Still struggling- Advice from anyone who was still having trouble at 6 weeks out?

I have  a daily struggle.  I can not get it together.  I still lack energy.  When I am not working I want to sleep 10-14 hours a day.  This is a problem because then it cuts into getting enough fluids,protein and supplements in.

I never make my protein goals because I can't eat enough and I cant stand protein shakes.  I have been doing some lactaid to get in some dairy which is helping my levels.  I usually only get 30-50 grams a day.  My surgeons goal is 80.

The only liquid I can tolerate is crystal light pure fitness lemon lime water.  I still don't like the taste of sweet things.  I average about 5 glasses a day, putting me 3 glasses short.

This aversion causes me to gag on my chewable vitamins and calcium.  I try to get a combination down of 3 a day but am suppsed to get 3 of each.

I had started going to the gym and walking on the treadmill, but I figure that it is counter productive to sweat when I am already dehydrated and burn calories when I am only taking in so many.

I am ready to throw up my hands in defeat.  I have tried many things.  I dont really know how much longer my body can go on this way.   I am sure this is why the scale wont move, I am literally starved and dehydrated.  Im guessing at some point that my stomach will stretch enough to allow more food.

My doctor threatened to put me in the hospital a few weeks so I dont dare call back and ask for help.  I don't have the time or money for this.  She requested that I take more time off work, again because of money I can't do this.

I know if I would eat more then I would sleep less and I would have more time to get in what I need to, but I am just exhausted.  I have tried mind over matter and it does not work.

I feel very alone and scared.  I inflicted this on myself and its not reversible. 

I thought this would help with my food obsession, now I am just obsessed in another way.

I know what I need to do, I just feel physically I can not do it.  Things had gotten better a few weeks ago and now here I am again.

I am angry that I can't drink water, am now lactose intolerant, and the F******* scale is not moving down, it has actually gone up.  How is that possible?

Please offer advice or insights.

I'm so sorry you are going through this. It is hard in the beginning. You have to find a protein powder or ready to drink shake you like. Some of them are horrible and taste like crushed vitamins to me, but I have a couple that are amazing. Usually the better tasting ones are way more expensive, but to me, it's worth it.

The lack of energy and weight gain/no loss are almost definitely due to you not eating and drinking enough. Even if you have to eat something every hour or two, you have to get your protein in. Also fluids. Try mixing protein powder with decaf coffee, counts as protein and fluids and the coffee will mask the flavor of the protein powder further. A couple of days ago we had a thread about everyone's favorite powder, go check it out.

We are all here to help, you just have to ask. Message anyone on the board and I'm sure they will gladly message with you or even call you for support and advice.

 So sorry you are feeling this way. Hang in there.

Try to find a plain protein powder to mix in broth, refried beans or any other soup or food that appeals to you.( I remember things changed daily that I could tolerate)  I also couldnt stand the sweetness of the protein shakes  and still love lemonade.
I also became lactose intolerant after surgery and  found at giant eagle grocery store a lactose free milk that has 11g protein for one cup,  its called valio. Greek yogurt is high in protein too, and it is easy on my pouch.

I dont know why but my homemade chili has been a staple since the pureed stage.

At 3 months I was finally able to tolerate protein powder. Found one I love now called about time.
As for the exercise, just keep walking, dont pu**** too hard right now.

When you are sleeping, try to set  a timer to ring until your usual bedtime every 30 minutes or so to wake you up and sip on something. Maybe you can get a couple of more cups of fluid in you that way. I still find that room temp or something warm goes down faster and easier than something cold. I still set my timer after eating to remind me to drink. I love decaf constant comment tea with stevia and keep it in my travel mug to stay warm throughout the evening.


Hope you will be feeling better soon!

Oh brilynn, you are not alone and the advice so far posted is awesome. I lived off of unflavored protein powder added to my pureed foods for a while...great stuff. Also, sugar free instant pudding mix added to protein powder shakes helped me through...that and the sugar free torani syrups. 

Protein coffee....love it....sipping on it now. 

As for the drinking, sounds like you are getting up there in volume...maybe just add a few more ounces to the 5 glasses you can get in now. Hang in there...we are all here for you!! 

BUT if you need to....you follow up with your doctor. I know that he said hospitalization but don't put yourself in medical danger. You took great strides to improve your health by having the wls. That is a great empowering process. Please please contact your doc if you need to....ok? 

Also, I would recommend posting daily on any of the threads here....the support from this LW family is tremendous and they help you climb over mountains!!! and I'm sure they have a bag of tricks somewhere too....

You're in my thoughts and prayers sunshine!! Private message me if you'd like. I'm here for ya....

Brilynn,
Please call your doctor and see if they will give you some IV fluids as outpatient.  You could be dehydrated and this will not get better until you get fluids in you.  Once you get rehydrated you would be amazed how much better you will feel.

As for the protein, you really need to find something you can tolerate.  I bought samples of all kinds from www.vitalady.com.  There are several websites that OH members have posted how to make various protein drinks.  We posted our favorites on here the other day on one of Gina's(MajorMom) post.

Can you drink milk?  Try double milk.  This is just milk with added non-fat dry milk to increase the protein count.  I use Hood Calorie Countdown milk because it has less carbs, but right now if I were you I wouldn't worry too much about milk carbs.

The scale is probably not moving because you are not getting enough food/nutrients and you body is holding on to what it has in storage.  If you could up your intake, I bet it starts moving again.

Are you doing B12?  I use the sublingual and I take mine everyday instead of 3 times a week.  I just feel better when I do this.

Exercise usually does make me feel better.  Maybe you could just walk instead of working out at the gym.

I sure hope you get to feeling better soon.  Please let us know how you are feeling.
Linda 

You've gotten great advice from these loving folks.  I hope you feel that love!

