Sunday 23rd June 2013 How I am feeling

I did not go for a 2nd walk on Friday but yesterday I went for a much longer walk to keep the momentum of weight loss going. I took a long walk to Kmart to buy wool for blankets I am knitting for my brother and also his flatmate. They have both been very helpful since we returned to New Zealand and I like to knit (or crochet) blankets for friends and family over winter. It helps keep my hands are occupied (so I can't hold food) and I have to concentrate on completing a task (so am not thinking I'm bored, must eat food). Cross stitch is even better. Needlepointing a large canvas of tigers as I am also doing is very absorbing too.

To get back to the walk. I was away for 1 1/2 hrs and spent most of that time walking. I was on the last set of lights when a shower of rain started. Luckily I was inside Kmart when the full force of the rain began. By the time I had brought wool, scrapbooking items for a project I want to do for my youngest daughter and her children, looked at books (my love) and got my mother her favourite chocolate sweets the rain had ceased.

I walked out into a sparkling,freshly washed world. The wind was not as cold and gusty as it was no longer pre-frontal. The air felt clean even though I was walking beside busy roads. The large plastic bag, with my purchases in, kept twisting up around my hand till I thought to rest a couple of fingers at the very top of the bag. The other bag only held my purse and 2 letters I had to post. The essential one was the pre-op one to the hospital (Ormiston Hospital) where I am having the surgery. They need to receive it 10 days pre-op so that is done.

Things still to be done:

• see nutritionist (26 June)
• get Blood Group blood test done on the Friday or Saturday before the op (11/12 July)
• keep strictly to the Optifast diet to lose as much as possible beforehand for ease of Operation

I have told my GP what is happening. He said another point of taking Optifast is that it gets you used to the amount of calories that you will be eating for the rest of your life. It is a form of starvation diet. Pre-op it also helps you lose weight quickly. This lessens the amount of abdominal fat and apparently takes fat out of you liver making it smaller. With your stomach being partially behind your liver it is easier to get to if the liver is smaller. He said he has a large number of patients that have had the operation with positive health responses. Only two have had problems. One had a small amount of gastric fluid leakage and the other's spleen had been nicked slightly during the operation. Both were soon fixed.

My Optifast diet consists of 3 Optifast sachets a day(shaken up with 200mls of water), 2 Cups of vegetables and 2 ltrs of low carb drink (I have filtered water usually). I am not sure why but the vegetables are tasting much better than usual. Sometimes I have a salad, sometimes I have cooked vegetables. The 1tsp of fat/daily comes in handy here especially as I usually do a quick stir-fry in a non-stick pan. 

As with any operation there is always risks. You can only try and eliminate as many possible problems as you can and hope for the best. In NZ if there is a problem we have ACC to help. We don't have suing options here and I feel it is better all round for doctors and their patients. There is still a good process for stopping doctors if they are consistently creating problems for their patients but the constant threat of malpractice suits is not there.