Modulen Diet At University

Hi all,

I've been on the Modulen liquid diet for 3 weeks as of today and moved back to University last Saturday until late march, when I will be coming off of the diet. I study in Leeds, UK and so far being back has been pretty.. well just meh really. Being able to not eat anything is really tough with the smell of lovely food everywhere I go as I walk to and from University. Having to schedule my drinks around being in University is a little bit of a hassle also. I bought a non-see through flask to drink from so I look totally sophisticated drinking coffee or something.. haha (little do they know)

But yeah, hunger is a pain. A real big pain in the backside. I thought I was going to be okay at first whilst I was at home for the few weeks on the diet before coming back but now I am active and in University again, the task of being on the diet is becoming a lot harder upon myself.

I've been told that if I do get hungry, I can make myself another drink or two instead of the usual 8 I am on right now, but it's still not really enough for how long I am awake. Usually the drinks will last me about 10 hours, and I'm usually awake and doing things for much longer than that..

The major part of my University life that this has taken away though is being able to drink and socialize with my friends. Luckily, I wasn't a major party animal already but like all other students in my position, I like to go out and drink on occasion with people and being in my current position, this has all but become a non-existent task.

I've yet to see any people who are in the same position as me on this forum ( or maybe I've just not looked hard enough..) , but if there is anybody who has any questions, advice or just wants to know more about me in general, I'd love to hear from you.

Hello and welcome to the forum

I take it you have been diagnosed with crohn's? What is the plan after you have finished the Modulen treatment wise? Is it actually helping with the tum and are you on any meds at all? I myself was on Modulen for a few weeks leading up to my op and out of all the shakes I have had to have I found this the nicest, I like the banana and strawberry flavourings - have you been given any to add to this? I must admit after a while I struggled to actually drink that much liquid and I lost interest in it, whilst the nurse wanted me to try and have 8-10 shakes a day I was lucky if I managed 6, how are you finding this side of things? I can definetly emphasise with this feeling of hunger, the first time I had to go on shakes I worked near a burger king and so was then convinced I could smell burgers everywhere I went! Just hang in there hun and before you know it you will be able to have some food again - honest!

AB
xx

Not university, but I must've spent months on that stuff while I was in high school. Yeah I know what you mean by not feeling like you can go out, only a few things feel more stupid than sitting in a restaurant watching everyone else eat while you drink

How many weeks they got you on it for, 6 or 8? Or more?

I have not been on modulen diet before but I have been on a liquid diet before. It is not the easiest thing to follow, I watched my hubby and kids eat and I was so tempted to steal a little off there plates.

The thing that helped keep me on track was remembering it is only temporary and the benefits it is providing.

Are you feeling better since being on it? Hope you are feeling better and will be back on reg food soon.

Hi AB,

Yes, I am diagnosed with Crohn's disease. I've been on the modulen after meeting with my Dietitian and Gastro doctor for the first time because I was having pains pretty much every day and they were getting quite severe. I went a few months like this at University before anything could be done simply due to not be able to book an appointment due to work here.

I've been making up the solution which is just under 2L worth (one tin) every day and drinking it without much problem. I'll agree, from other stuff I've had to drink due to Crohns in the past, (Ie. Moviprep.. Just thinking about that stuff gives me chills..) this is much nicer. It just tastes like normal milkshake to me now when I add some nestle stuff to it, though my flatmates don't quite agree. Haha

I usually just drink the Modulen because I am hungry.. though it never really fills me. It's just like when you fill yourself up on fizzy pop. You feel full, but you know you're really not. Working near a burger king? God, that must have been awful. There's this one restaurant I always pass on the walk home from University, it's a killer.

Hi Price, My dietitian wants me to try and stay on them for 10 weeks, which seems a bit excessive to me, but hey. It's not too bad if I do do it for that long because my appointment with her is around the time that it ends in early April if I stay on for that long. It seems like an awful long way away though and granted I'm sure I will be okay until then, but it's going to be pretty tough..

Due to my Crohns, I'm a rather thin person anyway, but the rest of my family are pretty well built and at home we eat generous meals. Going from that to what I am dealing with now and now being more energetic at University and all is, well yeah, tough.

Hi Earnellzwifey,

Yeah, I keep telling myself that. It does help somewhat but it's just so weird still. To rely on food your entire life then have that taken away, it's strange. Yeah, luckily conditions are much improved in terms of the pain I was suffering with and I've even put on a bit of weight! So yeah, I just need to keep telling myself this stuff is doing me good and brave it out.

