Help! Can't eat enough and so tired from being on just liquid/pureed foods.
Hi, I originally posted this in the RNY forum and someone there told me there was a pregnancy after WLS forum that would be a better place for this. I didn't even know the pregnancy forum existed! Anyway, I was hoping someone might have some ideas for me to take to my doctors office next week before they refer me to a higher risk specialist in Ann Arbor Michigan. My current high risk doctor is willing to try anything but he's kind of run out of ideas so he wants to send me to Ann Arbor and it's very far away and I don't want to go there. I already had been there for RNY last July 2010.
So... this is really long but the RNY group said I should post my ENTIRE story so please bear with me. I'll try to make it short but not leave out pertinent information.
I originally had a lap-band placed back in 2000 in Sweden (they were still in clinical trials and I didn't qualify for trials, too healthy). I loved my band and was an ace with it and got down to 130 pounds. I learned to chew really well and rarely had problems from not chewing well enough. Fast forward five years I started having horrific acid reflux and it caused a really bad build up of scar tissue in my esophagus and upper stomach (yes, this is pertinent information to the problem I have now, lol). The scar tissue would swell up without warning and I'd end up in the ER since I wouldn't even be able to swallow my own spit. Only steroids would make the swelling go down. So I had all the fill removed from my band and that helped. I gained an initial 20 pounds after the fill was removed and then maintained quite well at 150.
Until I got pregnant with my daughter. I could only handle carbs for most of the pregnancy, everything else made me feel nauseous. I gained 55 pounds and panicked when at six months after her birth my weight was still the same as it had been at 2 weeks after her birth (180ish pounds). So, May 2009 I opted to have the band completely removed and got a Sleeve instead.
That surgery when terribly wrong and I ended up with a HOLE at the esophagus/stomach juncture that was an 1" tall (which is huge). My surgeon tried, unsuccessfully, to suture the hole two more times and it simply would not hold a suture. It was decided to let it heal on its own. It too****il Jan/Feb 2010 for the hole to heal! That's a LONG time on a feeding tube, tell you what. It was discovered in March 2010 that my stomach had gone into over drive and had a really, REALLY bad stricture about half way down the sleeve (scar tissue that forms to make food impassable). I was able to drink some liquids but nothing more and so MORE surgery was required. It was a very rough time and I ended up in the hospital many times, but that isn't really pertinent to my current problem.
My surgeon was afraid to touch me again so Dr Birkmeyer of Ann Arbor University of Michigan did and RNY surgery (he was the only one my original surgeon could find who was willing to do it). Dr B re-route my intestines around the stricture and attach them at the upper portion of the stomach. He bypassed very little of my intestines because I didn't really need it for weight loss (I was 150 at that time) and I didn't want all the complications that come from bypassing with the RNY surgery. This happened in July 2010. I was on a liquid diet for another month and when I started trying to eat solid food (chewing REALLY well) I noticed it always hurt. Not just my stomach but all the way through to my back.
The more "solid" the food (like salad) the worse my back/upper abdomen would hurt. It got to the point I couldn't eat solid food without excruciating pain. I mean, it was worse than the labor pain with my daughter! Dr B thinks my stomach is spasming when I have solid food in it. I wonder if my vagus nerve was damaged during one of the surgeries and now have gastroparesis (paralyzed stomach) since I have all the symptoms except nausea.
I had been to see Mr B in September about the persistent pain but he assured me the pain would go away with time and that I was just eating too much solid food (no I wasn't!!! Even a few bites of well chewed food leaves me feeling stuffed for hours). It was very frustrating and I wasn't just going to give up. My PCP was kind enough to give me pain medicine to get through it.
However, I found out I was pregnant in October and never had the time to find out what was causing the pain or anything.
