PostOp

PO – 1 year on!

Here’s what I have been up to in the last six or so weeks, and what I’ve eaten for dinner each evening.

My breakfasts are almost always high protein yoghurt, blueberries and a sprinkle of muesli.

Lunches usually contain a mix of some of the following:
meat pieces, cheese, grapes, crackers, hummus or leftovers from the previous evenings dinner.

I still take a multivitamin twice a day, and plan to (at this point in time) for the rest of my days.

I still have two protein shakes most days, which not only helps with my hydration, but helps with getting sufficient protein into my body.

I (mostly) focus on my meals being high protein content.
I still eat the occasional bit of ‘crap’ – for example I had a lamington as an Australia Day treat.
And I still love the odd small handful of twisties.

I dont take part in any organised exercise regime, however I am planning at some point to get back to solo-swimming, but I dont know if I will manage that before winter settles in, so it might be late in the year before I get back to that.

My exercise currently comes solely from working around the Farm, lugging wheelbarrows of soil, hefting bags of compost, digging, raking, mowing, pruning, mulching etc.

For those of you who make it through, there is a bit of extra news toward the end of this post
🙂

Monday – cottage pie
Tuesday – crumbed steak
Wednesday – bog
Thursday – soup
Friday – lasagne
Saturday – fish cake
Sunday – koftas

Monday – soup
Tuesday – b&e
Wednesday – soup
Thursday – swamp food
Friday – out to dinner
Saturday – soup
Sunday – ham and cheese

Monday – soup + yoghurt
Tuesday – frittata
Wednesday – stoup
Thursday – pizza
Friday – fish and salad
Saturday – yoghurt
Sunday – chicken salad

Monday – chicken salad
Tuesday – soup
Wednesday – kofta salad
Thursday – kofta salad
Friday – soup
Saturday – agogo wrap
Sunday – tikachic and salad

Monday – bog
Tuesday – yoghurt and mueslie
Wednesday – chicken hits and salad
Thursday – quiche and salad
Friday – cheese, grapes and tikka chicken bits
Saturday – ½ pie
Sunday – lasagne

Monday – snag, cheese, grapes
Tuesday – veggie burger patty
Wednesday – lamb kofta
Thursday – veg patty, cheese, grapes
Friday – carne and brown rice
Saturday – carne leftovers
Sunday – stoup

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Monday – town run and laundry.

Tuesday – visited a friend in the next town over.
Mowed

Wednesday – over 55s xmas party.
Mowing, gardening.

Thursday – quiet day

Friday – son and grandson visited.
Laundry.

Saturday – Grocery shopped.
Son and daughter in law came for dinner.

Sunday – Christmas Eve.
Grocery shopped.
Quiet day with the Fam.

Monday – Christmas Day!
Our son, daughter in law and grandson came over for breakfast.
Lunch at the Inlaws.
Huge storm mid afternoon.

Tuesday – Boxing Day.
Made some laundry detergent – 20 litres.
Worked out in the paddock.
Another huge storm.

Wednesday – worked in the vegie garden.
Whipper-snipped the chook pen.

Thursday – another big day of working in the garden for me
Son, daughter-in-law, and grandson came for dinner.

Friday – a huuuuuge day working on the bus.
Out to dinner with the whole extended family.

Saturday – did laundry, mowed, cooked chook food.
Son, daughter-in-law and grandson came over and spent the afternoon with us.
They fly out at the crack of dawn tomorrow.

Sunday – it’s one of our anniversaries today so we took the bus and went out to the lake.

Monday – New Years Day.
Quiet day spent around the Farm.

Tuesday – back to work for my Love, and I took the bus to stock up groceries.
Finished mowing the paddock, tidied out the fridge.

Wednesday – installed microwave in the bus.
Bought three new work shirts.
Made some ProJellYo.
Did laundry.

Thursday – nice quiet day pottering about doing all the little fiddly jobs.
Decluttered some cooking stuff.
Dinner in the bus up the hill – takeaway pizza.
I couldn’t eat a whole slice but it was super delicious.

Friday – a huuuuuge day of working out in the paddock.
Mowed the whole paddock.
Poisoned all of the fence lines.
Cooked dog food and chicken.
Dehydrated.
Ordered Formulite.

Saturday – did the rest of the poisoning this morning, and some decluttering in the kitchen.

Sunday – Bad sleep – sick dog
Woke in pain with my arm.
Quiet day.
Lunch at the Museum.

Monday – Slept ok despite pain.
Booked GP appt for two weeks time, and a Telehealth appointment with my surgeon for tomorrow afternoon.

Tuesday – trip to town.
Realised I haven’t had an alcoholic drink in over 16 months now.
Telehealth appt with Surgeon – underwhelming.
Said that he is unsure when the hernia and gallbladder op will be, and that he is hoping that we won’t have to have another pre-op due to the fact that he already knows me.

Wednesday – leg cramps overnight.
Took my friend L dont the hill shopping.
Super tired.

