Originally written on 13th November 2009

Weigh-in. 94.5kg. Loss - 5.5kg

Friday the 13th! It's been a week since my op. I'm doing a lot better now than I have been. Saturday was fine, I spent most of the day resting but I kept getting up to walk around a bit. Mainly to stop the DVT but also to get rid of the gas from the op. The rest of the week has gone so quickly. I'm actually coping really well with the liquid diet. I found some really nice recipes on the banding forum Jo showed me a while ago. I've been having pureed baked beans mixed with tomato soup. Delicious! I put a bit of paprika, chilli powder and curry powder in it too, it ends up tasting like mexican salsa. I made a cauliflower, broccoli and brie soup last night too. It was okay, not as nice as the beans though. So this is my daily menu (roughly).
Meal 1. 175ml Sustagen hospital formula
Meal 2. Petit Miam made thin with milk OR pureed fruit with apple juice
Meal 3. Soup
Meal 4. Depends if I feel hungry, if I do I'll have some V-8 juice
Meal 5. Soup or egg-flip
Meal 6. Jarrah Choc-O-Lait (before bed)
Plus I'm trying to get as much water/diet cordial in as I can but sometimes it's hard to get a litre a day in. Oh well, I guess it'll improve as time goes by. I can't wait for the "mushies" fortnight, mashed potato and gravy here I come!

I'm not really missing any foods except pasta. I made Dad spinach pie on Tuesday. I could have quite happily murdered for a slice. I just had to keep reminding myself this liquid stage won't last long and I'll be able to eat relatively normally soon, albeit not all the fattening stuff I was eating before. At the moment they're not too worried about what I eat, as long as it can be pureed and thinned down enough so it can be eaten through a straw. Not that I actually eat it through a straw! But I'm not being silly about it. I'm getting in a fair bit of protein and only a small amount of fats and sugars. So I think I'm doing quite well, all things considered.

I'm still in a fair amount of pain in my back. Hot packs and morphine relieve it some of the time. It feels like something is stuck in there. Like I've swallowed a brick and it's stuck in the pipes. If it doesn't get better by Tuesday or Wednesday I'll ring Dr D and see what he says. The abdominal pain is nearly totally gone, so I can finally sleep on my left side. The only thing is, I've got a low grade infection in one of the cuts. Not to worry though, I went to the GP today and he's put me on antibiotics (liquid, yay!) and I'm putting Betadine ointment on 4 times a day. My stomach still resembles a Canadian sunset though. I've never seen so many different shades of bruising!

Well, I think it's time for another hot pack and a white hot choc. I really can't be arsed doing anything tonight so I think I'll just veg in front of the idiot box. HP-Goblet of Fire is on, or maybe I'll shove on a MH disc. Ciao!