Dr. McDougall's Online Discussion Board

Dr. McDougall- Joan Grealis here-Sky's Mom and friend of Cathy Fisher and a follower of your program for years. I got very ill last fall with extreme watery diarrhea while following your plan. I had gotten down to about 130 lbs when I got sick and started to drop weight faster. But I got so dehydrated I was admitted to the hospital 3 times and every test known to man for the GI tract was given me with no particular results. They came to feel it was my ileal-jejunal by pass I had over 30 years ago that was causing me problems but they couldn't do surgery because I was so weak so I had TPN through a pic line and many bags of assorted liquids and electrolytes. After a week of this my diarrhea stopped and with their advice that I should not be on such a restricted diet due to my bypass- I began to eat the SAD diet again. My BMs have returned to formed and regular and stay that way.
I also was found to have an extremely low hemoglobin (6.5 in the hospital) and they gave me a transfusion "for the road". Follow up and a bone marrow biopsy has revealed that I have manageable MDS and am receiving shots of Procrit.
All doctors have insisted I not return to the vegan diet as I have been ok on it and my weight which went up quickly with the TPN has hovered around 140 for 8 months now. So......my dilemma is knowing what I do about the SAD and worried that I am harming my health and wondering if their concern is valid and my bypass needs me to eat animal proteins, etc. I have always trusted your knowledge and opinion-what should I be doing?? By the way, I have moved out to the Bay area now to be near Sky and would love to see you as a doctor but I know your program inside out-I've gone to Costa Rica and the True North Ctr., etc. Would you consider allowing me to see you as my doctor?
Kindly, Joan Grealis

Hi Joan

You might want to contact Dr McDougall directly in case he doesn't see your post on these boards. You can find his contact details on this page:

http://www.drmcdougall.com/about.html

Best wishes.

Terri

First off, you're writing this in the Family and Children forum and none of us know if Dr. McDougall himself monitors posts here. You may be better off writing him directly at his email address: [email protected].

When you do write, include a detailed listing of 3 days' eating - every drop of liquid, every morsel of food, from both when you feel you were sickened and what you're capable of eating now.

Also include every medication you take, again, both then and now.

Because of your intestinal problems, you may also want to get hold of his book Dr. McDougall's Digestive Tune Up:
http://drmcdougall.com/store_dt.html

Good luck!