Now that I'm entering the 3rd trimester of pregnancy (and off the pain meds for three weeks) and since no diagnoses was made as to my ORIGINAL problem with eating food no one knows what to do. One of the doctors in the OB practice even accused me of being a drug addict - THOUGH - for the last six months I have been begging for them to find out what I could do to make it stop hurting when I eat. I did every test they could do and finally when it was discovered that they had no more ideas I went off the pain meds on my own and started a liquid diet. You can't go off pain meds in the 3rd trimester, has to be 2nd or not at all.
I am now 27.5 weeks pregnant (VERY unexpected pregnancy, our birth control failed us) and I am having a really rough time getting in enough WHOLE nutrition to have any energy at all. I have organic protein drinks with vitamins and minerals I drink every day, I have an organic protein powder with added "super greens" such as spinach and spirulina that I mix in with a smoothie every day, I eat baby foods such as "chicken with veggies" daily too. I have even just started drinking raw carrot and apple juice I make myself in an effort to get some energy.
I am eating more than enough calories. IN fact, I didn't gain ANY weight during this entire pregnancy until I went off the pain meds and couldn't eat solid food any more. I've gained around 6 or 7 pounds in the last few weeks from being on a liquid/pureed diet yet I feel incredibly exhausted all the time. Not just "pregnancy" exhausted. This goes beyond that. I've all but quit my job and am only working 10 - 12 hours week because I don't have the energy to work more. My husband and my mom have to help me constantly with my 2.5 year old daughter because I don't have the energy to even change her clothes or diaper most of the time.
I was FINE when I could eat solid foods (though I supplemented with liquid nutrition every day so as to take less pain meds). I know I am getting enough protein, enough vitamins, and enough carbs. Its just, there is no real "liquid whole nutrition" to replace solid foods.
And, more than anything I am worried that as the baby gets larger the stomach will be even MORE cramped and I'll have a hard time even getting down liquids.
I had a baby-safe endoscopy done two months ago to rule out an ulcer, stricture, and stomach infection. Everything came back as great and healthy. The stomach is in great health. So why can't I eat anything?
Gastroparesis (paralyzed stomach due to vagus nerve damage, i.e., the stomach can't move solid foods through itself) is my guess but it can't be proven one way or another until after the baby is born. In the meantime because I'm not wasting away the doctors aren't doing much. But I'm DYING from exhaustion. I can't spend the next 10 weeks this tired.
I hope I didn't leave out any really important pieces of information. I did that when I originally posted this in the RNY forum and I think they wondered if I was just trolling or wanting attention! LOL But seriously, has anyone had a problem like this?
Has anyone had trouble eating solid foods while pregnant? What did you do to keep your energy levels up? What did your doctors do, if anything? Did you have a harder time eating even liquids the further you go into your pregnancy?
If any of the information sounds incomplete please just ask. I don't mean to leave out information. I just hate asking people to read SUCH AN INCREDIBLY long post. If you did take the time, I really appreciate it.
I should add: I get plenty of vitamins from a double dose of chewable prenatals (doctor's suggestion) and I get a lot of calcium from my smoothies which I make with Greek Yogurt and Almond Milk. I mix my chocolate protein drink with 1% chocolate milk. So I get a lot of calcium too. I also take a liquid B complex vitamin. I don't know what else to do to get more energy. Really, eating solid food made all the difference. I don't understand WHY. Its so frustrating to try to hard and have no noticable success.
So... this is really long but the RNY group said I should post my ENTIRE story so please bear with me. I'll try to make it short but not leave out pertinent information.
I originally had a lap-band placed back in 2000 in Sweden (they were still in clinical trials and I didn't qualify for trials, too healthy). I loved my band and was an ace with it and got down to 130 pounds. I learned to chew really well and rarely had problems from not chewing well enough. Fast forward five years I started having horrific acid reflux and it caused a really bad build up of scar tissue in my esophagus and upper stomach (yes, this is pertinent information to the problem I have now, lol). The scar tissue would swell up without warning and I'd end up in the ER since I wouldn't even be able to swallow my own spit. Only steroids would make the swelling go down. So I had all the fill removed from my band and that helped. I gained an initial 20 pounds after the fill was removed and then maintained quite well at 150.
