vegan444

Ha, I feel like I say that a lot to non-vegans. Not all vegans are stick thin. There are ways to be a healthy vegan, or an unhealthy vegan. I always get "so you eat, what, lettuce?" and I never know how to respond. Do you seriously want me to list every fruit / vegetable / and product made from edible plant matter?

Welcome to MFP and Veganism. I've been vegan for 6 1/2 years so far. The first month or two are always the hardest but you'll get used to it. You'll learn what ingredients to look out for, what restaurants have vegan options, where you can find the best dairy/egg/meat substitutes, you'll find recipes. After that it just…

Hi Amy. That's great that you're here to make a change. I've been working at this for 10 months now, and I'm so glad that I woke up one day and decided it had gone too far. That's how I got into counting calories too. Now I'm down significantly (my lowest so far is pretty close to your highest though!) and feeling a lot…

I've gone down two pant sizes and I've lost a bit over 70 pounds. I went down a cup size and probably two shirt sizes (it's hard to tell, since a 2x from a plus sized store seems sooo much bigger than an XL from a department store). I don't know my body that well, but I think I lost most of mine from the top, which is a…

Thanks for the support :o) I'm so happy I had it done. Still taking some time to feel better since everything was so inflamed. Getting better though and finally getting some protein!

One last update. I got a call from the surgeon on Wednesday at three telling me he'd set up an appointment with another surgeon in the city (3hrs away) for three hours from then. Packed like crazy and my husband drove me. Got there and the surgeon said he wanted to operate the next day (Thursday). They didn't have a bad so…

More news: I saw the surgeon yesterday. He was so aggressive and rude to me (and my mom) and he wasn't even listening to what I was saying. I don't have an infection, but one of the ER doctors put me on anti-biotics to make sure I don't develop one (since that would delay surgery). The surgeon said I had an infection (the…

I'm trying to have it removed. There's obviously no way to live without fat in the long term, but that's the only option for me right now. My dietician and surgeon agree. Just eating small amounts of no fat food throughout the day causes me more pain now. When I started this post I would have an attack whenever I had even…

So, more news. I've been to the ER five times since early Friday morning and to the hospital seven over all. The pain isn't going away at all anymore. They've got me on a lot of pain killers and anti-biotics. They did an ultrasound and it's showing that the gallbladder is inflamed, but I don't have a fever or unusual white…

I don't think all these delays were because I'm Canadian. Really, it was a mixture of things. Partly my failure to express how often / intense the attacks were. I came across at first like it wasn't a big deal and like I could wait. Someone along the way dropped the ball, and I suspect it was my doctor's receptionist. She…

Hi everyone. I have another update. Yesterday afternoon i went to the dietician. She basically said she couldn't help me since everything she suggested had "trace amounts" of fat, (1/2 to 1g) which my body can't tolerate. So I'm sitting in her office and I start to have an attack. Went straight from there to the ER and got…

Not sure at the moment. I think it has one gram per serving, but my last attack only took 5g of fat, and I just saw the surgeon and he said I should be on zero fat until the surgery. I'm going to head to the health food store to see about some zero fat options.

From what I understand the body can, in the short term, live off stored fats in the body. That's not necessarily good since weight loss makes gallstones worse as well, but since it happens gradually I'm hoping that I'm getting the amino acids that I need without the sudden spikes in fat which (I assume) are more likely to…

I do have rice protein powder, but that does have some fats and could potentially set off my gallbladder.

Probably wont last too long if I'm injected with extreme pain killers once a day either though. Can't function between now and my surgery unless I cut out all fats, so I'm looking for tips please.

So, when I saw the surgeon on Friday he said that he wouldn't do the surgery, since I had my first appointment in the summer with another surgeon. He said he would relay all my concerns to the second surgeon today. I just got a call that they still want me to see the specialist on Nov 22nd before they will do the surgery.…

Thansk to everyone for your interest, ideas, and concern. I've called around a lot, and wept in front of multiple receptionists. I have an appointment with another surgeon (I had a brief consult with him yesterday when I was in the ER, but it didn't go well). I'll see him tomorrow, and my husband and I have come up with a…

I tried the apple cider vinegar, but it didn't do anything. Wasn't expecting much since even dilaudid doesn't cut it anymore, but I did try it. I found that the smell didn't help with the nausea, and it was seriously unpleasant when I was vomiting! I've also tried lemon juice, but that didn't do anything either. I think I…

Thanks for the tips. So far it doesn't seem like the stones have been stuck for that long. Although, I remember the pain lasting even longer when this first started, so who knows. From now on I'm going to go to the ER every time I have an attack. The pain killers are better, there will be a paper trail of my attacks, the…

Thanks very much. I appreciate you taking the time to respond to this.

Of course, I'd resolved to stand up for myself and demand treatment right away, but by the time I'd seen the doctor I was coming down off pain killers, seriously sleep deprived, and had been in the ER for 6 hours. Not my finest moment, so when he said something I didn't want to har I just started to cry instead... that'll…

You're so right. I know I need to fight more for this. Not sure why (I suspect its a low self esteem thing) but I've always been really bad at making my own well being a priority. With medical stuff especially, I feel like I must have to wait because other people are in worse condition than I am. I'm starting to realize…

I definitely need to work on that. I'm going to be calling tomorrow to follow up, and I have a new appointment on Monday.

Specialists are hard because I live in a small town. There's one specialist in a town that's a 3 hour drive from here, who is probably the one I'm going to be seeing. Other than that, I'd have to go 4 hours in the other direction. That's all stuff that my family doctor arranges too. I should hear back soon though, so cross…

Thanks so much for the advice everyone. I will check out those recipe sites. Hopefully I can find something. Most lentils do have some fat in them, and even spinach does. There's not a lot, but it adds up to 5g really fast! I think the hardest part for me is identifying the foods that actually have no fat. It's amazing how…

I'm hoping that's the cause. It was really scary when I knew I had the enzymes but didn't know I had a gallbladder issue. Now I'm hoping that one is the cause of the other. It's just frustrating at this point because the surgeon won't just remove the gallbladder and see if that helps the enzymes. He wants to see if a…

Before I knew that this was gallstone pain I was still eating fewer fats than were recommended. I'm vegan, so most of the fats were the "good fats" and I wasn't consuming any cholesterol. I don't think I necessarily needed to change my diet in this way (carbs were always a bigger issue for me)if it weren't for my…

Of course, but if I eat any fat (anything about 5g a day so far) I'm in severe pain which lasts 3-6 hours without pain killers (and those often don't work). Not to mention the hours of sleep I lose. I'm not trying to advocate for a fat free diet and I'm sure it's not healthy, but for the time being it is necessary for me.…

I'm trying to eat lots of veggies, but even that's hard. Even spinach has some fat in it (not much, but it contributed to my attack today). I didn't know that mushrooms were a source of protein. I don't like them much, but that might be the next thing I try since split peas (which I paired with spinach) have a bit of fat…

I'm fairly sure sugars wouldn't be an issue, because their relatively simple for your body to digest. Its the fats that require more bile to break down, so when you eat the fats, the extra bile that's stored in the gallbladder is pushed out as the gallbladder contracts. If there's a stone in there, it plugs the passageway…