Journaling My Way Through Surgery page

[PrimalWannabeGirl]

Hi there.

ME: 57 years old, multiple health issues over the past 5 years, facing major pelvic surgery in 3 weeks. Planning on getting through that surgery with flying MDA colors.

MY GOAL: Strict 100% adherence to diet for the next 3 weeks: eggs, meat, fish, fowl, veggies, berries, nuts and seeds, a little yogurt.

TODAY:
B: whole milk yogurt with blackberries and nuts (including 1 brazil nut!)
L: BAS with herring and avocado, olive oil and vinegar
D: local, pastured lamb burger with sweet potatoes.

Exercise: Jazzercise class (love to dance...it's so TRIBAL)

Pea

[PrimalWannabeGirl]

B: 2 farm fresh eggs, tomato sauce topping, 1/2 orange
L: chicken leg, sauteed zucchini and eggplant in tomato sauce
D: red cabbage cooked in pancetta, sauteed mushrooms and onions, 1 glass wine

Got results back from a doc today. My cholesterol is high and she wants to put me on a statin. I can't believe it. Not only is my HDL high (75) but my triglycerides are LOW and my insulin level is LOW. My c-reactive protein is LOW. And she wants to put a WOMAN with no family history of HEART DISEASE on a statin?????????????? She's treating a high total cholesterol (248) with a drug known to cause muscle problems, memory problems, and liver problems for WHAT BENEFIT???

Thank God I can think for myself. Getting a new doc TOMORROW.

Exercise: tonight going to African drumming and dance class. Doesn't get more primal than that! (Except for maybe hunting and gathering and building shelters.)

Pea

[Hedonist2]

I hope your surgery goes well. Stand firm on statins!

The last two times I was in the hospital, I said over and over that I was gluten intolerant. They brought me meals like mac and cheese with a hard roll. Hope you have better luck.

[PrimalWannabeGirl]

Unbelievable!!!!! I am planning on getting out of the hospital ASAP, no more than 2 days if I can help it. Last time I had surgery, I was in for a week, and I didn't get ONE SPONGE BATH the entire time, nor was the bedding changed for me, despite there being some blood and tissue fluids on them. I was too out of it to ask for what I needed...on the 6th day, my husband bathed me.

I've requested a gluten-free diet but better than that, I have whole-30, primal friends planning on feeding me post-op, starting with homemade chicken soup with lots of greens, rich with gelatin for healing. I'm hoping to have a shorter stay this time.

I'm eternally grateful to MDA and the PB for getting me as metabolically healthy as I am, and I'm hoping I will sail through surgery because of it.

Last night's African dance class was AMAZING. It wasn't hard to pick up and it was playing at its best: hot, sweaty FUN. There were two drummers. It was neat: they played a beat, and we dancers did a pattern of easy steps that was an introduction of sorts and repeated at intervals as a refrain.

The "verses" consisted of other short patterns of steps that got inserted between refrains. Each transition was signalled by a change in the rhythm of the drums, so you could pay attention to that signal and get ready to watch the dancer leader for a new pattern.

The best part was at the climax of the dancing when the drummers drummed faster and faster, and the dancing got bigger and wilder (and faster, of course). Best workout I've had in a long time!

It's very encouraging to me to find this kind of activity. I'm burnt out on exercises in gyms for the most part. I don't enjoy treadmills, ellipticals, weight "machines", free weights, and most exercise classes. (I got burnt out on formal EXERCISE after crashing from too much Crossfit and severe Lyme disease and Bartonella infections) I used to cycle long-distance, but the Lyme disease affected my balance, and so I sold my beautiful Specialized Roubaix and bought an adult trike. Hey! It's good for cycling to the farmer's market...

Today I'm going to try something novel for my muscles. I'm going to get down on my hands and knees and wash the woodwork in my dining room. Since I can't LHT I have to find some other way to get strong.

Today's Plan:

B: 2 beautiful, orange-yolked local eggs, sauteed escarole and onions, 1/2 orange
L: winter squash with butter, brussel sprouts with pancetta, sardines
D: fish, green beans with pancetta

Exercise: housework and marketing

[PrimalWannabeGirl]

Yesterday:

B: 2 eggs, brussel sprouts in coconut oil and butter
L: homemade vegetable soup in beef stock
D: 2 lamb chops, small sweet potato, brussel sprouts with butter

Exercise: walk in the cold to get a neti-pot for my son who has a nasty sinusy cold. He should eat primal!

Today:

First of many pre-op appointments over the next 2 weeks. I will have to do a bowel prep for the surgery, which means drinking a bottle of gaterade along with a bunch of miralax. I wish there were some option other than gaterade! Yuck!

B: 2 hardboiled eggs
L: BAS with sardines
D: primal meat loaf with pancetta bits, spaghetti squash with tomato sauce

Exercise: yoga, walking

A votre sante!
Pea

[Adanac85]

I'm assuming that the purpose of gatorade is for its re-hydration properties? If so, why don't you go and buy some normal re-hydration salts like Dioralyte or another brand?

While it may still have glucose in it, it won't have all the other horrible additives that gatorade will. All you do is pour it in water and then swish it around and drink. It doesn't taste that great, but gulp it quickly.

[PrimalWannabeGirl]

I will look into that.....I think the issue is the volume of liquid is so large....the instructions say to drink the crap over a 4 hour period. Maybe in juice?

Another thing I'm doing to prepare is taking probiotics. I know I will be given IV antibiotics and possibly oral antibiotics after the surgery. Right---wipe out my normal flora so I can be colonized by hospital bugs.

Yesterday:
B: 3 HB eggs
L: sardines, olives, vegetable soup
D: stewed beef shank, parsnips, carrots

Pea

[PrimalWannabeGirl]

Yesterday:

B: chicken sausage and apple, cooked
L: chicken sausage and avocado
D: grainfree meat loaf, green salad

I *really* feel the need to eat fish! Will go to fishmonger's today and see what's good. I love shrimp and cod cooked together in butter with lots of garlic. Simple and amazingly good.

Pea

[PrimalWannabeGirl]

Last night made lamb roast for dinner. It was from a local farmer, and MAN I have never had lamb so tasty and delicious. I had been buying lamb in the market that was marked "from Australia" because I thought all Australian lamb was grassfed. Thanks to Mark's recent-ish post on Australian lamb, I no longer make that lamb a staple in my household.

I got a lamb roast, 3 lbs. of ground lamb, 8 loin chops, and a small package of bones-----about 10 lbs. of lamb. (I had shared a whole lamb with two other people.) But next time, I'm going to buy a whole lamb! It comes to about 30 lbs. at $9/lb. Well worth it for the deliciousness, and entirely grassfed. I have to wait until springtime!

I've been sick with a cold the past couple of days. Thankfully, it resolved very very quickly because my surgery is a week from Tuesday.

I need some exercise! This afternoon I think I shall do some cycling on the Expresso bike at the gym. This is a fun thing, with computer simulated rides. Since I was a long-distance cyclist in my pre-illness days, this is fun for me, more fun than spin class.
I like the long rides.

This past fall, I sold my beauitful and beloved Specialized Roubaix road bike that had taken me over NYS more than once. I have balance issues related to Lyme disease. I used the money to buy an adult trike, and I rode it to local farmer's markets! Not quite long rambles over country roads, but still fun.

Pea

[PrimalWannabeGirl]

Ignore the spam above...

B: leftover lamb with broccoli cooked in coconut milk
L: salmon with onions and broccoli cooked in curry sauce
D: ? Don't know yet, but the nice thing about a freezer full of meat and frozen veggies is that dinner is just....not.....hard.

Pea