back to UNC tomorrow

first of all I wanted to say thanks to you guys for all your help and support with my last whiny post. I'm still kinda down, but every day gets better.....?

Tomorrow i go back to UNC to have my leg scan and IVC filter removed. I'm a little nervous, but I'm glad to get it out.

2 things on my mind:

I am stalled. I'm sure this isn't uncommon, but I've been stuck at 278-282 for the past 2 weeks, and I'm only 5 weeks out of surgery. how is this even possible? shouldn't i be dropping like crazy right now? when i think about this i want to cry i get so frustrated. all this suffering for nothing?

another thing is this... and you guys that went through UNC for your surgery will be the ones i am talking to here... my last and (and first) follow up appt was a week or two ago and Dr Farrell kinda chit chatted with me for a second and let me ask my questions and i was herded out the door. I read all these accounts on here about nutritionists and all these kinda surgeons that take you by the hand and follow up with you and want to know about your vitamin levels and all that... and I feel totally alone in all this. if i weren't for you guys, I wouldn't know half of how to take care of myself at this point... all the half-hearted information I've found is either in library books or from the Internet. I'm not sure if i'm doing right at all.

should I be working with my PCP or should Dr Farrell be keeping a closer eye on me? I don't have another appt with UN****il February some time. when do i know that i can eat salads? how can i know if i am getting dehydrated? my questions are overwhelming me and i am getting extremely frustrated. I've finally randomly started dumping on an almost constant basis out of blue since last weekend. every other thing i eat, i am throwing up. and couple this with the fact that i am STILL not dropping any weight and i can't hardly eat, it blows my mind.

sorry this has turned into another big baby post :(

Karla,
You have  real concerns and I totally understand.
Even tho Dr. Farrel is my all time favorite doctor you still have to speak up to get what you need.
Dr. F will tell you he is just the plumbmer and dosent know to much about the NUt stuff.
After my surgery I requested monthly appointments with the NUT.
Do you have Karen's email?
If not I will send it to you via PM.
As for your stall my feeling is your body is taking a break from loosing the weight you have so far.
When a body feels you are starving it it will hold onto the fat for dear life.
In other words it sounds like your body maybe in starvation mode.
If you need Karen email and or number let me know.
                                                                       Annie

Hi Karla,

I'm so sorry to hear you struggling so. Please know that the stall that you are experiencing is absolutely normal and so are your feelings surrounding it. I was sure that I was totally messing this up and that I wouldn't get the weight off because I was 'trying' to do all the right things and the weight just wasn't budging. When I went to see my surgeon he said that the weight loss is much more like a stairstep of drops and stops than a slide downhill. He said that your body will do all it can to hold on to those 'precious' fat reserves that we are trying soooo hard to rid ourselves of. He said to stay the course and make sure that I was getting plenty of hydration and protien and to be sure that I kept my caloric intake around 900 calories a day. He said the from the research that they have done, they have found that less than 900 calories a day puts your body into what is known as 'starvation' mode and your body will hold onto all reserves. If you are consuming about 900 calories a day, it will allow your body to finally dip into those reserves.

I found that I needed to get a keep a list of questions for my appointments, but I also found that if I called with a question, I would get an answer, so I would suggest that you contact your Dr's office and ask the questions that concern you. If you don't want to do this daily, then decide to do it once or twice a wee****il you feel like you are on an even keel. This may be something where you need to initiate the contact. It sounds like many of your questions are the type that could and would be addressed by the Nut that works with your program, so try contacting them and seeing if you can get an appointment with them and if you feel the need schedule regular sessions until you feel comfortable.

Re: getting sick and throwing up a lot. There can be a lot of reasons for this. Some may be do to the swelling that goes with surgery. It takes a while, maybe 6 to 8 weeks for the swelling to go down enough that you can start to eat more 'normally.' Generally, you have to eat VERY SLOWLY. At a pace and volume that seems absolutely absurd, but if you take bites that are tiny, like the size of your fingernail and then chew them 30 times and wait at least 1 minute between swallowing the first bite and starting the second, you'll probably do somewhat better. The other thing is that you may have issues with things like lactose intolerance or fat/carb intolerance that you might not have had or been aware of before. One way to determine this is to isolate your foods. Instead of having things in combination, just have one food at a time to ensure that you do okay with that, next time try another. Very quickly you will develop a 'pantry' of foods that you can pretty reliably have without making you sick.

If you continue to have issues with getting sick after trying to isolate the types of foods that you are eating and managing the volume and speed, then be sure to be documenting what and how much you are eating and how you feel after eating it, how long you feel bad, etc... Take that information to your Dr. If you don't have an appointment, you can call the RN and get one. They can often take that information and with an educated guess and/or tests determine if there is a 'mechanical' problem such as a stricture or an ulcer that needs to be addressed.

Do not 'suffer' silently and be sure to document what is happening and how you are feeling so that your Dr's can get to the crux of the problem asap.

I hope that some of this helps.

Barb

Hang in there,

It will get better.