Have you ever been put in any meds for your crohn's? Do you know what the plan is yet for after you have finished the shakes?

I was on Modulen for 7 weeks, at first it was really hard, but when the time passes you don't think about food that often. I was hungry but I would forget about it. Crisis came when my housemates were eating. I had to drink 2,5L and that for me was a lot sometimes I thought I was gonna puke. I started to eat a week ago and first when I started I couldn't eat a slice of bread, I felt full after 2 bites. And I even got 3 kg from Modulen and pain will go away completly, ofcourse sometimes hurts for a bit. It's really good that you can put flavours in it, in my country we don't have them and I wasn't allowed to put Nesquick in it.

Hi AB,

Yeah, I'm currently also taking Pentasa alongside the Modulen, though my Specialist doctor has made apparent to me how Pentasa don't really do an awful lot and wants to get me taking some other form of tablet soon after I come off the Modulen, so we'll see what happens there. I'm not sure what's going to happen after I come off of it yet really. From what I've looked up, I'm guessing this means slowly re-introducing food to my diet one thing at a time but if anybody knows anything more about this, that would be helpful

Hi Zagi,

Yeah I know what you mean. When I get distracted by something, I can usually be fine, but being active doing work and attending University it's hard for me to do this. What do you mean about the bread? You were like that after coming off the Modulen? And that sucks you couldn't add flavours Though honestly, I tried it on it's own the other day and I think I could probably manage without too now being so used to the taste. It's much better with the flavourings though.

I am not surprised that the doc will most probably be changing the Pentesa - this is usually used in very mild cases and isn't actually an approved med for crohn's, it was designed as a treatment foe ulcerative colitis.

After the Modulen you may find you are then started on the LOFFLEX diet, which is very bland to start of with and you do this for a couple of weeks and then every four days after that you start adding foods from a list you are given and you keep a log of whether you get any symptoms from them. This is based on what I had to do the first time I was put on shakes not long after I was diagnosed.

I understand, I even couldn't go to highschool, because I have to travel an hour to get there, and pain would sometimes come. After Modulen it was hard for me to eat, but now it's alredy better. And by the time I just got used to taste. But good luck with the modulen! Hope you get better.

Ah I see, thanks for the tips AB. I was curious about what would come after all of this and I figured it would be something much the same as this. It's good to do that though I suppose in order to eliminate anything which does cause pains. I think I may have already discovered that tomatos and some tomato puree used in pizzas sets me off pretty bad though, but I should imagine there are plenty of other things too due to the frequency of my pains prior to starting my liquid diet.

Zagi, thanks for the encouragement. Luckily, I'm pain free right now so travelling to University is still a possibility. Yeah, it must be tough to go back to food after being on this for so long but as AB says with the Lofflex diet, stuff will be naturally re-introduced it seems so it shouldn't be too bad hopefully. I'll keep at it until then!

Please keep us updated on how you get on.

Nearly finished the course of Modulen now, going into my 10th and final week of being on it. It's not been all too bad in all honesty because I'm not somebody who particularly lives for food anyway but I'd be lying if I said it hasn't been a struggle at times. The ability to be able to eat Jelly sweets and Jellies alongside the Modulen from my Dietitian has helped a lot over the weeks, especially around week 6-7 when I started to develop some serious cravings for food.

The social aspect of things at University has been a bit a big influence too. Not being able to go out and socialize and have drinks with people has been a bit of trouble really, but it's just something I have to deal with as mentioned above so it's not the end of the world really.

My one big piece of advice to anybody going on this would be to mix your drinks for the next day before going to bed. Leaving the mix alone for about 4-6 hours lets everything settle and makes it taste SO much better (tastes like normal milk after a while). If you mix it up and drink it straight away, it's barely drinkable. I'd also advise buying a tiny drink sieve which you can get for about £1 from tesco or anywhere for your first few drinks of the day as there will probably be some bits which haven't dissolved properly yet or are stuck to the side of the container you've mixed the drinks in to.

Going to see the dietitian again on Thursday and I'm pretty sure I am going to be put on something like the LOFFLEX diet mentioned above. Just looking forward to being able to have some scrambled egg on toast now really!

Well done for sticking with this for so long, hopefully Thursday will bring some good news for you. When are you next due to see your GI about the new medication?

Luckily I'm seeing both my nurse and my dietitian on the same day, so hopefully I'll get some kind of indication on what to do in terms of medication from there on too.