Food intolerances - possible causes for diarrhoea after MGPB

I have been reading stuff on the internet today.  Specifically to do with diarrhoea after a mini gastric bypass.  It seems that lactose intolerance is a major factor.  Often extra lactose is added to products with dairy ingredients to make a "better" product, and, of course, it is also added to products where you wouldn't expect there to be any lactose, so label reading is essential if you have a lactose intolerance as I have now. 

The other two foods listed which may cause a problem are, first, wheat products which have gluten.  The suggestion is that you go without wheat/gluten in anything at all, again checking labels, for two weeks and see how things go.  Reintroduce it slowly and see what happens and whether it confirms that gluten is a problem for you.

Secondly, mayonnaise.  This is horrific to me.  As I now can't have dairy products, mayo is one way of me having a "sauce" which I can use with so many things: shellfish, fish, chicken, raw veggies sticks, fried potatoes, hard boiled eggs etc. etc.  I can't imagine not eating mayo. 

So - not a good read this morning.  I think I will try to do the gluten exclusion two weeks sometime soon and see how that goes, as clearly I can't continue with this bowel hassle.

Dr Robert Rutledge has several youtube videos about the mini gastric bypass operation and living with it.  It is the only bypass operation he performs and he's done thousands.  On the whole they are informative and interesting.

Seven month weigh in - 31 weeks

I weighed a day early this week as I was asked how much I weighed this morning.  Well - I have snuck into the 14 stones at 14.12½/94.4kgs.  Seven months post op and 7st 9lbs lost.  Yeah!  I took this photo this morning.  I'm wearing a charity shop sweater that I've never been able to get into before.

My bowel problems remain although, I have, in the last seven days had two days without problems for the first time since my op.  My eating wasn't different on these two days, so I have no idea why.  Perhaps it's the beginning of things getting back to normal.  I've had loads of fish this last week and meat.  I've cooked trout, mussels, haddock three times and prawns, duck, beef rib and chicken.  I haven't eaten all of the meat, the dogs over the road have benefitted quite a lot, but I have eaten some and have made stock and soups with the bones and veggies.

I'm off out today to my Writers' Group and we usually have a packed lunch.  Normally it is held at my house, but today I have to drive to one of the other members and I shan't be eating lunch or drinking as I still have worries about accidents away from home. 

The brother of someone I know was to have had his bypass on 6 February.  I don't know if it happened or not, but if it did, I wish him all the best for the future and hope he is doing well.

Valentine's Day and 30 week weigh in

Weighed in this morning at 96.2kgs/212lbs/15st2lbs.  I'm pleased with the weight loss and I've broken the 100lbs lost now too, having lost 103.5lbs/46.9 kilos - I think, among us fatties, it's generally known as being a member of  the onederful club.  I have lost 7st 5.5 lbs.  When I got married the first time, in October 1966, I weighed 7st 4lbs, so I've lost the whole of me in my wedding dress! 

That's something to think about, losing a whole person and yet still being a person with weight to lose.  Before the operation I weighed more than three times what I was on my wedding day - my first husband, John, who was like a lath himself, would have been very surprised to have seen me so heavy.  I could no more pick up and carry a person of that weight than I could fly.  Yet somehow I dragged that weight around with me minute after minute, day after day, week after week, year after year.  Thank goodness I don't have to do that anymore.

It will be 7 months post op on Sunday coming - 7 months and 7 stone lost - got to be good.  I know the weight loss is slowing down, but I'm so happy that I've got this far.  I shall go further - I've succeeded.  I am a success!

Twenty-nine week weigh in

I weighed in this morning at 97.4kgs/15stones 5lbs/215lbs, which I'm pleased about.  My weight loss is slower now than it was, but definitely still disappearing and that's all that matters. 

I had my appointment with the radiologist last week and the growth on my sterno-clavicular joint is not a tumour, it's osteo-arthritis, so that's good news really, better than a tumour anyway.

Today I had my scintigraphy to check if I had a tumour on my remaining three parathyroid glands.  Unfortunately I wasn't so lucky with this.  I have two tumours, one on each of the left parathyroid glands and possibly one on the one remaining one on the right.  I now have to wait for an appointment with the endocrinologist and then with the surgeon who will operate to remove them.

"Twenty-seven weeks + a couple of days" weigh in and a breakthrough!

Sorry I didn't post last week, but I was feeling down about other health problems.  My weight hadn't changed much as I had been taken off my blood pressure tablets completely because I had low potassium and my doctor thought I might be peeing too much with the diuretics and losing potassium.  She was right.  A week after I came off the diuretics my potassium was back in the normal range.  Coming off diuretics meant that what should be my normal level of body fluid had to adjust again and as I gained a bit of fluid and lost a bit of weight, my overall weight wasn't moving.

All that has changed now though and I have finally broken through the 100kg barrier.  I weighed yesteray morning as I was going to a meeting in the evening with lots of other of my surgeon's mini gastric bypass patients at a social event held in the hospital, and I wanted to know my weight before that.  I am so happy to say that I am now 99.2kgs/218lbs/15st 8lbs!  I had aimed to be there by the end of February, so it's very good news.

Here's a fat photo and then today's photo - I know which I prefer!

