Dear LPG,

I am an octogenarian who lives alone.  I know that I am not the only one, and that living alone can often be because there is no family left once you get to my age, but in my case it is because I choose not to leave my home of the last twenty years, while my children have managed to settle quite a distance from where they grew up. 

I have recently had an operation and I am beginning to feel better.  I have been out of hospital for a couple of weeks now and though my offspring visit during the weekends I find myself depending on district nurses and carers to look after me during the week.  I think that the professionals are doing a really good job although their visits are short and I am left with a lot of time to contemplate life while I am unable to do those things that usually fill my days. 

Perhaps because they do not visit so often it is easier for my children to see something that my professional visitors have been telling me for a while now, and that is that I am not really eating as well as I did before the operation.  Although the carers have been encouraging me to eat a bit more all week while I have all but ignored their observations, when both my daughter and son made comments about how much weight I appear to have lost since they last saw me, during separate visits, I took the time to listen; perhaps because their reaction to seeing me came with their surprise.

It is odd that I don’t feel as if I am not eating as much, the mirror is not leaving me that alarmed and I feel as fine as the after effects of my operation will permit, but I was more ready to take notice of my children even though my visitors have been telling me the same thing all along.

This got me to thinking about what happens to people who do not have someone to notice their weight loss for them.  I find that my post operation days appear to drag, although the weeks since have passed quite quickly as I sometimes find it hard to know where the hours in the day have gone.  I am in the lucky position where I have people visiting me regularly while I am getting better.   Some older people do lose weight and it can be hard to keep tabs on if your appetite is flagging and what you are eating regardless of whether you are trying to lose weight or gain it.

I have found some online advice on how to make sure you are eating enough for those who are losing appetite or not eating properly for some reason.  Having a larger number of smaller meals and snacks each day and keeping a diary of what I do actually eat has been the answer to helping in my case, but I hope that LPG will be able to share a few other suggestions. 

I would appeal to readers who have been told this to try to do something about it before you actually can see weight loss in the mirror.

BW, Charlton

Most of the information that we found online is written as advice for people who notice weight loss in someone they care for or know, or for younger people who have always been underweight, but whatever your age most of it is still relevant.

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