Well, I am not surprised that people are wondering about whether I can drink alcohol or not. Honestly, I would be wondering the same thing if I was an outsider looking in. I do ask that when I post this, I receive no judgement, negativity, hate comments, or advice. I am in no way a doctor and I am not condoning the drinking of alcohol following a stomach removal, please keep that in mind while you read this post. I just want to be honest and true; I don’t want to hide anything.
Well, let me just spill the tea about the whole alcohol situation. In short, yes, I still consume alcohol. I found out I could drink certain things about three months after my surgery. It all started when I was on vacation in Daytona beach at my family’s beach house. We went out to dinner and my mom got a Washington apple (Crown, Apple Schnapps, and cranberry juice), I decided to take a few sips of it to see what would happen. I kid you not I got tipsy after only a few sips, and I felt no side effects. So, I convinced my stepdad to take me to a liquor store and buy me Sake. If you have ever had Sake you know that it is essentially rice wine. My mom and me walked along the beach that night while she drank her Makers Mark, and I drank my Sake. For the first time in three months I felt normal, and I had no negative reactions to drinking it. I definitely was surprised because food made me so sick, but for some reason the few sips of the Washington Apple, and the sake, settled well. And let me just tell y’all I got pretty tipsy that night. I remember standing in the ocean and looking to the sky. I decided while I was tipsy was the best time to ask God some questions I had been wondering. I said “Why me? Why did you save me, and what is my purpose? What makes me so special? Why am I given a second chance?” And I begged him to guide me through my recovery, and to send me answers to the questions I had for him. Now let me just say I said all of this out loud… and I was crying. A random dude named Trace approached my family, and me, and I can only imagine what he thought of us…. A bunch of tipsy people, walking the beach, talking to God out loud must had been a pretty weird sight to see. But, in our defense, he was walking the beach BY HIMSELF at night, and he was like 19 years old looking for seashells in the dark. So, for me I thought he was kind of weird. But to each their own. Side note, we ran into Trace TWICE while we were on vacation. Both times were at night, and he was searching for seashells both times. I am convinced he has a huge passion for seashell collecting, specifically collecting them at night.
So, the next alcohol I decided to try was wine, I knew I wouldn’t be able to drink my favorite, Moscato, because it was way too sweet. But I figured I could drink Cabernet and Zinfandel, if you refer to the picture attached to this post you can see that I just went ahead and decided to try both. And both went down well, I didn’t get sick or feel any burning or negative side effects at all. I do, however, remember feeling drunk for the first time since before my surgery. Let me just say, it felt SO good to feel so normal. I was at the beach, on vacation with my family, sipping wine and having a fantastic time! My mom and me drank together that night, we laughed and cried together. Neither of us have stomachs, but there we were drinking, and we had the time of our lives. When I returned home to Tennessee, I realized that I have to be super careful about how much wine I drink. One day I went out to the pool and I brought mini Cabernet bottles out with me, I drank two and a half of them not realizing the alcohol percentage was around 13%. Let’s just say, it was not a good time. But I did learn my lesson about alcohol, it only takes one drink and I’m good. I feel like my husband is honestly relieved because my favorite drink prior to surgery was Gin and Tonic, specifically Sapphire Gin. So now I’m a cheap date who only has one drink when we go out, I can tell he is loving the way the check looks when they bring it to our table.
The last alcohol I am able to drink, and trust me I was super surprised by this because I actually use to HATE IT with a PASSION, is beer. I am utterly in love with beer. It settles so well and has such a low alcohol percentage; I am able to go out to breweries and have a good time. Beer is my go-to drink. And it’s so funny I like it so much because just a few months ago I would refuse to drink it. In fact, in college I would go to parties sober if they only had beer available. When people say it is an acquired taste, I absolutely agree with them, it took me almost 4 years to finally start liking it. But now that I’m a fan I have found that I love blonde ales, occasionally I like a nice IPA but its pretty rare for me to order one.
Well folks that about it, I really can’t drink anything stronger than sake, wine and beer. I tried a bourbon infused espresso drink and was dry heaving after taking a few sips. I know better than to dabble with the hard liquor. And even though I LOVE gin, I won’t be drinking that for a long time. I have to remember that I just had this surgery, my body is still adjusting. Alcohol isn’t the best for it and I am fully aware of that, but do I have a drink now and then? Yes, I do.
