Stretching again

I just did two of my three shoulder/rotator cuff stretches, for the first time since the surgery. I'm going to hold off on the third, which involves reaching straight up with the right hand (since it's the right shoulder we're mostly concerned with here), given where the incisions for the surgery are. Still, this feels like significant progress. (I also slept through the night again.)

Stretching again

I just did two of my three shoulder/rotator cuff stretches, for the first time since the surgery. I'm going to hold off on the third, which involves reaching straight up with the right hand (since it's the right shoulder we're mostly concerned with here), given where the incisions for the surgery are. Still, this feels like significant progress. (I also slept through the night again.)

Thinking about food

This was prompted by a post from someone else, but it really belongs over here.

Because of the gall bladder removal, I'm trying to eat a low-fat diet for the next while (defined as sometime between "until I talk to the doctor" and "from now until when he tells me I can relax some"). I also have relatively little appetite (though it's better than it was a few days ago), and I don't actually think I should be living entirely off my stored body fat. So I'm taking advantage of the availability of low-fat and no-fat foods, which to some extent has been driven by various weight-loss diet fads. At the same time, I'm actively seeking out calories, and noticing that, say, a can of condensed vegetable soup has 90 calories per serving. I've liked this stuff since I was a kid; that only five of those calories are from fat makes it suitable right now, but that's not a lot of energy from a bowl of soup. Now, some of this is logical: I don't want them pouring sugar into the soup just to add calories. On the other hand, I'm eating a lot of sorbet, which I suspect has a nutritional profile somewhere between simple syrup and fruit juice. But it tastes good, and I could get it down a week ago when almost everything solid tasted incredibly dry. There were days right after I came home from the hospital when the sugar in my tea has been a significant portion of my caloric intake (3-4 cups of tea, 1 teaspoon sugar each, so we're not talking about a lot of calories*.)

At other times, I've been bemused to see labels cheerfully proclaiming things like maple syrup "a fat-free food" (and olive oil as containing no sugar, the inverse idea). True, but I would have thought obvious. Then again, the grapes I'm about to have qualify, and some people assume all fruit and vegetables do, and then grab an avocado. Last week, I cheerfully poured plenty of maple syrup into my oatmeal, along with cinnamon, dried fruit, and just a little lowfat milk: anything that adds flavor and energy without adding fat is useful to me right now.

The odd thing is that I expected to be craving chocolate by now, and even had figured out an answer: make hot chocolate with the lowfat milk, cocoa powder, sugar, and vanilla and orange extract. I haven't bothered yet.

*For my non-North American friends: calories are a metric unit of food energy that Americans use where you'd be using kilojoules. Just to complicate matters, the "calorie" of ordinary conversation and food labels is actually a kilocalorie. For reference, there are about 15 of these in a teaspoonful of sugar.

Thinking about food

This was prompted by a post from someone else, but it really belongs over here.

Because of the gall bladder removal, I'm trying to eat a low-fat diet for the next while (defined as sometime between "until I talk to the doctor" and "from now until when he tells me I can relax some"). I also have relatively little appetite (though it's better than it was a few days ago), and I don't actually think I should be living entirely off my stored body fat. So I'm taking advantage of the availability of low-fat and no-fat foods, which to some extent has been driven by various weight-loss diet fads. At the same time, I'm actively seeking out calories, and noticing that, say, a can of condensed vegetable soup has 90 calories per serving. I've liked this stuff since I was a kid; that only five of those calories are from fat makes it suitable right now, but that's not a lot of energy from a bowl of soup. Now, some of this is logical: I don't want them pouring sugar into the soup just to add calories. On the other hand, I'm eating a lot of sorbet, which I suspect has a nutritional profile somewhere between simple syrup and fruit juice. But it tastes good, and I could get it down a week ago when almost everything solid tasted incredibly dry. There were days right after I came home from the hospital when the sugar in my tea has been a significant portion of my caloric intake (3-4 cups of tea, 1 teaspoon sugar each, so we're not talking about a lot of calories*.)

At other times, I've been bemused to see labels cheerfully proclaiming things like maple syrup "a fat-free food" (and olive oil as containing no sugar, the inverse idea). True, but I would have thought obvious. Then again, the grapes I'm about to have qualify, and some people assume all fruit and vegetables do, and then grab an avocado. Last week, I cheerfully poured plenty of maple syrup into my oatmeal, along with cinnamon, dried fruit, and just a little lowfat milk: anything that adds flavor and energy without adding fat is useful to me right now.

The odd thing is that I expected to be craving chocolate by now, and even had figured out an answer: make hot chocolate with the lowfat milk, cocoa powder, sugar, and vanilla and orange extract. I haven't bothered yet.

*For my non-North American friends: calories are a metric unit of food energy that Americans use where you'd be using kilojoules. Just to complicate matters, the "calorie" of ordinary conversation and food labels is actually a kilocalorie. For reference, there are about 15 of these in a teaspoonful of sugar.

Not so low-fat

I just talked to my surgeon, and explained that the discharge nurse had given me instructions for a low-fat diet, of which I remembered only that oatmeal was good and ice cream was bad, and this seemed a bit vague, and was there more he could tell me. He said something vague but disparaging about people telling people who had had gall-bladder surgery that they needed a low-fat diet, and then, explicitly, "Eat what you want." I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to do now, but it's nice to know that if, say, lamb seems more likely to taste right than yet another chicken dish, I should have the lamb.

ETA: In the meantime, I am assuming that the other advice—no heavy lifting, don't go back to the gym until after I see the doctor and get his advice, and no baths or swimming, only showers—is reasonable. But those don't complicate my life, and cattitude's, in the same way.

Not so low-fat

I just talked to my surgeon, and explained that the discharge nurse had given me instructions for a low-fat diet, of which I remembered only that oatmeal was good and ice cream was bad, and this seemed a bit vague, and was there more he could tell me. He said something vague but disparaging about people telling people who had had gall-bladder surgery that they needed a low-fat diet, and then, explicitly, "Eat what you want." I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to do now, but it's nice to know that if, say, lamb seems more likely to taste right than yet another chicken dish, I should have the lamb.

ETA: In the meantime, I am assuming that the other advice—no heavy lifting, don't go back to the gym until after I see the doctor and get his advice, and no baths or swimming, only showers—is reasonable. But those don't complicate my life, and cattitude's, in the same way.

odd sorts of progress [gall bladder]

I just had what amounted to a brief coughing fit, and went to spit in the bathroom sink and rinse my mouth out. Last week, I couldn't cough, even when I tried.

Also, the odd annoying sensation of having something at the back of my throat and wanting to cough and dislodge it has disappeared somewhere in the last few days.

odd sorts of progress [gall bladder]

I just had what amounted to a brief coughing fit, and went to spit in the bathroom sink and rinse my mouth out. Last week, I couldn't cough, even when I tried.

Also, the odd annoying sensation of having something at the back of my throat and wanting to cough and dislodge it has disappeared somewhere in the last few days.