Fig bars may not be suitable for your particular needs. They still need to be chewed, and when they hit your stomach, they are a mix of simple and complex carbs that need to be digested and need a sufficient quantity of water to dilute the sugar content.

If you can't handle high sugar, and can't handle rough foods, have you looked into Hammer Nutrition's HEED Sports Drink Mix? It's a powder that mixes with water, creating a gatorade-like drink that has 100 calories per serving.

Most of the calories are from complex carbs (mostly maltodextrin), not simple sugars. Also, they contain no citric acids (which may irritate your mouth), and their sweeteners (stevia and xylitol) are supposed to be easy on the stomach.

They're not cheap - you'd be looking at about 60 cents per 100 calories if you buy the big containers, so it may not be a good long-term solution. But you can probably get single serving sizes at your LBS, sporting goods or vitamin/nutrition store, and find out if they work for you.

If they DO work, you might want to look at buying pure maltodextrin from your vitamin/nutrition store. The employees probably won't know what you're talking about, so you'll have to look in the endurance sports energy/recovery section and read a bunch of labels to find what you're looking for. With maltodextrin, you may be able to mix your own energy drink that'll get you the calories you need without running into sugar issues....

But as you know better than most, everybody's post surgery dietary needs are different. You're well down the road of trial-and-error yourself, and I'd be very interested to hear what your future test results are.