Hi there, I had the DS in March, 2003. I did have issues with low copper for some time and supplemented for years with Biotech Pharmacal's 5 mg copper and just barely kept my levels average. They stopped making the 5 mg, so I switched to one of their 1.5 mg and added 4 mg of Ecological Formulas Pro-Copper Ligand, which is supposed to be a better form of copper. This combination was so good that I ended up with too much copper, which is also dangerous (195 ug/dl; high end of normal is 158 ug/dl)! I have not supplemented for 18 months now and am well back into normal levels.

You may want to try the Ecological Formulas Pro-Copper Ligand. It was what really made a difference with absorption, but be sure to monitor!

Good morning!

That's a new one to me, at least in phrasing. I've been told that you don't get the chance to absorb the fat soluble ADEK vitamins when the fat shoots through your system too quickly and causes diarrhea, so that could be one interpretation if it's part of your current experience. Not so much that the fat attaches to nutrients, just that everything flushes with it.

My clinic advised low fat just for the purpose of preventing the super quick movement, so to speak.

If you're losing weight quickly at 9 years out, is it purposeful or could something else be going on? I get the concern but that's some interesting feedback from the nutritionist. What are you eating?

Cheers!

So, I had a talk with a nutritionist today. She told me to go low fat because when fat is not absorbed it takes nutrients along with it, as a part of the malabsorption (she tried saying that protein was one of those nutrients but hello- protein and fat are completely different and absorbed differently).

Is there any truth whatsoever to malabsorbed fat sucking up other nutrients and carrying them away? I can only eat meat that has a significant amount of fat in it or I can't get it down, and I'm running protein deficient.

This nutritionist told me I was doing everything wrong, then told me to stop losing weight so quickly. I'm 9 years out from surgery.

We will never knwo what she did or didn't do. Often with pain, any type of pain - the docs prescribe pain meds, muscle relaxants,. etc. That in itsefl can mask a serious pain and cramps. From simple obstruiction to drasit one - there can be a relative short time - a few days when the bowels die and become septic. Unfortuantaly even when a person goes and comaplins but still have some BM, the symptoms can be dismissed - ignored.

To add: becasue of the abdominal surgery - some nerves never completely regenerate and a person may not even realise how critical their condition is.

Congrats on making it through surgery.

Your plan has you on solid food much faster than mine did. No chicken or anything that couldn't be cut easily with a plastic for****il two months out, really. As the others have said, chicken can be hard.

My best advice if you're on solid food already is to cut it really, really small and make sure you have sauce or gravy to help with moisture. My clinic was big at preaching about chewing to applesauce consistency. You're still healing and probably swollen, so it'll be a process. It should get better with time even if it doesn't feel that way now.

Editing to add that some great advice I've gotten is that when you hit a snag in your diet progression, take a step backward to give your system a break. It's helped me a ton in my year since surgery!

Best wishes.