Until I got pregnant with my daughter. I could only handle carbs for most of the pregnancy, everything else made me feel nauseous. I gained 55 pounds and panicked when at six months after her birth my weight was still the same as it had been at 2 weeks after her birth (180ish pounds). So, May 2009 I opted to have the band completely removed and got a Sleeve instead.
That surgery when terribly wrong and I ended up with a HOLE at the esophagus/stomach juncture that was an 1" tall (which is huge). My surgeon tried, unsuccessfully, to suture the hole two more times and it simply would not hold a suture. It was decided to let it heal on its own. It too****il Jan/Feb 2010 for the hole to heal! That's a LONG time on a feeding tube, tell you what. It was discovered in March 2010 that my stomach had gone into over drive and had a really, REALLY bad stricture about half way down the sleeve (scar tissue that forms to make food impassable). I was able to drink some liquids but nothing more and so MORE surgery was required. It was a very rough time and I ended up in the hospital many times, but that isn't really pertinent to my current problem.
My surgeon was afraid to touch me again so Dr Birkmeyer of Ann Arbor University of Michigan did and RNY surgery (he was the only one my original surgeon could find who was willing to do it). Dr B re-route my intestines around the stricture and attach them at the upper portion of the stomach. He bypassed very little of my intestines because I didn't really need it for weight loss (I was 150 at that time) and I didn't want all the complications that come from bypassing with the RNY surgery. This happened in July 2010. I was on a liquid diet for another month and when I started trying to eat solid food (chewing REALLY well) I noticed it always hurt. Not just my stomach but all the way through to my back.
The more "solid" the food (like salad) the worse my back/upper abdomen would hurt. It got to the point I couldn't eat solid food without excruciating pain. I mean, it was worse than the labor pain with my daughter! Dr B thinks my stomach is spasming when I have solid food in it. I wonder if my vagus nerve was damaged during one of the surgeries and now have gastroparesis (paralyzed stomach) since I have all the symptoms except nausea.
I had been to see Mr B in September about the persistent pain but he assured me the pain would go away with time and that I was just eating too much solid food (no I wasn't!!! Even a few bites of well chewed food leaves me feeling stuffed for hours). It was very frustrating and I wasn't just going to give up. My PCP was kind enough to give me pain medicine to get through it.
However, I found out I was pregnant in October and never had the time to find out what was causing the pain or anything.
Now that I'm entering the 3rd trimester of pregnancy (and off the pain meds for three weeks) and since no diagnoses was made as to my ORIGINAL problem with eating food no one knows what to do. One of the doctors in the OB practice even accused me of being a drug addict - THOUGH - for the last six months I have been begging for them to find out what I could do to make it stop hurting when I eat. I did every test they could do and finally when it was discovered that they had no more ideas I went off the pain meds on my own and started a liquid diet. You can't go off pain meds in the 3rd trimester, has to be 2nd or not at all.
I am now 27.5 weeks pregnant (VERY unexpected pregnancy, our birth control failed us) and I am having a really rough time getting in enough WHOLE nutrition to have any energy at all. I have organic protein drinks with vitamins and minerals I drink every day, I have an organic protein powder with added "super greens" such as spinach and spirulina that I mix in with a smoothie every day, I eat baby foods such as "chicken with veggies" daily too. I have even just started drinking raw carrot and apple juice I make myself in an effort to get some energy.
I am eating more than enough calories. IN fact, I didn't gain ANY weight during this entire pregnancy until I went off the pain meds and couldn't eat solid food any more. I've gained around 6 or 7 pounds in the last few weeks from being on a liquid/pureed diet yet I feel incredibly exhausted all the time. Not just "pregnancy" exhausted. This goes beyond that. I've all but quit my job and am only working 10 - 12 hours week because I don't have the energy to work more. My husband and my mom have to help me constantly with my 2.5 year old daughter because I don't have the energy to even change her clothes or diaper most of the time.
