A number of burning questions

Good luck with it.  I would be annoyed at my dietician if they hadn't already provided some friendlier products for me to use post op.
But thats me.

Your only hope might be home made broth using bones, which give more protien I believe, 6 grams in a drink is better than nothing in water.

I wish I could, Ttara - but we are forbidden from taking probiotics for four weeks post op - I'm not even two weeks post op, so I can't touch them for another two weeks at least. I don't know why, but that's the rule set by my surgeon :/

I have an appointment with the dietetics team tomorrow - hopefully they can help me :/

Thanks for the suggestion - I will look for it if and when I am able to take them :)

Hiya Jadia,

I too struggled with the diarrhoea (I'm 2.5 years out) and I could NOT work out what was causing it when a Natural health practitioner recommended  POLYBAC 8.   It's a Probiotic, but it's waaaaaay better than the Inner Health one you get at the Chemist as it has 8 different strains.

Anyway they cost about $35 for 30 capsules. But were worth every cent !!

Perhaps purchase 2 bottles the first time as you'll get through most of the first bottle quickly.

Here's how he recommended to take them.


2 caps twice a day for 4 days.
Then 2 capsules once a day for a week.
And then one capsule from then on.

Hope this helps.
Tara

Thanks bumbles.

I am really concerned with hair loss - I have precious little (I already have ultra thin hair from other illnesses and medication) and I already began losing a lot while on Optifast pre-op - now it's even worse. I'm just not getting enough nutrients, but especially protein. I'm tired all the time (so I can't even go for a walk to help my weight loss) - and the diarrhoea is really getting me down.

I will speak to the dietician on Thursday. I just hoped someone here might have had some ideas in the meantime. Oh well :(

Hi Jadzia,

I feel your pain a little, I am lactose intolerant which put pretty much every type of protein drink off the menu for me. I was also incredibly unwell for the first 5-6 weeks so didnt eat or drink hardly anything. It wasnt the best way to look after myself, but I muddled through that time with next to nothing of everything, including protein and Ive turned out ok lol. So my advice would be, do what you can, eat what you can to make your body happy through this time. You will be able to eat more variety and better foods in the next couple of weeks, thats when I started working on the protein.

I just wrote a whole response to this and it got eaten :(

Background info (which I should have said before, I suppose): I'm coeliac (can't tolerate gluten, even oats), lactose intolerant, allergic to soy and aspartame (and MSG, so a lot of commercial broths and soups are out, too).

The only protein shake I am able to have is the Original Formula vanilla Optifast - I tried it with water, lactose free milk and almond milk - they all caused severe stomach pain. Everything else either has gluten, soy, aspartame or a combination of all three.

The dietician told us to use Sustagen - but they don't do a gluten/soy/dairy/aspartame free version.

The dietician strictly forbade meat of any kind during liquid phase, and strictly no purees. Boiling meat doesn't release much protein into the water. I've tried adding whey protein isolate (supposedly unflavoured, but that's bulldust) into watery cup-a-soup, but it tastes revolting.

I can't use Cyborg due to the aspartame and soy.

I can't use Benefibre or Metamucil because of the wheat and aspartame (Benefibre has a double dose of aspartame as they use an alternative name - acesulfame-k  - for exactly the same thing). And psyllium is forbidden due to the possibility of it swelling (since that's what it does) in the new pouch and causing problems.

Not able to contact the dietician (they don't accept calls) and won't see them until Thursday. Surgeon will only accept emergency calls - basically we have to be dying for them to accept a call :/

Difficult situation :/

I'm not sure why protein drinks are forbidden for you.  You will need to check with your dietician or Surgeon on how to get more protein in if you can't have them.

I was told to start drinking the musashi high protein low carb tetra packs from day 3.  It would take me the whole day to drink one! hehe
or the Aussie bodies brand was the other one I think.   I just got them at coles or safeway to start off with.  Then progressed to make your own shakes.

The other thing I had was lots of beef or chicken broth (I can't tell you how much protein is it, since it was home made).  But I googled and general consensus is about 6g in a cup of chicken and possibly 8g for beef (but some recipes say 20g! not sure how true this would be).

I will say the first month was interesting toilet wise... for me they got worse when I started eating solid food.  But I was the opposite... I couldn't go.  I have read on here that people have had diarrhoea.   Maybe its that your not eating solid enough food to go properly.  That was my theory, I wasn't eating enough solid food to go, so it caused all sorts of interesting reactions.  Then the damage was done, so it got worse when I started eating more solid food.  But as I said, I went the other way.

Hope you get it sorted.
Will Benefibre bind you up?  I'm not sure if its just for helping you go? It sbeen a while since I took it, and it didn't really help me.

I am ten days post op.

1. I've had diarrhoea for eight days. Does anyone else have this problem? What did you do to stop it? I was told not to take anti-diarrhoea meds, but I'm at my wits' end. I'd normally resort to the BRAT diet (bananas, rice, applesauce, toast) but they're all forbidden for at least another three weeks :(

2. How do people get enough protein during the liquid phase if you can't have protein shakes or cyborg or beneprotein or any kind of dairy (including yoghurt)? I'm stuck on watery cup-a-soup, but I know I'm not getting much nutrition at all...

3. I'm having trouble getting enough fluids in - I'm on about 2L per day, but I'm still dehydrated (also due to the diarrhoea, I guess). Anything but watered down Maximus (Gatorade-clone) causes discomfort or nausea. Any suggestions?