") recovery is going to be driven more by what I can feel, than by some arbitrary recommendation for the general population.

    We always talk about it here, that building muscle mass and strength training is "building up the metabolic sink" for when life throws ailments and such at you. I can attest, that this is certainly the case in my situation...sounds like yours as well.

  10. #10
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    And for the sake of discussion, here's an image of the inside of my head (MRI). The tumor is denoted by the two intersecting white lines, and is (obviously) starting to impinge on the cerebral cortex (hence the fatigue and impediment in motor skills).



    MRI_2_santized.jpg

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