I was FINE when I could eat solid foods (though I supplemented with liquid nutrition every day so as to take less pain meds). I know I am getting enough protein, enough vitamins, and enough carbs. Its just, there is no real "liquid whole nutrition" to replace solid foods.
And, more than anything I am worried that as the baby gets larger the stomach will be even MORE cramped and I'll have a hard time even getting down liquids.
I had a baby-safe endoscopy done two months ago to rule out an ulcer, stricture, and stomach infection. Everything came back as great and healthy. The stomach is in great health. So why can't I eat anything?
Gastroparesis (paralyzed stomach due to vagus nerve damage, i.e., the stomach can't move solid foods through itself) is my guess but it can't be proven one way or another until after the baby is born. In the meantime because I'm not wasting away the doctors aren't doing much. But I'm DYING from exhaustion. I can't spend the next 10 weeks this tired.
I hope I didn't leave out any really important pieces of information. I did that when I originally posted this in the RNY forum and I think they wondered if I was just trolling or wanting attention! LOL But seriously, has anyone had a problem like this?
Has anyone had trouble eating solid foods while pregnant? What did you do to keep your energy levels up? What did your doctors do, if anything? Did you have a harder time eating even liquids the further you go into your pregnancy?
If any of the information sounds incomplete please just ask. I don't mean to leave out information. I just hate asking people to read SUCH AN INCREDIBLY long post. If you did take the time, I really appreciate it.
I should add: I get plenty of vitamins from a double dose of chewable prenatals (doctor's suggestion) and I get a lot of calcium from my smoothies which I make with Greek Yogurt and Almond Milk. I mix my chocolate protein drink with 1% chocolate milk. So I get a lot of calcium too. I also take a liquid B complex vitamin. I don't know what else to do to get more energy. Really, eating solid food made all the difference. I don't understand WHY. Its so frustrating to try to hard and have no noticable success.
If you want to see the original post over on the RNY forum, here it is
I've been sending a lot of people here lately!
I've been sending a lot of people here lately!
~Lady Lithia~ 200 lbs lost!
March 9, 2011 - Coccygectomy!
I chased my dreams, and my dreams, they caught me!
well.. to some it up.. that sucks... im sorry you have had so many issues with your band.. then sleeve... now rny... how is your blood work? i didnt have any problems eating until after i had my daughter.. then like you described it hurt in my back... like i wa*****hed... it really hurt... roughly.. how many calories are you taking in? are you able to eat pb?.. yogurt? eggs? maybe some beans? the refried type? apple sauce? your right.. you def cant get whole nutrition from liquid... are you taking vitimans? i know you said you had enough in your diet... what about a liquid type? maybe some type of pured meat salad? im really at a loss... ill let you know if i think of anything... good luck
Thanks for your reply. It made me laugh. It DOES suck. LOL I can't eat anything that has fiber in it or that is solid so beans are out and so is PB. I can sometimes eat a little bit of egg beaters with a tiny bit of cheese melted on top. YUM. I also consume gross amounts of tomato soup made with milk.
I eat MORE calories now than when I was on solid foods! Seriously! I get like, 1800 - 2000 calories a day which is way more than what my body needs. I have a slow metabolism and usually thrive very well on 1,000 - 1,200. Being pregnant I'm not super worried about this recent weight gain but...
Edited to add: I don't eat that much every day, just the days when I'm most exhausted. And I really don't think this exhaustion is just because of the pregnancy because it started right when I stopped eating solids.
I eat MORE calories now than when I was on solid foods! Seriously! I get like, 1800 - 2000 calories a day which is way more than what my body needs. I have a slow metabolism and usually thrive very well on 1,000 - 1,200. Being pregnant I'm not super worried about this recent weight gain but...
