First Travel Experience Post-Surgery

I've just returned from our first vacation post surgery and since covid started.

In the past, travel has been a major obstacle to healthy eating and exercise for me. On vacation, I would eat whatever I wanted, gain weight, then have a very hard time losing it when we returned. It could take me a full year to lose the weight I gained on one trip. In addition, when travel interrupted my exercise routine, it would take me a very long time to get back to  the regimen. This was the pattern throughout my life.

So planning and taking this trip brought a certain amount of concern. I wasn't extremely anxious or worried. But it was always a concern in the back of my mind.

Obviously I don't want to re-gain any weight! But I also don't want to feel that I must be strict and disciplined every single day of my life. Vacations give us a break from our paid work, but they should also temporarily relieve us from our emotional work. While we were away, I tried to find a balance between these two needs. It was challenging.

First of all, I decided not to track my eating while we were away.

I also decided to loosen the reins on my food choices. I ate more cheese and more meat than I normally do, ate chips (in controlled quantities), more bread. 

I did both of these intentionally, which feels better than just mindlessly losing the discipline.

I can't overeat in a single meal. That's just not possible. But I could -- if I weren't careful -- eat the wrong foods every few hours, and in the course of the day, overeat. I did this while we were away, although not every day. Maybe one-third of the time.

Now I'm home. Here's what I've already done and my plan for the immediate future.

• I immediately resumed tracking my eating, and returned to all the healthy food choices. 


• I asked my partner to hide the scale. I don't want to weigh myself until I've been home for at least two full weeks.


• I plan to exercise today (our second full day home) and to put myself right back to my exercise routine. This will be the most challenging part. 

I'll report back.

PS: If you would like to receive an email when this blog is updated, please use the form on the right sidebar.

Quarantine is Over! Plus Some Fun Facts About Phase 3

Hurrah! Yesterday was my last day of self-isolating! I've had no symptoms, so my calculated risk of traveling through US airports during covid-19 was a good one. I promptly cashed in my rain checks for hugs and kisses, and moved back into our bedroom.

I also used the occasion to dismantle my alternative workspace downstairs and move back to my home office. We set up the kitchen workspace to encourage better habits during the liquid diets, before and after surgery. I'll have to be more vigilant about drinking water than I've been in the past, but I think I can do it.

The pureed food diet is going really well. I sometimes feel a bit burdened or discouraged when I'm starting the food prep -- then I do it and it's no big deal. I'm aiming for making three or four pureed foods at a time, and putting the pre-measured portions in a muffin tin. So far I've done:
- canned tuna, made with greek yogurt, dijon mustard, and pickle relish
- canned salmon, made with greek yogurt, red-wine vinegar, and dijon mustard
- tofu, garlic, ginger, and a touch of sodium-reduced soy sauce

Each one is pureed in the food processor with some protein powder, one teaspoon per serving.

For the tofu, I cooked the garlic and ginger in a little olive oil, added the tofu and soy sauce, cooked that for a while, then transferred it to the food processor. It had the thick texture of hummus, and was very tasty.

I'm also going to try:
- chicken and low-fat ricotta puree
- lentil soup puree
- white bean and ricotta puree

Here's an example of what I'm eating in the course of a day:
- smoothie made with 16 ounces of dairy milk, 1 cup of frozen fruit, and 1 scoop of protein powder (in 3 or 4 portions throughout the morning)
- can of tuna, pureed, protein powder added (broken up into 3-4 portions)
- jar of baby food fruit or vegetable
- very small portion of soft cheese, such as Laughing Cow Lite
- water, herbal tea, V8

I had a weird feeling that I was eating too much. WRD asked me to scan a few pages of my food diary, so she could calculate approximate daily calories. It turns out I'm eating too little, or at least the very low end of the suggested intake for this phase. Very strange!

Eating slowly is a big challenge, especially pureed food! I'm working on it, one muffin cup at a time. 

Hopefully this is not TMI: for years my ankles and feet have been (seemingly) permanently swollen. I take a diuretic for blood pressure, and I eat a lower-sodium diet, but puffy ankles and feet have been the reality. This is suddenly gone. I was putting on my socks and lo and behold, thin ankles with an actual shape, and smaller feet! 

I will ask WRD about this, but I'm guessing it's from not eating in restaurants (or take-out). I use very little salt when I cook, and we don't even keep salt on the table, but I was eating take-out two or three times each week. Perhaps that, plus a big increase in water intake, has given me back my thin ankles.

I'm still talking myself out of getting on the scale. As we get closer to our planned December 1 weigh-in, this will become more difficult to do!

Post-Op Week 2 Progress Report

Things seem to be progressing very well. 

My wound care has ended, so I no longer have to peel band-aids off my torso every day. That's a nice change.

I had been experiencing pain or discomfort in my upper abdomen -- exactly where the highest scope wound is -- when I would swallow liquids. (This is normal.) It's occurring less frequently and less severely. Yay.

I can now drink six ounces of most fluids without pain or discomfort, as long as I sip them slowly.