Thursday – a very quiet day with considerable pain in my arm.
Had a mid/morning nap. Unusual – but very welcome.
Ended up taking an nsaid.
I don’t think having ONE will make too much difference to my gut…

Had some rain this afternoon.
There is another possible cyclone lurking off the coast.

Friday – early grocery shop.
Arm still not mobile.
Formulite order arrived.

Saturday – woke numerous times in the night to considerable pain in my arm, used paracetamol to get through the night, but I took another meloxicam this morning.

Cooked chicken tikka pieces that I had marinated over night, and they tasted reallllly good.
Poached chicken breast, made the weekly chook food.

Poured for most of the afternoon.

Sunday – another day with loads of rain.
Quiet morning doing graphic design work.
Lunch at the pub with friend.

Monday – laundry and ‘clean up after the weekend’ day.

Put up new tibetan prayer flags.
Raining for most of the day.
The ground is sodden – back to wearing gum-boots.

Tuesday – grocery shopped, cooked poached chicken, dog food and chook food.

Wednesday – a quiet morning.
Lunch with ex-colleguees.

Weighed in this morning for the first time in a whole, and I am now almost 34 kg down on my start weight – not my heaviest weight – but my start weight!
I’m probably about 37 or 38 kg down on my heaviest…

Thursday – Down the hill to the optometrist.
Need stronger glasses.
Developing cataracts.
Got a haircut.

Friday – a day at home catching up on laundry and housework.
Had a huge downpour this evening.
We read and played iPad games.

Saturday – Town run.
Pouring again.
Cyclone getting closer – expected to cross the coast by the end of the week.

Sunday – put together and tested the generator this morning.
Did weekly prep for my cuppas that I have on waking and around 5:30pm.
Instead of my old past faithful of coffee – which I can no longer drink – I now drink a mix of two different types of laksa powder, with a scoop of protein powder and a heaped spoon of fibre powder added to it.

I portion this mixture out into ten small containers which I can then just dump an individual container into a cup, add boiling water, stir and its ready to go, rather than having to measure each ingredient each time I want a cuppa.
Saves a lot of time in the long run, and makes having a cuppa an easy thing, not a fiasco of multiple-container organisation.

Monday – early appt first up with my GP.
Noted low blood pressure (100/65) – explains my occasional dizzies.
Blood results are “perfect”.
Going to trial removing one of my medications and see how my breathing is without it.
Makes it more risky if I get any respiratory illnesses, but we’ll see how it goes for a bit.

Mowed the houseyard.

Tuesday – visited with a friend at her house.
Grocery shopped.
Finished as much mowing as I could get to.

Wednesday – moved the cars and finished mowing.
Whipper-snipped carpark and big veg garden.

Cooked and canned turkey mince.
Cleaned out the fridge.
Did a recycles run.
Poached some chicken breasts and made chook food.

Thursday – garden guy came today.
The cyclone is due to cross land about 4 hours south, already getting wind and rain from it.

Did laundry.

Today I found out via a friend, that the Surgeon who is supposed to be doing my hernia and gallbladder op – the very same Surgeon whom I spoke to last week on a Telehealth call to review how I was going, no longer works at the hospital where I am scheduled to have said operation!!
To say I am supremely pissed is an understatement!!

I don’t give a shit that he won’t be the one doing the op, but I do give a shit that he didn’t have the good grace, decency or the guts to tell me so, when we were discussing it over the call!

Friday – Public holiday today for ‘Australia Day’.
Did dishes and some yard work.
Prepped my soup for the coming week.
Ordered 4 bags of protein powder.

Not too much damage from the cyclone.

Saw a black snake down behind the workshop.

Saturday – general chores time, wrote a post for the Farm blog.
Edited photos.

Overcast and mizzly day.

Sunday – a day off for my Love.
Took the bus to the next town over.
Lunch at the leagues club.
Quiet afternoon.

As I’ve moved into it being a year post-op, I have decided that unless there is something new and noteworthy, that I won’t be doing regular updates to this part of my blogging life.

I will update when I get my next Surgery date, when I have a Specialist appointment, when/if I reach goal weight milestones and at any other points that I think might be of genuine interest to anyone who may be along for the ride.

I hope that for anyone who has stumbled across this little corner of the internet, that it has been of some help or interest, and if you are on – or considering being on – the same adventure as I am, feel free to touch base and say ‘hi’; and if I can be of any help or support – please let me know.

Until next time, stay safe and prioritise protein!

The changes in my body are all very nice aesthetically, but that’s not why I began this process.
What matters to me these days as I age, is that I am a healthier version of me.
That I am comfortable in my own skin, and that I can do the things I want to without the physical limitations that being grossly obese imposed on me.

As a Wife, Mother and Grandmother, I would like to not be a burden on my Family as I age, and whilst I know that at some point in my aging I will require more comprehensive assistance, I believe that if I keep my mind and body as healthy as possible, this eventuality will hopefully be later rather than sooner in my old age.

Published by Sarah

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