Very strange situation: advice from long termers?

 A year and a half ago or so, my mother (who is now 72) woke up one morning and cooked her breakfast.  She sat down to eat, got in about 2 bites and then said after that every bite tasted like cardboard.  For the following year, visit after visit to the docs with no conclusions as to why, she could take about 2-3 bites of anything and then it tasted like cardboard again.  Needless to say, she pretty much starved...she wanted to eat so badly, she just couldn't take more than a couple bites.  

 After a year or so of this, she had an itch in her ear.  She scratched it, and when she did a piece of a tube that had been placed in her ear probably 2.5 years earlier fell out onto her desk.  She said her ear popped a little, and when she went to eat her next meal, she had taste buds again!  She realized that her ear tube had attempted to come out, as it was supposed to, but got lodged in her ear and obviously hit a pressure point in there that took out her taste buds.

 Anyway, through that long hard year, she dropped ALOT of weight...nearly 100 lbs.  To this day, she still can't eat much more that any of you who are a yr+ out...VERY small meals.  What I'm wondering is, even though she hasn't had surgery to alter her stomach, is there anything from our eating/vitamin regimen that might be beneficial to her?  She has labs run and they have come back wonderful...but she is feeling more tired these days...not nearly the amount of energy that she feels she should have.

 Any advice I could safely give her?

The only thing I could suggest is that she get in a lot of protein.  Has she had her protein levels checked?  Also, although I am sure she probably had her iron and thyroid levels checked, those would be important to check if she hasn't.  And her Vitamin D and B12.  

 She's had all those panels and they have come back great...I know a B50 complex is good for energy levels, and I bought the wrong king before surgery, so I gave her that and I got me the right one...I don't know if that will do it or not, but it is worth a shot.

To anyone starving, I'd suggest a multivitamin. At a former group for people with eating disorders, it was recommended the anorexic girls at least take some vitamins. Those that didn't ended up much like a non-compliant WLS patient. One girl has so many permanent defiency-related health problems now, she puts us to shame. At your mother's age, she's alot like us anyhow -- less gastric acid and less intrinsic factor. I don't know what labs she had run so I have to ask specifically hows all her vitamins? Iron? Copper? Zinc? Thyroid? What's her meals consist of, mostly protein or mostly carbs? Has she tried eating vegetarian and supplementing protein? I know a bunch of people who did wonderful as a vegetarians.. meat "weighed them down" so to speak and they really benefitted from it. I'm the opposite. But trial and error isn't much fun, either.

She does eat some meat, but not a lot.  She has started drinking the protein shakes that I take and she is drinking Mootopia (a TX product, lactose and fat free milk with 12g of protein in 1 cup)...so I guess time will tell if that is helping.

If she had a full set of labs done and they were all good, then taking vitamins won't help her.  It's not that taking extra vitamins gives people energy, it's that vitamin deficiencies cause fatigue.  If she doesn't have a vitamin deficiency, then taking more vitamins won't help.

What was her vitamin D level?  Her B12 level?  Docs often say these are fine when they are really pretty low.  Is she taking any D3?  I'd be surprised if anyone that isn't taking a D3 supplement had a good vitamin D level.  Most people are deficient.

How much protein does she get and what was her total protein level?

What about her iron and ferritin?

Could she try supplementing her meals with something like Boost or Ensure?  That's what my mom had to do, it seemed to help some.

 Thanks for all of the replies guys.  She said her doctor told her that all of her levels were great...I'm gonna have her get a print out of those results though.  We both figure she is not getting enough protein since her hair has thinned some and lost its glisten...but she is 72, and a lot of other age related things are starting to show, so it's really kinda hard to tell...but an increase of protein is definitely in the works.

Does she exercise? Our YMCA has a very active Silver Sneakers group. They are always at their exercise classes. It's great for them plus they make new friends. Our YMCA gives free memberships to seniors.