Edited to add: I don't eat that much every day, just the days when I'm most exhausted. And I really don't think this exhaustion is just because of the pregnancy because it started right when I stopped eating solids.
Hi. I had complications like that from my band too. I had a total of 4 of them before I got a revision to RNY.
Can you eat cottage cheese? If you are worried about gaining enough weight during your pregnancy, I would recommend the 4%. You can sprinkle granola or wheat germ on it. There is also a line of shakes from EAS called Myoplex. Higher calorie and fat content, developed for high-impact athletes. and useful for us when we need to get extra calories.
Are you taking calcium citrate? It's the only kind we can absorb after RNY. I'm willing to bet your prenatal doesn't have it. Look on the package, if it says calcium carbonate, it's not helping you. We really don't absorb calcium from food. A very tiny amount, if any.
The B complex will help your energy, but B12 is really important. We can only absorb that through a shot, sublingual, or nasal spray. Having a deficiancy in that can be dangerous for pregnancy and also cause depression and mood swings.
You really should have a bariatric surgeon run a full lab panel to check all your vitamin levels. That is a good place to start.
Can you eat cottage cheese? If you are worried about gaining enough weight during your pregnancy, I would recommend the 4%. You can sprinkle granola or wheat germ on it. There is also a line of shakes from EAS called Myoplex. Higher calorie and fat content, developed for high-impact athletes. and useful for us when we need to get extra calories.
Are you taking calcium citrate? It's the only kind we can absorb after RNY. I'm willing to bet your prenatal doesn't have it. Look on the package, if it says calcium carbonate, it's not helping you. We really don't absorb calcium from food. A very tiny amount, if any.
The B complex will help your energy, but B12 is really important. We can only absorb that through a shot, sublingual, or nasal spray. Having a deficiancy in that can be dangerous for pregnancy and also cause depression and mood swings.
You really should have a bariatric surgeon run a full lab panel to check all your vitamin levels. That is a good place to start.
M/C 10/18/10 9w2d...forever loved
It's a boy!
I got to a point in pregnancy where I could not eat enough calories so I started drinking pediasure. It helped boost my energy. Also there is Ensure. I saw the high risk doctors at UofM, in all they took minimal care of me... I actually had an issue after the baby was born and the nurse told me that I was becoming dependent on pain meds, when it turned out I was bleeding WAY too much and needed an emergency D&C and the bleeding was causing major cramping.
I do not know if they can help you right now, but where I had my RNY, they specialize in ONLY WLS and may be able to help you. There is a doctor there that specializes in revisions and his name is Dr. Popolowski. I did not have a revision, but everyone that I know that had one has nothing but great things to say about him. I went to the Barix Clinic in Ypsilanti, not too far from UofM Ann Arbor. I hope you can get in to see them, they are great and really care! to me, this does not sound like something you should be forced to live with, and it needs to be addressed.
I do not know if they can help you right now, but where I had my RNY, they specialize in ONLY WLS and may be able to help you. There is a doctor there that specializes in revisions and his name is Dr. Popolowski. I did not have a revision, but everyone that I know that had one has nothing but great things to say about him. I went to the Barix Clinic in Ypsilanti, not too far from UofM Ann Arbor. I hope you can get in to see them, they are great and really care! to me, this does not sound like something you should be forced to live with, and it needs to be addressed.
I appreciate you giving me the name of a revision surgeon even if I can't see him now. I can't imagine having to spend the rest of my life this way. I will contact this doctor and also see if I can find other patients of his. I have had less than great experiences at U of M and do not want to go back there.
Yes, good luck. Even if you talk to someone there they may have suggestions or just tell you to come in for a consult with him. He obviously cannot do surgery, but he may have heard of it, if not him, than one of the other surgeons there might. They are great at what they do. I did a LOT of research before having my surgery and I decided to go with them because they had the most satisfied patients.
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