Sunday 15 February 2009

Sunday 15th February 2009

6ood to see Ross & Jo and Ali today. the nurses tell me that my blood pressure readings go up when I have guests - I'm thinking of running a league table of which friends raise my blood pressure most! :)

No major developments today - but an excellent night and a good day overall, mean that I am still definitely improving each day. Definitely looking forward to tomorrow though when I will hopefully be able to drink for the first time and will also have my cathetar and chest drain removed, which will make me mobile under my own steam for the first time!

I should be able to eat soft foods on Tuesday - probably limited to soup and ice cream at first, but anything will be welcome.

Going forward, the Dietician is working on a plan for me, but in the meantime she left me an NHS pamphlet "Dietary Advice After Oesophagectomy Surgery". Far from being scary, it is absolutely fantastic - the key message is that as I will have to eat smaller meals, it is important that I maximise the calories in each small meal. Let me quote some extracts from the pamphlet ...

"Ensure all dairy foods are FULL FAT as these will provide your body with extra energy"

"If you do have an alcoholic drink you may feel the effects much more quickly so be careful"

"Add margarine or butter to vegetables, potatoes, bread and chapattis. Don't use a low fat spread"

"Double cream can be added to a variety of savoury and sweet foods"

Breakfast Ideas:
"Breakfast cereal with full fat milk"

Mid-morning snack ideas
"Melt in the mouth" crisps such as Quavers, Skips or Monster Munch"
"Custard"
"Angel Delight"

Main meal ideas
"Stew"
"Curry and Rice"

Mid-afternoon snack ideas
"Cake"

This has to be the only diet sheet I have ever seen with "Cake" and "Monster Munch" on it!! Overall it reads like a list of all my favourite foods, so I'm pretty happy to be honest!

Unfortunately, that's all in the future as I have to be Nil By Mouth from midnight tonight until my scan at 1pm tomorrow. This includes my food supplement being fed directly into my intestine, so I am going to be hungry tomorrow morning, just like before all my other scans - one of the worst sides to this illness, all the starvation periods!!

That's all for today - more tomorrow when I will hopefully be drunk on the glorious taste of water!

Cheers,

C x

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Colin, even you can stick to that diet ! See you next week. Alistair.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like my normal diet...... oo er.... KT

abw said...

Hi Colin, we wrote you a note last week but I guess it didn't go through the system? Anyway, you sound great and by all your friends accounts you are looking great too! We are very glad to hear that. We are crossing all body parts that your biopsies come back with positive news. Keep'on keep'in on!

Love Barb and Albert