Unfortunate Lessons

[ladysprite]

I have learned a lot of things in the course of my current health woes. Today's lesson?
The less I eat, the better I feel.
Seriously. Today I've had a granola bar and some toast, and it's the first day in most of a month that I haven't been cripplingly nauseated.

I've been taking 800mg of ibuprofen 3-4 times a day for most of a year, and it has started to catch up with me. I've been having trouble eating for a while, and last week everything fell apart and I wound up spending most of an afternoon in the ER. Since then I've done my best to stay off the NSAIDs (falling back on either vicodin when I don't have to think or stay awake, or 'just tough it out' when I do), but I'm still dealing with the aftereffects.

My diet has narrowed down to toast, bananas, hot cereal, and chicken broth, with occasional forays into the brave new worlds of chicken fingers and peanut butter sandwiches. But completely aside from feeling lousy, I just don't have much of an appetite. Still, I know I should eat, so I push myself and I do. And then I feel sick.

And today? I just didn't worry about it. And, disturbingly, I feel fine. Or at least, better than I have in weeks.

This is weird. And disturbing. And doing really bad things to my body dysmorphia....

Comments

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

I have no advice, just loads of sympathy and good wishes.

[crash-mccormick.livejournal.com]

Much sympathy. I have had good luck with Unjury protein powder. If you keep the water war, but not hot it dissolves well and the chicken flavor really is even if its all fake and healthy. Also Click 00 the cappuccino protein powder when my wife is convinced I need more zip in the morning. Finding way to get nutrients in to let the body heal and do its general work when you can't really eat or don't want to is a pain. Much empathy and sympathy.

[ricevermicelli.livejournal.com]

Did they recommend an antacid with the nsaids? Pepcid or prilosec are the usual options. At some point, reflux can make it painful to take pain meds. That hits sooner if you don't eat, but reflux will make eating suck... not a good spiral.

[ladysprite.livejournal.com]

They've got me on zantac, which doesn't seem to be doing much of anything, and zofran for when things are really bad...

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

I'm a strong proponent of listening to your body. I hope you can find a balance that will make both it and you happy.

[z-gryphon.livejournal.com]

Yeargh. Appetite disruptions are mightily dismaying, I expect particularly so when one hasn't got much of a reserve to draw on. All the more reason to be glad the surgery is scheduled relatively promptly. I guess there's nothing for it but to hang in there by any means necessary. Luckily, history has shown that you're good at that...

Hugs.

[johnpalmer.livejournal.com]

Um. Could I recommend consider a protein drink or two if you can find one not-too-noxious? If you're not getting enough food in you, the protein is good to keep your metabolism healthy (or so I've heard - I'm far from smart enough to get into even medical school, much less vet school).

(Or you can ignore the strange man you met on the internet. A lot of people recommend that :-) .)

Seriously: I'm mildly worried especially if you're going to need to do some high powered healing in the near future.

[ladysprite.livejournal.com]

The big challenge is just choking the darn things down. Still, if I'm not doing better in a day or so the plan is to find a way. Today seems to be a little bit better, so fingers crossed it won't be necessary....

[bess.livejournal.com]

When my mother was having chemo and couldn't keep anything down, she survived on ensure.

Acupuncture is very good for nausea.

I hope things get better soon.

[ladysprite.livejournal.com]

Those are both good ideas; thank you. Blessedly, today seems to be a bit better - if I'm lucky, I should be back to normal in a day or so...

[serakit.livejournal.com]

I find chamomile tea helps, but while I've had the same symptom of "the less I eat the better I feel" for quite a while now, the causes are very different, so that may or may not be useful to you.

I've also found that thinking about things in terms of approximate caloric density can be helpful in this situation; things like fruit juice can provide calories and actually be choked down, and worrying more about getting *something* than what it is or whether it's healthy. (At the extreme end, small pieces of peppermint candy are unlikely to upset the stomach and will provide some form of *something*.)