I NEED HELP?????

Has anyone gone through this before surgery. I got a call saying that from my blood work, I dont have enough iron nor protein for surgery. I have been taking multivitamins, iron pills and eat/drink protein daily. Did anyone have this problem and if so, how did you get your levels up? Any advice?

Hi Lysa, I didn't have this happen to me but a friend who had surgery about a year before me did, she had very low protein. Sounds like you are doing all the right things to help the situation. I would definitely be hitting the protein very hard right now because you will need those stores to help you heal later. Eating foods like steak, using protein supplements ( Isopure etc. and upping your leafy green veggies might help. The veggies will help with iron too. How about using Total cereal? it has alot of things in it that are very good for you and could help since you don't have malabsorption issues yet. I buy the low carb one and use carb Countdown 2% in it. You get a real shot of iron as well as good protein plus calcium with not alot of calories. Maybe consult again with a nutritionist and form a plan that way. Good luck and hang in there. Linda

Thank you Linda... .. I am going to do some real food shopping this weekend and thanks for the ideas. I will be not only calling the Dr's office this morning but my PMRI nutritionist as well. I have had low blood since age 16 due to irregular cycles. I have been on iron pills too. So hopefully, they can send me to specialist who can help me before and after surgery...... wish me luck.......

Hi Lysa, Towanda here, I think we had our stress test the same day 1/4/05 Dr. Adeleke. (Forgive my spelling). My surgery date was 2/1, but it got postponed. Hopefully, I'll be getting a new date soon. I am sorry to hear about you blood work but if there is one thing I have learned through this process, it's to ask the source. Call the Dr's office and let them know you want the surgery and see what course of action they want you to take. I am sure they have great ideas to get your levels to where they want them to be. Of course your Obesity.com family can help. The only problem is that you may get many answers, run them by your doctor to get the best plan for you. I hope to hear from you soon and wish you the best of luck. I'll post my next surgery date asap. Stay strong.

Thank you Towanda........ I will call my Dr's office first thing this morning.........My surgery is on April 11th and I will haul "u know what" on all that I need to do make it happen....Wish me luck..... p.s. I wish you luck too and let me know when you're surgery will be....

Lysa, Linda gave you some excellent advice. If it were me, an endocrinologist would be my first choice at helping to get my levels in check. See if you can get a referral from your PCP. Should not be a problem since you have been dealing with this since your teens with no success? My girlfriend has dealt with Pernicious Anemia since childhood with no real success in getting her levels up. After the age of the internet, because of my concern for her, I was able to do a study on the subject and found that it is not something to play around with. So with that in mind, I was on a quest to find a way to help her up her levels to an acceptable range. I found the following and she ran it by her doc and he agreed that it could not hurt. With time, these small changes have helped her levels to become acceptable and are still climbing. Her doctor is quite pleased with the results. Of course, if anything suggested goes against anything your doctor has already told you, remember that he/she is the one with the medical degree and the real knowledge!!! I was just trying to help a friend and thought that perhaps something here could help you as well. Use wise judgment. For maximum absorption of your iron supplement, piggy back your iron with vitamin C and take it at least a couple hours apart from all other vitamins and food. Most especially don't take it with or near your calcium. Is your iron an Rx or OTC? May want to talk with your surgeon or PCP about getting on another Rx, especially if you have been on the one you are on for a while and it is not making much of a difference. Another thing that may help with your absorption of the iron, is to make sure you are not overdoing soda products AND coffee and tea (caffeinated OR decaf). If I recall correctly, it is the tannins in the coffee and tea that can strongly interfere with our absorption of iron. So just to be on the safe side, do not take your iron supplement with or near coffee, tea. Take the iron with a full glass of water to help ensure proper breakdown of the pill (assuming that you are taking iron "pills". About the low protein, are you trying small protein meals spread throughout the day? If not, try and see if that helps. Protein is something that the body usually does not store well, so by spreading your intake out, you stand a better chance of getting maximum absorption for your calorie intake. Food is an excellent source of protein pre-op, but the shakes are an easy way to get a measured "dose" of protein punch as well and are my personal choice of ensuring my proper daily intake of a large chunk of my protein needs. If you go with the shakes, I suggest that you may want to stay with a Whey protein isolate shake as your first shake of the day and immediately after a workout. These are times when you need "fast" absorption rather than sustained absorption. For other times of the day, it is better to use a blend. I have read that Casein is good for the PRE-OP patient to be included in a blend because it sorta forms a gel in the intestinal track and slows down the "ride" through the body. Thus allowing your body to get the a fuller leaching of the protein from this source. I can not vouch for the accuracy of that article but thought it may be something that you may want to look into further. As a post-op, I do not use this form of protein supplement. Too concerned about the bioavailability of it with our re-routing and the "gelling" part makes me a bit leery with my new plumbing. But the following link has a good chart to explain the differing protein "chains". This link is really for bodybuilders, but many others can glean a lot of good information from it just the same. If you check it out, keep in mind that as a pre-op or post-op we are not trying to follow the bodybuilder "diet". (www) getbig.com/articles/protein.htm IN addition to my "shakes" I personally push my "protein" "food" ratio at least 75% of my daily protein intake from animal sources. Grains, seeds, nuts and legumes make up the remaining 25%. You may want to take a peek at this article on amino acids - I don't necessarily agree with it all, but it does offer some good basic insight on the Amino acid profile (www) vaxa.com/library/bio3.cfm At any rate, there is tons of great (and not so great) information out there to sift through ... if interested do a google search and you will amazed. I hope something here will spark something to help you out. With my friend, I know what a struggle it can be dealing with this issue long term. Sure hope you get it resolved sooner than later. Wishing you the very best Lysa! Tammy

Lysa, Glad they caught the problems BEFORE the surgery! Did the doctor say whether you can go to your PCP for B-12 shots? That may provide the iron boost that you need. Bariatric Advantage and the Vitamn Shoppe also sell sub-lingual B-12. As for protein, you may want to try some of the protein powders to see if that helps with your protein levels. Don't forget to drink plenty of water and get some exercise. That can do wonders for the balance of nutrients in the body. Take care! Cassandra