And I was having a hell of a time at 6 weeks, too.  Just notice how close you are to your goals - you're not that far away from the protein goals.  One shake could change all that.  You're not that far away from your fluid goals - like Diana said, just a few more ounces per serving could get there.  Around 7 weeks out, I discovered that if I just powered through my pain at the first few sips of fluid, the pain went away eventually, and I could finally get in all of my fluids.  That discovery CHANGED MY LIFE.  Give it a shot - it could really help you.

And, I, too, gag on pills.  Every single time I take them I pretty much vomit a bit.  It sucks, but for some of us, we just have to live with it.  I'm so used to it now that it's just normal to me.  Gagging is awful, but it's not THAT awful.  We survive it, you know?  And I don't gag as violently now as I did at 6 weeks out.  That has improved a little bit.  

But what I notice in your post is that the perspective is so low.   You know how, when you stand at ground level, you can only see a little of what's around you, but if you go up on a high hill, you can see so much more?  It sounds like you're at ground level and would feel better on top of a hill. 

Another way of putting that is that it sounds to me like depression is speaking for you.  (I know that voice so well!)  I don't say that to minimize your experience - I realize it's very difficult right now.  But also recall all the ridiculous hormonal stuff you're going through, which can limit your ability to have perspective and hope.  Maybe one of the first priorities is to find some help for the depression.  Visiting a therapist or, if that's not financially feasible, some support groups might just be the most important thing you can possibly do right now.  

There's no shame in that.  (Trust me, I've been there!)  

It will get better.  It really will.

 I still have days where I can't stand to drink ....In which case I actually drink chicken broth warmed up...or eat sugar free popsicles......I would consider the issue of depression....and perhaps see about that....the hormonal shift can cause depression and if you have any sort of history of depression in your family you should take heed....are you taking your antacid? ....there are still many answers for you out there and many things to try...you will be fine...you will lose weight ...the issue is how uncomfortable do you need to be? continue to try all liquids warm or cold...warm is usually better...
It's hard to give complete advice without knowing everything about you...this is why you should see a doctor about depression...don't be hard on yourself because this is a time when you need to be gentle and flexible...if one thing doesn't work...try another and don't stop...let us know how you do...
SEAVIEW

I am SO SORRY you are feeling so bad and loosing hope.  I can understand what/why you are.  Good advice so far. 

I was really upset with everything until I found a protein drink I could tolerate, at about 7-8 wks out.  I never tried Vitalady's samples, but if you have not tried this, I would recommend this.  I ended up buying a lot of relative expensive powders and prepared shakes I just couldn't tolerate.  But I finally found one I like, chia tea.  It probably isn't one you would like (a little sweet and a little milky) but it's best one I have found so far, so I quit looking.  You gotta keep looking.

I never had problems getting fluid down and was able to eat pretty much whatever I wanted, but I couldn't get enough protein in without the shakes, and I quit taking ALL pills for several weeks because I couldn't stand the gagging on them.  After I found the right protein drink, that deminished a lot.  I quit the chewables, they we worse to me than the gagging.  I changed the b12 sublingual (could stand that) to a weekly nasal spray.  I did add back my multi vit, calcium and that B12, and quit even my regular meds...never started back on the Pepcid, found I really didn't need it anymore.

I also recommend support group, therapy, and here and possibly some medication for the depression.  Depression in itself can ruin life.  I would also just walk 30 min at most a day right now. It takes some folks longer than others to get over the effects of anesthesia, I suspect that is playing a role in all this.

DON'T give up, KEEP trying different things, and as was suggested post here often, join other threads, etc.  CALL your doctor, he needs to know what is going on!!

Best of luck, and E-Mail me privately if you want.  I care and am willing to do whatever I can to help.

I'm so sorry you are having so much trouble.  I will be 5 weeks out tomorrow and I have had some problems but not nearly so many.  I find tha****er is much more tolerable with about 1/2 of a real lemon squeezed in.  Also, sugar free popsicles are easy to get down. 

My very favorite thing, and it is what I put the contents of my capsules in to get down (just remember, though, you cannot do this with timed release capsules) ... anyway, it is a sugar free Jello pudding called dulce de leche (that's French for "candy of milk.")  It is sweetened with Splenda, has 60 calories and 13 grams of carbs.  I know that's a little high on carbs but you need some nourishment!!  The chocolate SF pudding is pretty good, too.

I detest milk but I can tolerate soy milk.  Might be worth a try.  

Most people don't like this but I HATE the protein powder shakes so I drink Isopure 0 carb blue raspberry or alpine punch.   There are 40 grams of protein in each bottle and I can usually drink 1/2 bottle at a time.  

Please keep us posted and please  take care of YOU.

Blessings,
Kat 

Thanks guys for all your heart felt responses.  I re-read my post and can see where you see that I might be struggling with depression.  I am not sure that I am, but I do feel I need to explore that further.

I am going to check out that protein thread, but have gone through many samples- all the syntrax ones, chike, unjury, protein bullets and several others.  I am going to just have to try more.  At one point I was doing well with soy milk and egg white protein, but the soy started causing breast tenderness as I am very sensitive to soy.

I did some cottage cheese with lactaid and it went okay.  I need to be brave enough to try milk with a lactaid tablet.

You guys gave me lots of advice and food for thought.  I am going to work on some of your suggestions.

Things have to get better.  I was at an all day inservice today and I did get in ALL my water!  I still need to try for more protein.  And most of my supplements!

I do take Vit B.  I asked my surgeon for an injection instead of the tablet to avoid one more thing to have to take.  Wonder what else I could get in injection form?  Too bad not protein:)

Thanks for all you suggestions.