Week Eighteen

(The picture is at Abel Tasman National Park in New Zealand, on the South Island near the town of Nelson.)

 

 

Week Eighteen is here, but I guess more significantly, it’s Week Four post-operation.  Weight this Friday morning was 124.6 lbs. That’s down twenty pounds from my normal weight!

I had stabilized the two previous days at 126.3 lbs, and was feeling pretty good until I weighed myself this morning and saw the 124.6…..weighed myself twice just to make sure.  Rats….still 124.6 lbs.

We saw both doctors this past week.  The surgeon said we could take the j-tube out, since I looked good and had done a good job on the calorie intake.  So…boom…out came the j-tube.  Now I really gotta focus on getting the proper number of calories down every day.  And that will be a challenge.  Have had several conversations with a dietician and she’s been helpful with some strategies.  I’d say her main tip was ‘add a tablespoon of oil to practically everything you eat.’ At 120 calories per T that’s a lot of calories a day.

We also saw my chemo oncologist.  She was optimistic about everything, said I was doing well.  I told her of some of my concerns….shortness of breath, rapid pulse, and she ordered some blood work to see how my innards are doing, chemically speaking.  I also told her about my concerns of gaining my strength and endurance back as we move farther away from the operation.  She said she would put in a referral call to a physical therapist to help me gain strength and endurance.  So that’s good news.

Carol and I have been continuing our walks, and we got up to 30 minutes this afternoon.  I was pretty happy with that.  Somehow I have to get up to 10 miles a day by the time March rolls around….we’re planning a walk in Wales in late March.  Yikes!!

I think that’s about it.  Sleeping well at night, and dozing off easily during the day as well.

 

And here’s a little poem about a slide rule that might strike a cord with some of you mathematically inclined older folk.

Old Hand-Held Calculator

I had a chance encounter—

‘Twas just the other day—

With a lady in an office

At the clinic down the way.

 

I was asking her a question

About something—I forget—

And I saw an old device she had

That spurred this brief vignette.

 

A slide rule sat beside her

A tool most complicated—

And with smart phones and computers

It’s really now out-dated.

 

But for years I used one daily

A handy plastic thing

It gave the answers quickly

With simple calculating.

 

So the woman I then asked

If she would elucidate

On how she used her slide rule—she said

To tear her papers straight.