High Calorie Meal Replacement Drinks

[staceyb]

My Grandad has just been diagnosed with Liver and Stomach cancer and is struggling to eat anything at all and has lost about 4stone in the past 2 months. He is managing to drink half of one of these http://www.nrichment.com/meal.html a day with maybe a bowl of cornflakes at the most. Those drinks are giving him all his vitamins and minerals but not enough calories considering each can is 375 calories.

So can anyone point me in the right direction of a nice tasting non powdery (his taste-buds are messed up as well and is very sensitive to textures as well) high calorie meal replacement drink.

Cheers.

[Tumbler]

Must be a very difficult time for you all. Is he able to have a feeding tube for now?

[staceyb]

A feeding tube would mean a stay in hospital while they sorted it out and as he is terminal that is the las place he wants to be, but it may come to that.

[Z4monster]

I was given Ensure Plus drink when I had jaw surgery. They are pretty OK to drink but again only about 350 calories each.

Once home I made my own drinks with Protein powder, Greek yogurt, Ice Cream, Fruit and Goats Milk. The goats milk is not as bad as cows milk to digest and doesn't affect your skin (I got very dry skin using too much cows milk)

I managed not to lose any weight after seven weeks with my teeth wired together so they must have been pretty high in calories.

Ask the hospital as i'm sure whatever there is they should be able to provide in his condition, probably on prescription.

Good Luck

[staceyb]

Cheers guys will speak to the Doctor tomorrow about getting some ensure on prescription and see how that goes.

[ShadownINja]

I hope I don't sound flippant but I'm just looking at things from a fluid/calorie viewpoint... if he's getting the right nutrients... what about beer?

All the best to you and your family in this difficult time.

[ShadownINja]

Crap. Good point. I saw "stomach cancer" not the liver bit!

Another stupid suggestion: baby food? Also thick soups with potato and pulses in them, liquidised?

[Animal]

Could you add flaxseed oil to his drinks? If he can digest that without problems then that would be a way of adding some calories to his daily intake.

Best of luck,

Alex

[Tumbler]

I really think you need to speak to those in charge of his care, the Liver can struggle to process somethings, especially when it's function is limited.

If you get no joy with the hospital then I have found http://www.macmillan.org.uk/Home.aspx to be an excellent source of both information and support.

[Tumbler]

A whole section on Nourishing Drinks http://www.macmillan.org.uk/Cancerinformation/Livi...

[staceyb]

Those in charge of his care have seriously failed him since Christmas so my Nan and Grandad want to deal with them as little as possible.

We have bought him some Ensure plus drinks this morning and according to him they don't taste too bad in the vanilla flavour.

Thanks for all the links everyone.

[staceyb]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

I know where you are coming from with all that. He was diagnosed with needing a heart surgery of some kind depending on what "test results" came back as, back in November 09 and despite him having bi-monthly doctor appointments and blood tests, and monthly scans and ECGs and ultrasounds and him complaining of lots of pain(they even suggested him seeing a physciatrist to sort out his mental issues that was causing his "phantom" pain) and losing so much weight and collasping multiple times they managed to miss Lung, Stomach, Kidney, Liver, Lymph and possibly Cardiac cancer.

[drivin_me_nuts]

StacyB -

Nutricia Homeward. Get your GP to refer to them. Their foodstuffs are all very good - my missus uses the compacts at 300cal per 125ml balanced meals. If he can tolerate having a feeding tube inserted it will make the world of difference to his quality of life as they supply the infinity feeding machine as well so he does not even have to feed himself.

Get to your GP and hassle them for the foodstuffs at least. If he has a Nutricia peg then he'll also get access to a feeding nurse who will help him as much as he needs.

Good luck

http://uk.nutricia.com/homeward

[mph1977]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

because the GP is a lazy fatherless who should have contacted the relevant consultant and arranged an emergency admission under that consultant - you might have waited (at home , not in the ED ) for a few more hours would would have gone direct to a bed on the surgical unit of the relevant hospital

Some GPs are reknown for misusing the Emergency Department and the emergency Admissions system - this creates problems with

a. people stuck in the ED - especailly when the blasted 4 hour target was mandatory and still as trusts are tied into it at 98.5 % as part of their service level agreements with the PCTs

b. people being admitted to emergency beds when they either did not need an acute bed at all or need a service which won't be available over the weekend / until a specific consultant returns from leave / study leave / university duties later in the week / next week ...

c. people assuming that they will be admitted to acute hospital beds as an emergency rather than recieving the correct services at the correct time , these same people then whinge and moan about waiting over the weekend / until the specific consultant is available to be seen

Hospitals may well have a dozren or more 'surgical' consultants or Orthopaedic consultants but that surgical rota unless it's a Huge teaching trust will have Breast, Upper GI, Lower GI and vascular surgeons - all of whom know enough general surgery to fix the predominantly lower GI emergencies that present as acutes , but the vascular surgeons will also be part of their own cover for Aneurysms and life threatening limb ischaemia and trauma ( the limb trauam stuff may be shared with plastics and/or orthopaedics) and the Upper GI surgeons sharing the GI bleed service on call with the gastroenterologists ( who by the way will take their share of gen med on calls).

it's a little bit less pronounced and muddle with orthopeadics but there are orthopeadic surgeons who specialise in hands and feet , upper or lower limb ( and in lower limb mainly knees or mainly hips) there are orthopaedic surgeons who do spinal surgery ...

again hands and feet on call may be shared with plastics and spinal on call may be shared with neurosurgeons ...

it must have been nice in the early parts of the C20th when there were only 4 types of hospital doctor medics, surgeons, orthopods and gas passers ...