ALL SYSTEMS GO, CLEARED FOR TAKEOFF

It is very possible that I am being overdramatic about my surgery. Yesterday I passed the last hurdle that was gnawing at me. I returned to my family doctor on Monday for my blood chemistry test, EKG and physical exam which was required by the surgeon prior to surgery. I was nervous about one issue. I was anticipating one possible problem that had the potential to delay the surgery. Last spring when my anemia was discovered, I spent the the summer visiting a gastroenterologist who seemingly tried very hard to find some cancerous, life-threatening explanation for my iron deficiency. After a series of procedures (for example, a colonoscopy) and tests which actually included a full-body cat scan - nothing was found to explain the deficiency. This seemed not to bother the gastroenterologist one bit and no explanation for the deficiency was ever offered. As I wrote at the time, I needed to be thankful to God that I didn't have some life-threatening problem. I admitted that I wondered why God found it necessary for me to spend $5000 to discover that I was healthy, which is what I thought I was before the anemia was discovered. Nevertheless, on a followup visit with my family doctor, I was given a prescription to take iron pills. I might have done a far better job following this course of action had the pills not been required to be taken three times per day with each meal. Not only was it an annoyance, but one evening at dinner one of the pills got lodged in my throat. Apparently a 325mg ferrous sulfate tablet does not slide down the esophagus with the carefree ease of a butterscotch hard candy. My throat was irritated for nearly 12 hours after this, and I was coughing with great irritation the whole night that this happened. This cured me of my desire to accept the advice of my doctor and take iron pills. I never even finished the first month supply of these pills. I effectively took myself off the iron pills during September of 2015. 

So, fast forward to yesterday. Since I had not followed the advice of my doctor to take iron pills, there was the chance that if I was still iron deficient, that I might not be approved for surgery. It was a nice happy surprise that my blood work came back with my iron levels back to where they belonged. The  current advice of my doctor is to DISCONTINUE THE FERROUS SULFATE TABLETS WHICH I WASN'T TAKING ANYWAY. Consider it done!  The bottom line - I am good to go. Ready to be anesthetized on Friday morning, cut up a bit, patched up a bit more and sent on my way with my hernia issue resolved. I am looking forward to Friday, in that I cannot start mending until I get past the laparoscopic outpatient surgery that awaits me. In the calm before the storm, the persistent pain that I had been feeling is currently gone and on Monday and Tuesday I was able to walk on the treadmill for a full hour. This resurgence of the ability to exercise at all is about to be cut short on Friday morning for at least a week or so. For the next two days, I will enjoy my treadmill hour just a little bit more than usual.

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Your Food Diary For:

Tuesday, April 26, 2016

BREAKFAST	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein	Sodium	Sugar
Omelette - Ham and Cheese	400	1	30	40	1,225	0
Instant Oatmeal - Original	300	57	6	12	225	0
	700	58	36	52	1,450	0
L U N C H
Homemade - Crockpot Pot Roast	500	0	9	24	454	0
Manischewitz - Matzah, 2 Matzah	200	42	0	6	0	0
Roundy's - Peanut Butter- Creamy	360	16	30	14	280	6
New England Clam Chowder Soup, 2 cup	360	36	20	10	1,780	2
	1,420	94	59	54	2,514	8
D I N N E R
Homemade - Crockpot Pot Roast	500	0	9	24	454	0
HUGE SPINACH SALAD	250	0	0	0	0	0
	750	0	9	24	454	0
S N A C K S
Apples - