I had my Ileostomy coming up to a year ago (it will be a year in May). This was after suffering from an acute attack of Severe Ulcerative Colitis.
Before the illness I was about 75 kgs. I'm 5 ft 9, so I wasn't a muscle man to start with, but was a fairly respectable weight.
After the operation and a combination of the illness, loss of appetite and NHS food I was down to 55kgs. Not at all a healthy weight!
I had the summer of work to recover, come to terms with things and put on some weight by eating as many high protein meals as possible. I also drank the Fresubin Energy drinks which the NHS prescribe, which are high in protein. By the time I went back to work (August, so within 3 months) I managed to get myself up to 64kgs, still underweight compared to what I'm used to, but getting toward normal.
The problem is that since returning to work I haven't been able to smash the 64kg barrier. In fact, I caught the dreaded winter vomiting bug that did the rounds two months back and was knocked down to 60kgs, I weigh myself every week and since then it's been gain a kilo, lose a kilo, gain two, lose one the next week and the end result is I'm still hovering around the 60kgs mark.
Is this a normal experience? Is there a magic solution to putting the weight back on following an ileostomy? I always try to go for high protein dishes when I can and I keep drinking a Fresubin drink every day but it just doesn't seem to be happening for me. Any suggestions?