My next breakthrough will be when I've lost 100 lbs.  I'd like very much to break through the 200lbs barrier and I hope to do that by  my birthday, 12 April 2012.  I'm giving myself realistic targets - I had no target initially -  as I don't ever want to say that I failed.  I'm not a failure anymore, I'm a success.  I have so far lost 43.9kgs/97.5lbs/6st 12.5lbs - brilliant!

My other health problems are a very high parathyroid hormone level, twice the normal maximum.  I had one of my four parathyroid glands removed in June 2011 as there was a tumour on it and my consultant can't understand why my hormone level is so high now.  I also have a strange bony growth on my clavicle - collar bone - directly beneath the parathyroidectomy scar, which is really odd and no-one medical seems to know what it is - I just hope it's nothing sinister.   Next week I am having an x-ray on the bone lump and a scintigraphy - radio active injection and three hours later a scan - to ascertain whether there is another tumour on another parathyroid gland.   The worry is taking away a bit from my weight loss and renewed fitness happiness, but fingers crossed for some good results next week. 

The mini gastric by pass patient meeting went well yesterday evening, although the acoustics in the room were not helpful to someone partially deaf and foreign!   There was a talk from the people who run Obesite Sud Bretagne, which is an association to promote information and advice about bariatric surgery.  The suggestion is that a similar organisation is formed in the St Brieuc area and there will be another patient meeting on 29 February to discuss that, with potential patients attending too.  It was good to meet with other bypassees and find that we had similar problems and similar joys.

Twenty-five week weigh in

I weighed in at 101kgs/15stones 12½lbs/222.5 pounds this morning, which was a great weight loss after not much for a few weeks and takes me down in the 15 stones which is brilliant! 

I have been taking the antibiotics now for a week and have another week to go.  Certainly my bowel, although not right, is reacting much better now than it was. 

I am now eating a wider variety of foods, although obviously I am not having milk products because of my lactose intolerance except on two occasions when I took a product from Holland & Barrett called Zygest, a super lactase enzyme - Aspergillus oryzae.  When I took it I didn't have the stomach cramps or gas, but I did still have diarrhoea though this might be because I hadn't then started the antibiotics. 

Zygest - details here:

Three capsules before eating/drinking a milk product.  The capsules contain:
Lactase Enzyme (Aspergillus oryzae)	375mg
(equivalent to 5,250 FCC units)

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Directions:

For people with lactose intolerance whether eating at home or eating out. Take one to three capsules just before eating a meal, foodor drink that contains lactose. Also take one capsule with medication orvitamins that contain lactose. Lactase should be taken internally and notbe added directly to milk or other dairy products.

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Other Ingredients:

Soya Bean Oil, Lactase Enzyme, Capsule Shell (Gelatine,Glycerine, Sweetener (Sorbitol), Colour (Titanium Dioxide)), Emulsifier(Soya Lecithin), Thickener (Yellow beeswax).

Contains (or contains an ingredient/s derivedfrom) wheat/gluten, nuts, soya and sulphites. 
These capsules were brought over from the UK for me by my son as it's not possible to buy a product like this in France according to my pharmacy and doctor.

On New Year's day I went for an hour's walk with my neighbours.  This morning, after doing the animals, I walked down to the bridge at the end of my village.  My neighbour stopped to talk to me as she drove back home with her newspaper and baguette.  Then I met three walkers who had already walked from St Nicolas du Pélem - 4-5 miles from that end of the village - by 9.20am.  To arrive at the bridge there is a very steep descent.  Obviously, coming home I had to climb this hill and it wasn't easy.  My Peugeot 307 struggles getting up this short, sharp incline and so did I.  It was all worth it however.   It took me fifty minutes from my field to the bridge and back home and, for me, it was a good walk.  Here's the mill stream which the bridge crosses.

  

I hardly made a decision to walk rather than go straight home.  I just unconsciously started walking in the other direction.  I love the fact that I can walk more than fifty paces without pain, without a stick and without worrying about getting back.  It's a freedom I haven't enjoyed for so many years that it's almost a new experience.  

Today I had to go for blood tests because my parathormone level is very high.  Last June I had a tumour on one of my parathyroid glands removed and it looks as if there may be a problem again.  I should get the blood tests results back later this week and if the level is still so high then it might mean surgery again.  It's something I could without - life is sent to try us sometimes!

Twenty-four week weigh in

Happy New Year!

I have weighed in this morning at 105 kilos/231.5lbs/16stone7½lbs, which means I have lost 38.1kg/84lbs/6 stone since my mini gastric bypass on 18 July, and I am a very happy bunny!  I feel so much better and have bags of energy.    On Sunday, New Year's Day, my Breton neighbours called for me to go for a walk with them.  It was drizzling with rain and very, very wet and muddy underfoot, but it was great even though I was soaked from the knees down when I got home.

My weight loss has slowed somewhat lately, but I am still continuing to lose which is all that matters.  I have just started taking the antibiotics I was prescribed at the beginning of December.  I didn't want to be taking them over Christmas and so put off starting them until yesterday.  My bowel is still not reacting well and I am hoping that this will be what makes the improvement.

This evening, my physio gave me a back massage and said that my shape had completely changed and she could now really dig into the bits she needed to!

It's lovely going into a New Year, knowing that I am going to be able to do so much more than I have for so many years.  I was scared going into the operation, but now I couldn't be more pleased that I decided to go for it.