MissyMissfire

Oh man, I've been experiencing that right now too! I noticed it started a few days ago and chalked it up to my cycle, but this is definitely new. I'm going to increase my calorie intake a little but also I picked up some rooibos tea from the natural foods store. I've used it in the past as a mild appetite suppressant. This will help me stick to my schedule more and resist the urge to snack or the need to eat between meals. But um....has anyone else been majorly losing their hair? The past month and a half my hair has just been coming out by the handfuls. I have naturally thick hair (overly) and always shed a lot but this is INSANE. I'm at about 50% my normal hair thickness. I'm definitely getting all of my daily protein and then a bit extra for good measure. I'm... adequately hydrated... that's still an area I'm struggling with, but I'm working hard at it. And I do know I'm slacking on my vitamins because I REALLY don't like taking them so my ADHD brain conveniently forgets about them. (They get stuck in my esophagus and sit there and it feels awful for forever. And the chewables are vile) I am going to talk to my doctor in a few days about the patch to see if she thinks that would be a good idea for me (less absorption is better than zero absorption...right?)

My surgeon's assistant and I had a long talk about it and she was like, unfortunately it's not uncommon for some people to take longer to be able to eat certain foods and some may never be able to. And truthfully, I'm actually kinda grateful that I can't just go and eat whatever I want so there is less risk of me falling into the trap of bad eating habits again further down the road. I'm losing weight consistently, and my last bloodwork was fantastic, so, so long as I'm mindful of the nutrients I'm getting- I'm ok with not being able to eat other foods. But the nausea does suck when I -try- to eat something. At least it doesn't hurt when something DOES have to come up. (just the lead up to it)

Yeah... the nausea has actually gotten worse lately for me. I'm on strictly soft foods still (scrambled eggs, cream of rice, etc) or really crunchy foods that grind up in my mouth like these almond flour cheese crackers (they've got a decent amount of protein for a "carb-like" snack) or ultra dry toast with some sugar free jam, or the baby/toddler animal crackers from Gerber. I made the "mistake" of eating a hard boiled egg this morning and even though I chewed it well, it did NOT sit well at all. Deli meats do the same thing. Anything with texture or density to it makes me feel like it needs to come back out. And plain water still comes right back out IMMEDIATELY. But if there's sugar substitute and some color and flavor, my body accepts it. I've been drinking freshen up energy because it's sugar free and is a clean energy without all the bad stuff in it. Just the equivalent of a single cup of coffee and some B vitamins. And I like the way it tastes so I definitely am doing better at meeting my fluid goals, which was a struggle before. Struggling to get my multivitamins in as taking pills sucks. And I've been getting heartburn here and there if I forget to take the pantoprazole I was prescribed. But I found some GOOD calcium "chews" at the natural food store - it's literally chocolates instead of the tootsie roll like chews most end up being. I got the dark chocolate because for some reason milk chocolate tastes like poison to me.

So, the whole being unable to drink water thing, it's not in my head like my partner wants to think lol. He thought I was just being difficult that I had to have some sort of flavor and sweetener because water is too "thin" and just "wrong".. I was feeling dehydrated the other day after being out longer than expected and I ran out of my drinks that I brought with me.. so I ducked into the dollar tree and the only thing I was allowed to have in the fridge case was a water. I had some lemonade packets buried somewhere in the car- but I took a swig of the water - not a gulp or anything and the second it reached my esophagus, it turned right back around. Instantly rejected. He got to witness it live and in person finally that my body is literally rejecting just plain water. It's like the wires have been crossed and I react physically like the water is poison. So then this man literally spent over a half an hour in a sweltering parking lot digging around for my lemonade packets! He's a believer now for sure. In other news.. I am now officially at my pre-severely traumatic event weight! 60lbs down! Lets go!!!! The pool has been GREAT exercise!

Yeah I've found cooking anything in chicken bone broth and adding a jar of the chicken puree to things really amps up the protein and if I'm struggling with getting my food in, I'll mix my unflavored protein powder in to make it less to eat to get all my protein for the day. Last night I made kraft mac and cheese because I was craving it majorly and i made it liquidy with extra milk and then added a full scoop of protein powder so the serving I made up was half of my protein for the day. (unfortunately my stomach wasn't a fan of the noodles despite them being overcooked.)

So one thing I do is I calculate my protein goal for the day divided by what I want to eat for the day. I make it up and then it can take me a couple of hours to finish it but I get it in me, take a break for a few hours then have my second meal which also takes hours to finish. I'm almost 3 months post op and am still having a hard time with textures, so I make eggs with greek yogurt, cheese, unflavored protein powder, and ranch powder for breakfast and then my evening meal is cream of rice prepared with chicken bone broth instead of water, with at least one jar of chicken or turkey baby food puree and some parmesan cheese (high in protein!) for snacks if I'm feeling a bit like picking at something and I've already reached my protein goal, I'll have a couple of baby animal crackers or a single Simple Mills nut butter sandwich cookie. (basically anything that crunches up into a soft paste when chewed like Simple Mills' cheese crackers) But textures like Pasta or Rice are no good for me.

For me, I do 1 part sugar free blue or yellow Powerade/Gatorade and 2 parts water. Or use true lemon powder packets with the stevia sweetener. So long as my water has SOMETHING in it, I can drink it but it's too "thin" that I gag trying to swallow it. Warm chicken bone broth with some garlic powder was my go to for the first few weeks because it soothed my stomach, but the salt made my feet and legs get all swollen. Even with being able to drink.. I still struggle getting enough but that is getting better! It's still hard for me to not drink anything when I eat. Food gets stuck in the back of my throat, so I usually take the tiniest sip just to get it down without choking me but I have to be super careful that I don't sip too much.

I'm down 50lbs from right before my pre-op diet but, I've been struggling with textures still, but I found some solutions for the meantime until I can tolerate more. I can't do the protein shakes anymore but I add unflavored protein powder to anything I can. Cream of wheat/rice cooked in chicken bone broth with a bit of cheese is a great high protein base for things. To increase the protein I started adding a jar of baby food chicken or turkey. I occasionally add a jar of the veggie blends to it if I want to change things up. I also am really liking greek yogurt- ranch powder for savory cravings and sugar free jelly or fruit baby food jar mixed in. Going to make some frozen bars with that. But I can eat the ranch blend with a spoon straight out of the tub. The other thing I've been doing is using liquid egg substitute, mixing that with the ranch yogurt and cheese and cooking it up that way to make nice fluffy eggs with flavor and lots of protein. Gotta have my sugar free ketchup though! Another thing that helps me with the nausea feelings is baby animal crackers. I've found I'm having heavy cycles since surgery so I'm craving carbs around that time, and those have iron in them. Not trying to become anemic and these are lower carb and break down pretty easily without textures. For fluids, I cannot drink plain water. I gag and can't tolerate it at all. It has to have some sort of flavor and "thickness" or "body" to it. So I do 1/3 of a bottle of sugar free powerade and fill the rest of the bottle up with water. The true lemon powdered drinks with stevia are good too! But I'm trying really hard to get my fluids in.. it's a hard task every day. All of my bloodwork is fantastic thankfully... but hydration is holding me back. I've had both legs swelling up daily from dehydrated water retention. Minimal hair falling out but some.