Protein Intake - conflicting information, need clarification.

Welcome to my world re: battle every year!

If you could just graduate... it would improve my life so much!  I could make an appointment and converse with a medical professional who understands the DS and supplements.  For once.

How long before you are through school?

jashley-

It's gonna be a minute.  I stopped out in the fall to start the process of getting  my extra skin taken care of, but had a bout of  PCM, and Phase One (lipo) was canceled. Also had an insurance debacle that complicated things a bit. Had Phase One happened on schedule last fall, I'd be healing from Phase Two right now (thighplasty/skin excision)

Current Vit. D issues may further impact the timetable. I've been begging for an infusion just to get my level up, just like the iron infusions last year, which I'm managing to hold with  iron & vit. C  by mouth.

Once I get my recheck in a couple months to see where I'm at,  I'll make a decision as to whether I'm going to chuck it and go forward with my re-education, and spend the rest of my life in capri length body shapers.  The downside of that is that the extra skin has made me prone to cellulitis attacks, which was the reason for the skin removal in the first place.  Also, there is an age limit, which I'm at now, but that may go away out of medical necessity.

This has actually been the most difficult part of my journey.  Things are so much easier when you're young...(sigh!) 

I think we middle-aged patients get the short shrift on stuff like this, because we're not seen as having much of a future - so doctors see this kind of thing as a waste. Yes, I'm saying  there is ageism with regard to medical treatment.

There may actually be a few dieticians out there who already do what I want to do, but I haven't found any yet. With the increase in bariatric surgery there is going to be a great need for bariatric nutrition specialists.   I'll likely be 60 or older by the time I get through with the extra schoolwork, and the internship which is required before I can sit for the certification exam.  It's like going to medical school, actually, so we're talking at the very least 4 to 6 years.  My first degree was a Bachelor of Arts, and that's a world away from the sciences I need to be able to qualify for the RD.

I'm already a senior citizen at 55, but we Baby Boomers are gong to have to wor****il we drop, anyway!

I'm trying to find a way to  do the nutrition coaching without the RD certification, and work on that once I get a job working under an already certified RD.

I thought about going back to school for this myself.  But my finance and marketing degree, and CPA exams, provide no leg up in this field.  It would starting from scratch.  I just turned 52....  Yea, it isn't going to happen for me. 

But you are right, we do need to start finding our 'last' career around 55 because we will have to work till we drop dead during our rush hour commutes.  We certainly won't be able to live on our 401K and SSI benefits.  We do have to work till Medicare kicks in because we can't afford to go without insurance coverage between 62 and 66 (or 70 by the time we get there). 

I know you will get to work in this field though.  That brings some comfort to me.  At least someone is advising newbies correctly.

jashley-

 

You only have to do battle every *year*?  

 

Lucky you!!!!!

so there are averages but since the DS really is custom it is difficult to answer this....your cc length has a lot to do with this, but if you want numbers, i would use about 50% malabsorbed.   I don't really count any food types....i eat more carbs i gain weight, those little buggers...but isnt that true of everyone?  ....i eat protein 3-4 times a day, pretty much every meal.  that bs with killing you kidneys is really ignorance, and that NUT doesn't understand malabsorption.........hallelulia where have I heard that?  the last endo i went to, AND a pillar of the endo world was such a jerk i could barely stand being in the room with him,  Having the DS and no thyroid is a very difficult scenario,  he questioned how i knew i had malabsorption? i was like you jackass my intestinal track is about 60% bypassed what do you think would happen?  so not understanding what and why malabsorption is you get statements like what your NUT said.  We are not what we eat..we are what our bodies absorb......if you can get in 100 gm of protein great, if you get in 75 great, judge how you feel, and follow your bloodwork, those 2 will not steer you wrong.....tell that NUT to jump out of a plane.....you are doing great

I already have my education materials and lesson plan lined up.  I even have diagrams and pictures.

I'm so very frustrated with  to have to do everything short of opening up skulls and pouring in the information to get the treatment I need!  

LOL you are so funny.  that is the way i was the first couple of years, now forget it, if i have another experience like  did with this last endo I am out of there, i am not wasting my time with that, i don't expect anyone to know about the DS, my state is very anti-DS, but gosh darn it treat me as a patient who cares what i had treat the patient, learn a little about it and know it is not gastric bypass... and i really need an endo with a DS and no thyroid....seems like i will never have one....

I am almost 4 1/2 years out! 

It really frosts me that these doctors don't care enough to learn what they need to, especially if they're specialists!  Then they get scared of lawsuits if they don't do the right thing.  Perhaps with us they'd rather throw money at us than learn to treat our issues.  It really doesn't make sense to me, with the DS gaining ground and becoming more widely done.  When I got mine, there were only 50 surgeons worldwide.  Last I read there are now 75, still a drop in the bucket, but gaining. 

What's the point of being a specialist if you can't treat special cases?  I thought that's why PCP's made referrals in the first place!

 

My protein "guess" is lower than most. I approach protein with a minumum 80 grams a day. If I get more, great! If I think its less for the day, I'll eat a protein bar. I am a little fearful about the effect on my kidneys of having too MUCH protein, though I can't say I have any solid proof of that.

My protein labs are the highest they've been in the five years before my DS. I obviously ate way too many carbs in the years leading up to surgery. All, however, were within healthy ranges.

Tracking your labs in a spreadsheet is very important. If you have labs from before your DS, post them on the spreadsheet as well. It will help to define what is normal for you.