Dietitian – An ‘Update’?

Yesterday was my follow-up appointment with my Gastro Dietitian.

As you might know, if you’ve been following me for a while, I was put on an elemental diet in June to help rest my bowel and promote some sort of direction towards establishing my condition before I loose any more weight., after things in May weren’t going well.

I came off this, two or so week ago; because of the side effects they – the Elemental 028 Extra drinks – were giving me. The main one, being severe acid reflux.

Unfortunately, I’m still suffering with this, not so much on a daily basis anymore, but enough to run my Rennie supply into the ground this week.

We – the Dietitian, myself and her student – discussed my current food plan on the Low Residue Diet. LR Diet is a plan which is promoted to patients who are suffering from IBD or about to undergo endoscopy procedures. They focus on removing the fibre from the diet, by eating food which have little to no fibre content. This can be quite restrictive and a challenge to people who enjoy a high fibre diet and enjoy fruit and vegetables. Fortunately for those suffering with IBD, fibre foods come with effects such as bloating, cramping, blockages (if you have narrowings or strictures in your bowel), diarrhea and even constipation. Not at all fun or pretty. 

A typical day for me goes as follows: Rice Crispies for breakfast, a cheese and ham sandwich with crisps for lunch (at work mostly) and then some sort of meat / chicken / fish with potatoes / rice for dinner. She said that wasn’t enough and that could possibly explain alot of my late afternoon / evening acid reflux. She recommended speaking to the GI regarding some medication for this (which I’m not keen on adding to my regiment, but it’s getting really bad now) but I need to eat more.

Sidebar: Now, I’m not nor have I ever been someone who doesn’t enjoy food. Before I was diagnosed, I ate plenty and never left a plate unfinished. Since IBD has come along and forced me to change my eating habits, my appetite comes and goes in waves. I hardly ever finish a meal nowadays; its widely celebrated and noted in our household when I actually do finish something now. But I never thought of myself as not eating enough. Though, it could explain why my weight has been decreasing, despite the liquid diet and now being on the LR Diet.

She recommended I needed an extra 1000kcal a day to maintain my weight. That was the purpose of yesterday; to see how I could maintain my weight at this 83kg I’ve been stuck at for the last two weeks. It is my lowest weight so far in 2015. To get my extra calories, she wants me to trial Modulen as a replacement meal until I am seen by the doctors in Nottingham – x amount of weeks away, so I imagine at least into the Autumn.

Part of me doesn’t want to do this, because I don’t want to gain more weight. Part of me knows that I must because I could quite easily lose more weight and become sick again. It’s a fine line, and I sit on either side of the fence, every day. I agreed to try it on a trial basis for the rest of July but again, I’m hesitant.

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