Starting again after bad accident

pnrbor

Last year I had a bad accident. I was kicked in the head by a horse one afternoon after a lesson. I suffered a traumatic brain injury. I was in a coma for 3 weeks and rehab for another month. It has been a long journey. After I got out of hospital I had lost weight. But my face was disfigured as I had the nerve on the left side of my face damaged.

It has been a long road to recovery and still getting there. I put on all the weight I had lost in hospital and more as a way of dealing with things. A month ago I started a hectic diet (I won't mention names) but they said I would be fine and didn't take my head injury into account.

A couple of weeks ago I suffered a seizure and ended up back in hospital for a night. The neurologist looked at the diet pills I was taking and said that was probably what triggered the seizure. I am now back to not being able to drive. I had to stop horse riding again.

I have lost 2.7kg the past month which seems very lame. I am trying to stick to MyFitnessPal calories now but the other diet might have messed up my metabolism a bit. I am also seeing a dietitian on Tuesday. I have another 7.5kg to lose to be my ideal weight.

Wish me luck.

kshama2001

I'm so sorry about your accident and the aftermath

2.7kg / 6 pounds in a month is far from lame. In fact, with only 7.5kg / 16.5 pounds left to lose, it would behoove you to slow that down.

What weekly weight loss goal did you select? If more than a half pound per week, it's not your metabolism that is the issue, but your expectations. MFP really should do a better job advising people about weekly weight loss goal.

pnrbor

Thank you for the encouragement. I selected 1kg (I think that is about 2 pounds per week). I guess that you are right. It is expecting a bit much. 7.5kg is a lot of weight for a small person like me.

lynn_glenmont

Just want to second everything @kshama2001 said and add that you should mention the seizure incident, as s/t/he/y might want to consider if anything in your diet/hydration patterns could lead to electrolyte imbalances.

To be clear, I'm not questioning your doctor's assessment that the diet pills caused the earlier seizure; just adding that electrolyte imbalances can be associated with various types of extreme diets, and you might want to be sure that your dietician knows you've already suffered one. As I understand it, having one seizure does lead to an increased risk of a subsequent seizure, at least temporarily. I'm not trying to scare you; I just think it might be a good idea for the nutritionist to be on the learn for anything that might increase the risk.

One other thought: If you're logging here anyway, maybe bring a print-out of your diary to the meeting with the nutritionist, or let them know ahead of time how to access your diary. They might like that for a baseline.

pnrbor

@lynn_glenmont you are right. The dietitian is my sisters dietitian. She has last 22kg with her. Problem is she lives in another city to me so it will be virtual.

My neuropsychiatrist actually recommended some dietitians that know about head injuries, the medication I'm on etc. But I had already made this appointment and now paid for it and I don't want to upset my sister.

Thanks good idea to print out my diary to give to her.

lynn_glenmont

pennyborelli wrote: »

@lynn_glenmont you are right. The dietitian is my sisters dietitian. She has last 22kg with her. Problem is she lives in another city to me so it will be virtual.

My neuropsychiatrist actually recommended some dietitians that know about head injuries, the medication I'm on etc. But I had already made this appointment and now paid for it and I don't want to upset my sister.

Thanks good idea to print out my diary to give to her.

Best of luck. I hope it works out.