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Unable to eat


Marcina
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Some of you may know that I've been rather ill the past year.

My treatment now makes me very nauseous, and I'm having a hard time eating. The only things I can really stomach are fruit, but I'm getting less than 1000 calories a day. I've had to stop training because I'm losing so much weight. I've tried smoothies but the thickness and rich flavour just turns my stomach. I'm still okay eating salads.. As long as it's raw food I seem to be okay with it but I am so busy with work I just throw a bunch of fruit and ginger tea in my bag for lunch. The lack of time + lack of appetite makes it very easy for me to not eat properly. Obviously, I'm not getting enough protein or fats so I'm losing muscle mass.

I'm not really sure what to do.. I'm nutritionally behind on everything. Calcium, protein, iron, EFA's.. I can't get better when I can't eat! I've been like this for nearly 2 months. My doctor is on holiday and I probably won't be able to see him until the new year. Has anybody had to battle long-term nausea? How can I get the proper nutrients in my body?

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When the body needs to heal itself, the first thing to do is start fasting. So much energy is spent on digestion that if you are sick, your body needs to focus directly on what is wrong. In my opinion, regardless of what is making you sick, your body sees fit to stop consuming and work primarily on healing itself.

 

What is causing your nausea? Two months sounds like a long time to have that kind of problem :\

 

I haven't had to deal with what you're going through though, I'm sorry I can't be more help.

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Marcina;

 

Don't worry about your doctor being on holiday. I think you are past the point of being ready to get a second opinion. You've have had this problem in one form or another for over a year. Whatever the problem is, s/he hasn't found it.

 

Get a copy of "How Doctors Think" by Dr. Jerome Groopman. It is an eye opener for how doctors discover.........and how they miss discovering what is wrong with their patients. You will get a lot of tips for how to handle doctors when dealing with a long term issue. I was able to borrow a copy from my library so you may not even have to pay to read it.

 

The introduction to the book has the story of a young woman in a very similar situation to yourself, who almost died and who suffered for years because her doctors wouldn't think in certain ways.

 

Give it a read

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....My treatment now makes me very nauseous....

This sounds like simply a side-effect of the medicine. Can you get your doctor to prescribe an anti-nausea medication?

 

you began to feel nauseaus about 2 months ago and you stopped eating vegan a few months ago. hm... But if its caused by the medecine, it is kind of ridiculous to take medecine to releive side effects of another medecine, and who knows how many different drugs you will need to counter each drug. Of course if you have no choice take them otherwise stop and the fasting idea is good too.

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Why the hell would I fast if I'm not even eating in the first place?? That just sounds like bad advice to me.

 

Your body needs ENERGY and NUTRIENTS to be able to heal itself. Depriving it of those things isn't going to make a person feel better. Your body will slow down the metabolism to conserve energy, and pull nutrients out of storage such as iron (which my stores are now empty btw), B12, calcium from the bones, catabolise muscle for protein etc.

Before telling people to "Fast" please enlighten yourselves on how the body works first. Telling someone who's nauseous and under-eating to give up eating altogether is not smart advice. I'm sorry if that sounds harsh, but if you had lost a great deal of your hard-earned work building muscle just to lose it all to a stupid sickness, you'd be bitter too.

 

Also, I stopped eating vegan about 11 months ago. I got sick while I was a vegan, since I've been unwell for a year and a half now. Me not being a vegan anymore isn't what made me sick.. Vegans can get sick too. Vegans can even get cancer. The whole "vegans are immune to disease" mentality is a crock.

 

Beforewisdom: That sounds like a great book! I agree that a lot of medical errors happen because patients don't effectively communicate with their doctors. Also unfortunately, there ARE doctors out there who don't listen to their patients. I think I have one of them.. Lol!

 

I sought a second opinion and that doctor told me to immediately stop the medication because it was making me worse, and of course, it becomes more potent in my body the more weight I lose. He also told me to go to my GP and ask for a referral to a specialist. He said it isn't normal for a woman my age to suffer from so much pain for as long as I have.

 

For those who don't know, I have a gynocological disease. It's embarassing to talk about because I'm 24 years old, and my reproductive organs are failing. I may never have children.. and my GP prescribes me hormones and promises that it will stop the pain that I experience whenever I ovulate or have a period. I've tried 3 different kinds of oral contraceptives for therapeutic use and they all give me the same side effects: Nausea and/or severe abdominal pain. Even the low dose ones do that. It also does nothing to help the pain.

