underwhelmed by nutritionist visit

...but it's okay cause I'm going to be seeing my former diabetes nutritionist (who used to work for my doc's office, and who has experience with bariatric patients) on Thursday, and roughly weekly thereafter.

During yesterday's visit, at 3 weeks out, I was told I could "eat whatever I wanted now", with three exceptions (steak, bread, beef jerky).  Really?  Zero guidance as to portion size.  When asked if I were taking calcium supplements yet (I hadn't been told to start them, and as nearly everything I'm eating currently is dairy...), and I said no, she said "that's ok, I wont know you by the time you get osteoporosis".  ???!  She also told me I should be aiming for 1200 kcal by next week.  She estimated my current intake to be about 500 kcal.  I know I need to be eating more, but more than doubling what I'm taking in within a week?  Oy.  Not to mention ow.

Thank goodness there's no rule that one only can see the nutritionist that works at one's doc's office.  I deserve better, and I'm going out and making better happen!  Quite proud of myself for that. 

Wow.  I'm glad you will be seeing someone else.

However, I would get started on calcium citrate.  You don't want to get osteoporosis.

Lol.  Message received!  :)  (it wasn't that she was wrong about it, it was all in the presentation).  Took my first Calcium Citrate yesterday accordingly.

Yikes, I hope they don't bill you for that!

$600 program charge included psych consult, 4 nutritionist consults, 4 exercise consults, and support groups.  I'm guessing this counted as one of the nutritionist consults from that bundle.  2 free consults for anyone who wants them! 

Yep the NUT in my surgeon's office is not all that great either. I saw each one of them once before surgery and that was enough for me to figure out that I needed to go elsewhere. Even their own documentation is contradictory. They tell you one place that you can eat deviled ham on the pureed stage when you look at the "typical meals" but if you go to a few pages previous to that, they tell you not to eat deviled ham? There were a few things in there like that and some about vitamins and such. They also have a lot of stuff you can purchase there and they give you a web site that is essentially a "partner" site for bariatricadvantage.com. They have special "deals" and packages you can buy. What a racket! They are also part of the MediFast group in the area.

I know my PCP's office has a NUT there and I'm going to ask him if she has any experience with WLS aftercare. If not I will just keep reading my contradictory material and doing whatever keeps me losing weight and making sure I get my labs done regularly.

Good grief.  As if it weren't hard enough WITHOUT getting contradictory information!  Apparently partnering with vitamin companies (and getting kickbacks for doing so) is not uncommon.  My doc's office says one a day of opurity's bypass-specific multi is plenty, plus calcium now.  I'm all for less pills!

I'm SO grateful I have an elsewhere to go. 

Yeah, seeing someone else is a good idea.  You DO need to start taking calcium citrate, though, because even though you eat a lot of calcium rich dairy foods doesn't mean you can absorb all the calcium from them.  The calcium supplementation is no different than the other supplements.  The section of our intestine where those vitamins are primarily absorbed has been bypassed, so we have to rely on "secondary" (less efficient) absorption in the remaining parts of the intestine (even the 1500-2000mg of calcium we add is not all absorbed because it is subject to only being absorbed in the secondary areas).

Lora

Thanks Lora!  I put my big girl panties on and downed a calcium tablet yesterday... will continue to do so until I find better tasting ones.  Like I said to another poster up-thread a bit, in that case it wasn't that the nutritionist was wrong, it was more about the manner in which she delivered the message.   

Try Upcal d , it is a powder you can order online.  it is tasteless and I think it actually makes hot cocoa taste better.  I ad it to protein shakes and glasses of milk. You can buy it online.