For BBB's friends on A2K

I dislike most nutritional drinks too, but I finally found one I do enjoy--Ensure Plus, dark chocolate. It's a really rich dark chocolate flavor and it has 13 gr of protein and 350 calories in each bottle. If your mom likes chocolate, she might drink that one--just make sure it's the Ensure Plus and the dark, not the milk, chocolate. It seems to be very popular because it's the one variety that really flies off the shelves in CVS, and I often have to visit several CVS stores before I can find it in stock. It's also great heated, which might be good if your mom feels cold, it's like a good cup of hot chocolate. You might try giving it to her warmed, and just telling her it's hot chocolate, without mentioning that it's also a nutrition drink.

Will she eat Greek yogurt? Pudding? Rice pudding? Egg or tuna salad?

It can be very challenging and frustrating trying to get a picky eater, with swallowing problems, to take in a nutritionally adequate diet. But, if anyone can do it, I'm sure you can.

I'm glad she isn't in pain.

I made some carrot salad for lunch and added some of my unflavored whey isolate powder to the dressing. She ate about half a cup of that without problems. I also made some "spiked" corn chowder soup but she was too full for any. Tonight she ate a quarter of her favorite Delicata squash and half a red potato. So far, she is OK.

She doesn't have problems with small amounts of runny oatmeal, scrambled eggs, applesauce, buttery crackers and most soups. She has recently become mildly lactose intolerant so I go easy on the dairy products.

I have lots of unflavored protein powder that I can use to spike the small amounts and variety of food she eats. I'm hoping that when the home physical therapy starts in a couple days that her appetite and capacity will improve so she can eat more of what she is able to swallow.

If BBB is having problems with dairy, you could buy Lactaid brand milk, which is lactose free. That's the only brand I ever buy, mainly because I prefer the taste. Lactaid also makes lactose free ice cream and cottage cheese, and Yoplait makes some lactose free yogurt.

Then, if you have a blender, you could also whip her up a milk shake, or even a smoothie with some soft canned fruit, like peaches, or a ripe banana blended into it--and sneak some protein powder into it.

Lactose free cottage cheese, with lactose free yogurt mixed into it, would be easy to swallow and provide good nutrition as well. And, with the Lactaid milk, you could make some pudding if she'd eat that.

Hopefully, when she becomes a little more active with the physical therapy, her appetite and capacity will improve a little. Can you get her to snack on things, in small amounts, throughout the day?

That's how she eats what she eats. She nibbles on it for a couple of hours.

Oh, so sorry to hear of BBB's difficulty. I've always appreciated her spunky participation and efforts on our behalf. If it's not too creepy next time you kiss her, please whisper my name. Thanks.
JLNobody

I am sorry she and I never talked more. Dismissal on both sides - it wouldn't have worked and didn't.

All that time I've liked her, somewhat, and still do. We are non pals.

Comfort to you, Ly.

Slightly off topic but I have to say this somewhere my new drug/pain medication of choice is Dilaudid. Works wonders they just won't let me use it home.

Yes, I fell madly deeply in love with Dilaudid a few years ago after my stomach/intestinal disaster. They got me away from it and all was fine until this year with the pyelonephritis when a different doctor decided it'd be the answer instead of oxycodone or codeine. Unlike you husker, I got sent home with a prescription for the danged stuff, got it filled, just never used it.

Back to BBB, hoping she is continuing to heal and that her appetite is beginning to improve.

Unfortunately, mom has bad reactions to many of the popular narcotic pain relievers, some give her bad hallucinations.

They've changed the method of recovery and therapy since her last knee surgery. They used to use those continuous motion machines to bend and exercise the knee. Now you are left on your own and have to do the exercises yourself. With mom's weakened condition, I think she would have been better off using the machine early on to break up the adhesions. She and the physical therapist are now having to do that manually. It is rather painful for her and results in her knee swelling up again and not being able to put much weight on it for a couple days after.

Her surgeon says there is no evidence that the machine is any better than allowing the patient to recover and exercise on their own. I think I disagree with him in the case of elderly, weakened patients who have very little strength and muscle tone to begin with.

Spent the weekend sorting through mom's clothes to find ones she can still wear. She lost another 12 pounds in the two weeks she was hospitalized and most of her clothes fall off of her. We have a few smaller clothes on order to check her size before ordering more.

I remember my dietician saying when I left hospital way back when, after having lost nearly four stone (56lbs)......"Stodge, eat plenty of stodgy food that you like. The less the body has to work to absorb it, the quicker it can take it in".

Fingers remain firmly crossed for bbb. Please give her a hug from me.

BBB has been off the Coumadin for a week now. Her leg is still extremely swollen, not just the knee, but the whole leg. Been that way for about 10 days. Had doppler done on Friday to check for blood clots. None detected. Saw her PC doc today for lab work. Skin isn't warm, no signs of infections, just fluid accumulating, especially in the calf and ankle. Difficult for her to walk. She has good bend and flexibility of the knee joint. Everything below the joint is just very swollen.

Going back to surgeon tomorrow for follow up.

Thnx for the update, Butrflynet. Pls keep us posted. Much love to your mom.

send her our love. I don't always respond but I check in . Does she need to up her HCTZ?.

She isn't on a diuretic. I will ask about it tomorrow.

Just got the lab report back from today's lab work. (I love having immediate access to them. I often see them before her doctor does.) Just about everything is within the lab's "normal ranges." Her MCHC is tagged "low" and her RDW is "high". Her TSH is still in the normal range but is trending a lot higher than usual. (May be because of the cyst noted on her thyroid a few months ago. She's having another ultrasound to check the status of it. Her total proteins are also still in the normal range but are trending a lot lower than usual (probably because she has no appetite, tiny capacity and inability to swallow anything that isn't very mushy or thinned out.) Her sodium levels are actually below what they usually are. She trends at 141/142 and they are at 140.

Here's what the labreportsonline.com site says about them:

Send BBB my love.