The Journey to Lapbanding - 2

I may never eat a Crabapplie Cupcake again. It will depend. You see, you can't eat bread - at least white bread. It turns into unpassable sludge. So we will have to see. Since Tuesday night last week I have been on Optifast. Optifast is for low calorie weight loss. It comes in different flavoured milk shakes, tomato soup (don't like it), and a chocolate dessert. The idea is to take it three times a day for two weeks prior to surgery. This is because many people having the operation have a "fatty liver". The low calorie intake for two weeks is to deal with this and lose the fat. The purpose of losing the fat prior to surgery is to give the surgeon more space to work - remembering that this is microsurgery.

My experience has been mixed. After a couple of days on Optifast I was quite ill. Wouldn't have dared to drive the car. On and off the loo. I think it must have been a detoxification effect. That's all I can think. Sunday afternoon my sister, J, rang. She had the operation two years ago. It was a welcome call because I was able to discuss the Optifast situation. She said she didn't do it. (Herself's friend, Nicole, hadn't either and gave me her unused Optifast). She said if she could have done that for two weeks she wouldn't have needed the surgery. She finished up giving her Optifast to "Smokin'" Joe Kilroy, formerly of the Brisbane Broncos. So together we planned some intervention - on the basis that the surgeon would not be too fussy how I lost the weight as long as I did. The intervention has been boiled eggs in the evening (they seem to have clogged me up - and the anti-cholesterol tablets will have to work harder!) and the addition of a small amount (125 g) of chicken to the veges that I am able to have as part of the program. So I do a very nice dish for myself using water in the bottom of the frying pan instead of oil which involves chicken, onion, tomato, mushrooms and cabbage flavoured with fresh herbs from the garden and a little salt and pepper. This I do for lunch. I have the Optifast in the morning. I may not bother with the egg to-night - and have Optifast. All this means much less time at the loo, more energy, and more normality. My GP said yesterday that she thought I was dehydrated. I said that I was keeping up the fluids but she said, more than likely, the body wasn't absorbing the fluid and it was passing right through me.

The result of all this is that I have lost 7kg in a week (too fast my GP says) and my blood sugar has declined to previously unseen levels. The start of things to come, I hope.