HELP ME PLEASE!!!! I'm MISRABLE

Followed by the rebuttal that she eats lots and lots of protein and shakes.  And she's got this all under control, she's just putting this out there for Newbies as a PSA.

All under the title of "HELP ME PLEASE!!! I'm MISERABLE" .  Color me confused.  What is it that she is teaching us?

VERY good question!  What is she teaching us?!?!  And what is she herself actually learning from this whole experience?

I don't get the "stop being mean to me" tone of all her responses.  She asked for advice and said "let me have it" which tells me that she knew full well she wasn't going to like some of what she heard.  Like GO NOW.  Stop waiting.  Stop making excuses.  But then she wants to whine about how the perfectly good and friendly advice was given to her.

I really hope she gets her **** under control and gets healthy again.  I wonder what her supplement schedule is and how she's been doing with that...

How not to backpeddle, perhaps?

Hi.

If you read the links I posted you will see that Elizabeth was one of the key factors in making me see how urgent this was. It wasn't about making me feel guilty or insulting me, it got my attention to be told directly how serious this was. She was also very concerned and checked up on me afterwards. She and several others here, saved my life. It is also true that once you get this far gone, you just can't seem to think straight and you rationalize every symptom. I also didn't want to be a failure, I didn't want to let down the DS surgical community with not having taken care of my gift.
Turns out, not getting medical attention immediately would have been my true mistake instead.

Sometimes our strength is to admit defeat and get HELP.

I asked you if you were experiencing any of the following: swelling in the feet/ankles, shortness of breath, skin breaking down, hair loss, etc..?

You replied with yup, all of them. You shouldn't be waiting for an appointment in that case, you should be at the hospital in the ER.
There is no example or lesson to be taught here for the pre-ops other than don't ask for help and ignore it.

I went to the ER and was admitted without a second thought. I was very, very sick. I had tried to hard to muscle my way through it, that when I was finally able to let go and show how bad I felt, it was a relief. You have to see that you aren't any good to your family like this and it'll only get worse.

*smoochies* I was about ready to take a little road trip and slap some sense into your head!!!!

I'm SO glad you're doing better. Thank you for understanding the motivation behind jolting, abrasive, ass kicking language. Sunshine and rainbows don't cut it when people are too sick to think straight.

Interesting.

 

Alright Tonya,

I know you're not hungry, but you need to eat.  I have been through this.  I was 10 or 11 months out and could still barely eat 2-3 ounces of food at one time.  I just kept blaming my stomach...saying I must have a stricture or something.  My surgeon indulged me and did a scope-nothing wrong.  You have to facilitate the stretching of your stomach to accomodate more food.  This requires a very intense all-day eating plan.

The part that worked for me if to measure out a meal of protein...HAS to be at least 30g.  Then, you eat it.  I don't care if it takes you 30 minutes or 3 hours.  Eat it.  Every bite.  If you eat two bites and get full, stop and wait.  Once you get to the point where you can fit another bite in without barfing, you take another bite.  You do this over and over until your meal is over.  Then, you do the same thing at your next meal.  You need to do this at least 4 times per day. 

When you are not eating, you need to be drinking and taking your vitamins.  Again, it will take forever.  It may take all day.  You will probably feel like you are nourishing yourself all day long.  This is normal.  You really should also be on some sort of liquid protein supplement.  They have easily digestible and bioavailable forms of protein that your body can use.

Low protein and dehydration; it makes you feel like crap.  And that makes you not want to eat, and that makes your problem worse.  It is self-perpetuating and you need to break the cycle.  I was so weak from dehydration and not eating enough that any small amount of exertion made me dry heave several times.

Now that this has been addressed, eating things that are not also protein will probably make you feel a little bit better too.  Oatmeal, cereal, rice, crackers, beans, whatever.  I tried that no carb diet and it made me sleeeeepy.  I was too active for it.

What doctor is doing your follow up care?  You really need to see some sort of doctor to let them know what is going on because you really need to have your labs done right now.  It could be your PCP, your GYN, your surgeon -- heck, go to an after hours or walk-in clinic.  I am not necessarily jumping straight to your need for TPN, it really does depend on your protein levels.  You realllllly need to have a basic metabolic panel done.  At this point, I am really not even too concerned about your whole vitamin panel, more just concerned about a few things that effect your health in the here and now (protein, electrolytes).  A walk in clinic should be able to do those labs for you.  I work at one and we more than have the capabilities to deal with someone coming in for severe lethargy and draw labs on site, and you may also be able to get a bag of IV fluids while you are there.  We can deal with the vitamin things in a few weeks.

Keep in mind - physical therapy is fine and dandy but you won't gain any muscle if you do not have the amino acids available and you aren't going to see any improvement if your eating is not facilitating that process.

Your picky eating is your business.  I don't care what you eat, but it needs to have 30g of protein minimum per meal and you need to have 4+ meals per day, preferably in addition to protein shakes.  I really don't even care if it's fast food or chicken nuggets.  My first foods when I was dealing with this was chicken nuggets and a small chili from wendys.  I'd get 2 orders of 5 piece chicken nuggets and a small chili and I'd make myself eat every bite each night for dinner no matter what.  Sometimes I even had to stop and take a nap mid way through, but I always always finished.  I ate like that daily for 2 weeks until I was ready to move on to something else.