The 2nd opinion doc at the clinic told me I need laproscopic surgery to look for abnormalities. I might have endometriosis. Endometriosis is a condition that causes cells that normally line the uterus (The endometrium) to grow outside the uterus and in the pelvic cavity. Lesions break down and bleed the same way as the endometrium does, but the blood has nowhere to go.. So it just wreaks havoc inside the pelvic cavity and leaves scar tissue and adhesions behind. The adhesions attach themselves to the internal organs including the ovaries, fallopian tubes, and even the bladder and bowel. The organs aren't able to move as freely anymore, and it's very painful. There is no cure for endometriosis, and multiple surgeries are often needed to remove the diseased tissue from the pelvic cavity.

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Why the hell would I fast if I'm not even eating in the first place??

 

ROTFL. The same kind of Fail happened on this board last week when a female figure competitor mentioned wanting to give up cheese and possibly go vegan, but still get large amounts of protein in her diet. Someone pointed her to a faux cheese that had less than a gram or two of protein per serving.

 

I've seen so much of that kind of fail on web boards. People don't answer or even read the poster's question, they just take it as a trigger to talk to themselves out loud.

 

For those who don't know, I have a gynecological disease. It's embarrassing to talk about because I'm 24 years old, and my reproductive organs are failing. I may never have children..

 

It wouldn't be any less awkward if your were 44 and telling people about it on a web board.

 

 

Who you are isn't about if you can have kids or not. I don't want kids. I look for women who don't either, as far as dating goes. Sometimes I come across women who can't have kids and it makes ZERO difference in how I see them.

 

Good luck with the exploratory surgery. You've been sick a long time. I would love to see you post a few months from now telling us about how you are feeling better and getting stronger.

 

Then I can recommenced that you go on a fast

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I never suggested you fast. I was trying to explain part of why you probably don't feel like eating. Thank you for attacking me though..

 

 

 

I read the entire question. I understood the question. You gave little info as to why you were feeling sick, etc, until after I posted.

Edited by botherich
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Why the hell would I fast if I'm not even eating in the first place??

 

ROTFL. The same kind of Fail happened on this board last week....

 

A fail? A fail kind of like completely misreading a post?

 

 

I never suggested a fast, and you both completely misunderstood what I was saying.

 

I should have known better than to even mention fasting, I was under the assumption this was a vegan forum, and the members were a little more mature than to attack someone because they misread a post.

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Have you considered/tried concentrated un-whole things such as BCAA or EAA supplements, multivitamins, vegetable juice? BCAAs are pretty popular for people who are fasting and trying not to lose muscle mass. I know you're not intentionally fasting, but these might help maintain muscle mass.

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Marcina, have you thought of having a consult with Dr. Fuhrman? I'm not sure how expensive it is, and I am sure he would order blood tests, but it could be really helpful.

 

Also, consider addressing the emotional causes as well. I am a medical intuitive, holistic healer and spiritual channel, and I can tell you after working with hundreds of clients in the last 16 years, ALL health conditions start with an underlying psychological element. Reproductive issues with women are especially true in this regard.

 

Incidently, and as you probably already know, a vegan diet is recommended in hormonal-based imbalances, HOWEVER, some people DO need animal protein, at least a little bit, to be balanced, especially if they are physically active, ie, with regular exercise. I also fall into this category.

 

Dr. Fuhrman treats people with nutrition and knows the particular nutritional imbalances to look for. As well, he understands the metabolic need some people have for animal protein and can guide in that direction effectively too. Peace!

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Just for shits and giggles, how does the body differentiate between animal amino acids and plant amino acids?
It makes a mental check of it before it's broken down into the same amino acids, duh.

 

That's why all those lactose sugar pill placebos work so well, right?

 

Personally, I meet all my animal protein requirements from bullshit I consume off the internet.

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  • 2 weeks later...
The 2nd opinion doc at the clinic told me I need laproscopic surgery to look for abnormalities. I might have endometriosis.

 

Marcina,

 

I'm sorry to hear you're going through such a tough time.

 

I'm due to have my first ever laproscopic surgery in about 2 months or so, as my doctor & specialist believe I have endometriosis too. I'm still on the pill. Sometimes I get excruciating pain internally around the area of my uterus, timing not limited to when I have my period, and a few times it has been so painful I have ended up in the Emergency department at the hospital. I am not on any medication for it and don't suffer from nausea, it must be dreadful for you feeling ill all the time.

 

All I can recommend would be getting some anti-nausea pills just so you can get enough nutrition etc (not as a long term thing though) and multivitamins.

 

Good luck with everything and I hope to hear you're on the road to recovery very soon.

 

Take care,

Joss xx

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