Check up ...

On Sunday I had my two week post op check up with Dr Ashton at HW based at the Spire Hospital in Manchester.  Of course my satnav packed it in on the way and I had to pull over and try to to get it working.  Fortunately it kicked back into life literally metres from the turnoff for the motorway after which point I really had no idea where to go! Phew!  In fact the funny part is I was more nervous driving in a new area even with the satnav working than I was when I was waiting for my surgery!!! Go figure???

Dr Ashton checked my incision and said it was healing well, all nice and dry.

I was weighed to see how much weight I'd lost and was disappointed to weigh a pound and a half more than I did on my scales at home even taking into account that my clothes were at least a pound heavier than my PJ's which I normally wear for weigh ins!!  Also, When i went for my first consultation and was weighed I was 15 stone then Xmas happened and it was over two months until I started my pre-op diet at which point I was 15 stone 5lbs by my scales.  So when I weighed in at 14st 9.5lb Dr Ashton thought I'd only lost 4.5lbs and was asking if I'd been eating any biscuits or cake type snacks! A bit disappointing to say the least!

I had been weighing in at 14st 6.6lbs for the last few days at home, but that morning of course I was 14st 7lb and then even more at the hospital!! Not fair.

I've been finding that I'm much hungrier recently and it's hard to keep my calories down to 850 a day.  When I looked at my food diary today I realised that for the past four days my calories had been over 1000 every day, and one of the days was over 1300...hence why my weight loss has ground to a halt!  So my goal for today was to stick entirely to liquids and to keep my calories under 900 which I have managed (although I did eat some well cooked veg that was going spare at tea time.) I also realised that there are lots of things I can use to fill me up that are really low cal.  I'd gotten in the habit of sticking to high protein food when my appetite was non-existant as I wasn't eating enough to give me any energy and was constantly feeling nauseous.  This really isn't a problem now as my appetite's grown quite a lot, but i keep sticking to the high protein stuff which is fine, but I need to add in some very low fat veg based stuff such as mushrooms and squash and tomato based soups to top me up and keep me fuller for longer.  That's my goal for tomorrow add these things in and then it won't be such a fight to keep my calories down as I'm starting to fell deprived.  I don't lose weight quickly at the best of times, any normal person would lose plenty sticking to 1300 calories a day, but not me!

Another thing I've got to consciously do is drink more fluids...Saturday morning I woke up feeling hung over with a headache and a really dry mouth...and no, I hadn't had a drop to drink so I must have been dehydrated.  Then this morning I found I was quite constipated, not very pleasant...sorry if you were eating then or have a sensitive stomach. So proof positive I'd say on the need for extra fluids.  I then decided I'd take some medication for the problem, but didn't read the instructions till after I'd taken it...you are suposed to take it before bed and I spent the day tripping back and forth to the toilet.  It's one extreme to the other.

One thing Dr Ashton asked me about was whether I'd started walking yet? 'Whoops...not really', is the answer.  I felt like a naughtly school girl by the end of it all.  I did walk my son to Scouts that evening though instead of driving, there's 15 minutes I can clock up.  I must get my pedometre set up for my stride length tomorrow and start wearing it so that I can start to get my daily exercise levels up without necessarily doing a workout.  Now I'm feeling pretty well most of the time there's no real excuse not to get started is there?