Can't gain weight after procedure, need advice

You are still early in the adaptation phase, so don't lose heart!

You could try taking more Imodium (up to 8 per day is fine). Dizziness can be dehydration related or anemia too, so be sure your blood counts are monitored. Smaller, more frequent meals might work better too. If you can increaee your activity level, that can help stimulate muscle growth too.

Jan

Shelby, hello!

I had the same problem as you. Gaining weight after my colectomy was a real struggle. I'm 5'3 and at my lowest I was 86 pounds. I should mention that after my colectomy, I had an ileostomy for 2.5 years. The hospital put me on a weight gain regime; they wanted me to be at least 100 lbs before even considering a return to work.

Weight can be harder to gain especially if you were sick a long time. With me, I was completely NPO and on TPN 3 weeks; I had nothing even remotely resembling an appetite, so that complicated matters.

First thing I would recommend, is seeing a dietician. I was lucky enough to be provided access to one through the hospital, but you may need a referral. A dietician can work out a diet plan tailored to you, monitor your progress, and provide support and encouragement. My dietician was great. I learned through her that it's not so much fattening foods that you should be including, but rather looking at the overall caloric, and more importantly, PROTEIN content of what you are eating. You can't gain or build muscle back without protein, so this is crucial. Just 1/2 a cup of cottage cheese or greek yogurt has 15 g of protein; it's a greet snack.

Second, eat frequent, small meals--every 2 hours if you can. Don't focus so intently on food. Eat what you are able, and if you can't finish, don't get frustrated, but wait until the next interval. Conversely, eat whenever you are hungry, even if it's just peanut butter crackers or a few spoonfuls of yogurt.

Third, include Ensure or Boost shakes in your diet. At one point my GI wanted me drinking 6 Ensures a day. I was lucky if I could get down 1. But the point is, to try to get a couple down, even if you sip them throughout the day.

Finally, DON'T overeat or gorge yourself thinking you must do this to gain. On the contrary. This is even worse, and might leave you with stomach upset and put your off your next meal(s). Again, frequent, small meals are the key. Never eat to full uncomfortably full.

Hope that helps. It's a long process but you will get there. It takes time. The important thing is not to get frustrated with yourself.

Best of luck!

My 13 year old son had a takedown in April and also cannot gain enough weight. He is on TPN for 5 weeks now ( overnight nutrition through a PICC line.) so I also will be interested in the answers here. We were adding peanut butter to shakes, oatbran hot cereal and with bananas to add in extra calories. The oat bran was to take the place of something like metamucil which he thought was disgusting to drink to bulk up the stools. He was told the ensure would go thru him pretty fast.

I had my takedown in March and it took me all the way up to last month to start gaining weight back. I was 140lbs at 6'1" and now 163lbs. I'm not sure if you are into sweets but I buy little Debbie snacks and eat them all throughout the day. Swiss Rolls, Oatmeal Cream Pies, Cloud Cakes (basically Twinkies), and Cosmic Brownie. I've noticed eating high calorie fatning stuff like that throughout the day helps. It also takes a while for your system to start absorbing all this stuff especially when you start going to the bathroom less and less. Good Luck.