I'm finding more ways to make a plain protein shake taste better. I didn't buy artificially flavoured protein powder or pre-mixed protein shakes. I usually don't like the taste of any flavoured beverages, and they are always too sweet for me. The plain (unflavoured) protein powder in milk (or coconut milk) was fine with a cup of frozen fruit blended in, pre-surgery. But I can't have fruit yet, and the plain taste was pretty dismal. 

I thought of these ingredients to bring flavour to the mix without adding anything I can't yet eat. I'm using combinations of:
-- vanilla extract
-- cinnamon
-- cacao powder
-- mint leaves
Huge improvement! I'm all kinds of pleased with myself for thinking of this on my own.

The wonderful RD also told me about PB2, peanut protein with all the fat removed. I don't know why I had never heard of this before? Perhaps because I'm not vegan, so I'm not actively looking for protein sources. I don't know if I can get it in our town or if I have to order it, but it sounds like a good option.

I'm walking every day. Only a little so far, but it feels good to get outside. 

I get a daily email from the Government of Canada, asking me to confirm that I am still isolating, and declare whether or not I have symptoms of covid-19. I've also gotten a phone call from a public health worker, asking about my self-isolating plan and how it's going.  

This morning I am cooking another batch of dinners for my partner. He did the shopping and he washes the Instant Pot insert in between dishes I'm cooking. It's not making me hungry, although I do have to watch the impulse to taste things, or even lick a spoon. 

While I'm cooking, I'm making chicken broth for myself, then re-purposing the chicken in a dish for A. This will be much tastier than the pre-made broth. I don't buy canned soups because of the high sodium content, and the broths made for cooking are not very tasty by themselves.

Greetings from Self-Isolation

I'm home!

Because I was out of the country, the Government of Canada requires that I self-isolate for 14 days. This is a law, and it's enforceable -- they do check up -- but regardless of that, I take it quite seriously. The incidence of covid-19 in our area is very low, and the last thing I want to do is expose anyone to the virus.

Self-isolation is not a perfect system, as it was impossible for me to go directly from the airport to my home. I took extra precautions in that interim. Now that I'm home, A and I are sleeping in separate rooms, not touching, and distancing. I couldn't even hug him when he picked me up from the airport! 

A and I talked about it on the way home, and we both feel my chance of exposure was very low. 

- 100% of the time I was away, 100% of everyone around me was masked. Masks are mandatory in airports, on flights, and in the hospital.

- I practiced social distancing the entire time, with two exceptions -- the two crowded flights. And in those, the seat beside me was empty on both flights.

- I washed and sanitized my hands frequently.

- I was not in any restaurants, clubs, events, or even crowded stores.

Another thing -- and I don't know if or how this figures in -- is that I may have already had covid, in early March. While traveling for work, I became very sick, with all the symptoms. We don't know if I had it, and if I did, that doesn't mean I have immunity -- but it could.

I've been working at home, so even when I go back to work, isolating is not an issue. 

I'm counting the days, hoping I don't get sick.

One Week to Go: What's on My Mind

The surgery is in one week from today! 

My current concern is the travel. 

In the final 48 hours before surgery, you're on a true fast -- liquids only. During this phase, there are no protein shakes, just water, juice, or clear broth. People with diabetes (no) or hypoglycemia (yes) can eat a small amount of protein, such as a hardboiled egg, if they feel dizzy or lightheaded. 

This scares me, and doing this while dealing with multiple flights and layovers, and everything that's involved with that, scares me more. I know I'll get through it. I'm just kind of dreading it.

In addition to fasting, the severe urticaria (hives) I've been struggling with is back in full force. It was 90% gone, and the fact of its reappearance is not a good sign. It likely means this condition is chronic and will come and go repeatedly. The antihistamines help, but at various (unpredictable) times during the day, my skin is on fire with itching, burning, and sharp stinging.

And of course, there's covid. I'll do my best to distance, and naturally I'll be wearing a mask and using hand sanitizer frequently. I can only hope the airports will not be crowded, and the flights not sold out. (The airlines now allow you to check what percentage of seats have been sold, and re-book at no extra charge -- but if you have a connecting flight and an event you are traveling to, that's not much help.)

Fasting, itching, and social distancing. I normally look forward to any travel, but this seems onerous. Maybe instead of counting the days, as I'm doing now with the semi-fast, I'll count the hours. I'm also telling myself that the anticipation is almost always worse than the event. 

(A reminder: I'm not freaking out. Just expressing my concerns.)

On the way back, I'll also be a liquids-only phase, but according to the dietitian, this will be much easier, as most people have very little appetite at that time. The surgery itself is laparoscopic -- that's why you can travel so soon after it -- but still, it is surgery, and I'll need to be careful.

Once I'm back, I'll have to self-isolate for 14 days, which will be very easy, as I'm working from home. I've taken two weeks off work for the surgery and recovery, but even after that I have no need to go anywhere while the quarantine period runs out.

Meanwhile, in the present, the semi-fast and caffeine step-down are going really well. It can be a bit challenging to open the fridge and see the food I've made for my partner... and pull out only the coconut water! But I'm doing it -- one glass of water, one protein shake at a time.