Day 28 pre-op
0 days left til pre vlcd – tomorrow it begins!!
Dinner last night:
Homemade Beef Stoup.
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23mm of rain.
Today was the day for the trip down the hill to the airport to drop our Son off, and for me to have my CT scan and Barium Swallow.
The airport can only be explained as an absolute shit-show!
It took out Son almost an hour to do his bag-drop as they didn’t have a seperate line from the check-in line. Crazy!!
As it was taking so long, I figured it might save some time if I went and stood in the security line so that we (he) at least had a place in line.
A line which was growing steadily longer as each minute ticked by…
I ended up having to go back to the back of the line a further two times, and each time the line was getting longer – before our Son was able to finally join me, and we made it through the checkpoint with only 8 minutes to spare before his flight was called for boarding.
We’d got to the airport two hours early!
We both cried loads – as did he and my Wife when we left home in the wee small hours this morning – and after he headed off to board, I went straight to QldXray as I figured even though I’d be there around an hour earlier that my appointed time, I might be able to get in early, and if not then at least it would be cool in the building!
I waited about a half hour for the first part, the CT scan.
I was injected with a contrast, then moved in and out of the scanner tube a number of times.
All over and done with in about 15 minutes.
Wonderful!
Then a wait of about 30 minutes out in the hallway for the Swallow part of the ‘adventure’.
This is an adventure I highly would not recommend!
I got sick in the midst of it, and then afterward had four very unexpected bouts of diarrhoea during the hour and a half long drive home.
This is a very very abbreviated version of the whole sorry sordid nightmare of a procedure, that I feel like I will not forget for a very mind-scarringly long time.
~shudder~
Thankfully I had a couple of hours at home before I had the zoom meeting with the Dietician – which went well – and I feel comfortable in her knowledge and understanding of what is going on for me.
I also think that she’ll be quite helpful in suggesting menu plans that will work for my Wife and I in particular, using food we like and eat on the daily, not just as a generic menu plan.
The goal for my very low calorie diet is to be eating around 800 cal a day with the emphasis on low carb, low sugar, high protein; aiming for 100g of protein, but being happy with somewhere between 80 and 100.
I will be on the pre-op regimen for 4 weeks.
For my eating plan it will be made up of two Formulite shakes per day which averages around 400 calories which leaves around 400 calories that I can use for either my evening meal or shared between snacks and my evening meal.
If we happen to go out for lunch with friends, then I will have a shake for dinner instead of lunch, and will choose a better / healthier option for lunch than I maybe would usually.
(eg: a prawn salad instead of crumbed prawns)
The dietician certainly gave me confidence that I have been preparing well, and I personally feel like although I know it’s going to be difficult, I am ready to give it a red hot crack and kick this VLCDs arse!
Oh – as an extra bright point to the day, the car that was loaned to us was an absolute gem!
Sooo appreciative.
