Help! Trying to gain weight / fever issues

Hi everybody, I'm new to the forum. Had my colon removed a month ago, internal J pouch with a temporary loop ileostomy. My take down will probably be in June. Post surgery I was about 150 lbs, but now I'm down to 142 lbs despite eating as much as I can every day. In the last week I have also had a periodic low grade fever but I don't have a cough/cold or other symptoms. Can anyone offer some insight or suggestions? Anyone had a similar experience? How come I can't maintain or even gain weight back? My stool output is normal, so I don't think I'm dehydrated.

Any feedback is greatly appreciated!


~ 30 year old male
South Carolina, USA
Diagnosed with UC in July 2009
Colectomy/J Pouch surgery in Feb 2011

I had a temporary ileostomy performed in early May and had it reversed in July. Before I went in, I weighed about 170. After a bout with dehydration after the surgery, I was down to about 130. I was also pretty anemic. My surgeon wanted me to weigh at least 160 for the reversal and get back to normal for my hemoglobin. So I was kind of in a similar situation to you. I ate the equivalent of 5 meals a day, plus I drank five bottles of Ensure a day. The Ensure helped a lot, both with the anemia and with the weight gain. The meals included just a protein and a starch and boy, did I miss the veggies I used to eat, but I had been advised against eating much in the way of roughage while I had the ileo.

It worked pretty well, because I ended up weighing about 184 when I went in for the reversal. With the liquid diet and all, I came out of the hospital around 175, which is where I wanted to be.

So, I would suggest more and slightly smaller meals, and I really do endorse Ensure. The best place I found to get the Ensure was at Costco. It's about half the price of other stores. The only downside you might have at Costco is if you don't like vanilla as a flavor, since that's the only one they have.

Good luck with the weight!