A question about your nutritionist and doctor

Do you feel you get the proper education and support from your nutritionist and doctor? I have been on the other board and I know what all of them would answer, but didn't want to assume it was the same with everyone.

I just had a lengthy conversation with my nutritionist and it went something like this:
ME: I believe that the DS community feels like they don't get proper information from their nutritionist or doctors when it comes to food and supplimentation. I believe because at first we are scared and we don't say anything. Then with success it is why bother to share how we got there. I believe it is a vicious cycle because you don't know what is working because we don't share, we don't share because you don't give good advice.
Nutritionist: Silence. Well you really need to follow the "plan."
ME: For instance, I don't do the "low fat" thing you suggest. It doesn't work. I had lost 42% of my EWL at 3 months when the dr.'s goal was only 35% of my EWL.
Nutritionist: Well I guess we can't argue with that, but don't eat red meat, or use butter. Maybe add some olive oil.
ME: In my head I'm thinkng if she knew I have bacon almost every morning she'd have a cow.

Any way just curious about your experiences. I am a fixer and once I get to goal I would love to go in with all my records and say, "see this is how it really works."

I don't have a nutritionist.  At 2 1/2 weeks, my doctor said I was cleared and unrestricted, just keep it healthy, take my vitamins, the more protein the better and fluids fluids fluids.  That's working for me.  (25 pounds in 5 weeks, even after a 2 week stall)

We DSrs were lucky the past couple of years. We got a new dietitian fresh out of her internship and took her under our wing. She listened to us and and when she moved half way across the world she picked her replacement. She picked a dietitian new to bariatrics and told her to listen to us, don't just go by the old "plan".  I think we are very lucky and not many practices have dietitians that listen to successful patients. Oh, and they both think Vitalady is a pretty smart cookie too because they look at our labs and can see the difference in those that follow Vitalady and those that don't.  :)

--gina
 

 I lost 170 pounds (over 100% of my EWL if you used my dr's goal weight or mine) in 18 months. (I was at my goal weight at 12 months.) I did it eating high protein, high fat, and low carb. My best foods were/ are steak, cheese, & ground beef. My nut would have a big fat dairy cow if she heard that....she had no clue and I didn't feel like it was my job to teach her what she needed to know. I just nodded and ignored her advice. 

It's really a shame that we DSers have to endure medical "mis-treatment" from the people that literally hold our lives in their hands!  I only followed "the plan" in terms of foods for the first year. 

My food horizons have expanded, but not my waistline.  In fact, I find that I can "shock" my body out of a stall by eating high sugar/ high carb/ high fat (Krispy Kreme Method) for one meal during the week if I need to.  I've only had to do it a couple of times, though.  The rest of the time, I'm eating like crazy to try to maintain my weight.  

Never thought I'd have a "problem" like that!   ;-) 

I don't go to mine now...but the first year, I did NOT even try and educate mine...she had bought into the low fat/no meat hook line and sinker! I just nodded and smiled.

My biggest issue is they give out RNY advice for ALL their wls patients and do not consider the differences in the surgeries.

Not my job to educate them.

Liz

I hate the "one plan fits all" approach, too.  My program does plans for each individual surgery, but since the majority of support group members are RNY, that's always where the conversation goes. 

Those who live near the hosptial have the good fortune to have DS exclusive support groups, but the rest of us around the state have to go to the general support groups.  The hosptial sets up support groups in or near the cities where the patients live, so there's some continuity of care.  I'm also in a group of patients in a five-year follow-up plan with my surgeon.  We're probably part of some study she's doing.

 I have even looked into getting a second bachelor's degree in Dietics just to have a DS friendly dieticin in Nashville. I believe this will be an ongoing process. It is one reason that I am tracking all my food and weight on myfitnesspall. 

Just thinking out loud, but I wonder if I stood up like you did Majormom with my nutritionist after I reach goal that I could change it for at least this area.

 It's a talk to the hand situation.  They will never believe you are right and they are wrong.

They got a box in school.  And they don't know how to think outside of this box.

That's why we nod and smile.

Actually, the dietitians in my program are getting better about DS nutrition, but only because there are so many of us there to lobby for change. The  low fat / low carb load  of crap I got from the dietitians  in my first year defined my mission to get off disability, which was the reason I had the surgery in the first place -to resolve my obesity related co-morbidities so I could re-train for a new profession that would accomodate my conditions.

I am indeed doing a repeat college trip for a MS in Dietetics. The specialty program isn't in place anywhere, so my alma mater is allowing me to write my own program. Since I already have a BA, all I have to do is the prereqs and Dietetics courses, do the internship and sit for the RD exam. The DS was all part of my plan to get off disability, and that's how I'm planning to do it.  SMO had a hand in making my disabilities worse, but losing 245 pounds has made a difference in how my body reacts to lupus and fibromyalgia.  Even the medicines that wouldn't work before, work now to control my symptoms.  Before, the only thing that would work was prednisone, which helped push me up to 405.  I'm now slightly below goal, and have paused my Voc-Rehab program for excess skin removal via lipo and LBL/thighplasty.

I realize that one Bariatric Dietitian can't change the world, but I can make things better for the hundreds of thousands of people who will have bariatric surgery inthe years to come...and *especially* for DSers.  Who better to counsel bariatric patients than another bariatric patient?
I know I will have patients who will have different surgeries, but if I can keep one DSer from going into malnutrition and being on TPN because of a dietician who is too lazy to learn that one plan does *not* fit all,  then it will be all worthwhile.