The support meeting.

[Guest guest]

Hi all

The support meeting was on the smaller side as far as attendance

went...but was great on info. Dr. K was in there. I'm not sure if

he really realizes what a difference it makes with him being there.

The general topic was the Liver. How most of us start off with Fatty

Liver (which quickly goes away with our rapid weight-loss) But with

the rapid weight-loss we place stresses on the liver and our liver

labs reflect this. The peak period of time runs between 6 and 18

months then normalizes. Many PCPs panic when they are seeing these

liver panels come in. Dr. K said they have ways to view the lab

results to determine if it is Liver Failure or just weight-loss. And

also there are ratio's they can look at to see if the Liver problems

are resulting from drinking alcohol. He drew charts and diagrams to

explain the how and why the whole process happens...very informative.

He also discussed and diagram ed the whole process of why edema will

happen in our legs when our albumin is low and why lasixs won't help

that situation. He also said by looking at the Albumin and the

Globulin he can tell if we only started getting our protein " in "

during the last couple weeks because we were going to see the

doctor....lol...our labs tattle tale on us. Basically the Albumin

levels tell the short term (couple weeks) protein levels and the

Globulin tell the story over a longer period of time.

He discussed protein absorption. Basically we have to spread out our

protein intake over the course of the day. Humans bodies can only

absorb so much protein at a time. 15-30 grams at a meal. Separate

the protein intake by a couple hours and you should be good to go.

He also said there was a study that suggested if we Mix our protein

types we can absorb more at a meal. Example, a breakfast of egg,

bacon & soy milk will enable the body to absorb more protein than

eating the same number of grams in one protein item. Hummm...I'm

thinking I should get a bean, cheese and steak burrito for

lunch...yeah baby!

Jolene I didn't get a chance to talk to you..darn..can you add (or

correct) anything on the meeting report?

was there. She looked good, healthier than the last time I had

seen her. She had redundant colon surgery and multiple hernia repair

surgery a couple months ago and that has gone a long way towards her

feeling better. She is toooo skinny but had managed to gain 3 pounds

since her last Doctors visit. For you newbies that don't know

...she does have a photo album. She lost some CRAZY amount of

weight...like 350 pounds! For you Oldies...the recent surgery has

impaired her ability to do the amazing tummy trick...lol..I've always

been amazed by her tummy muscle control! She can still do it, just

not as dramatic. I told her to work on MY beloved trick.

Hugs

Jo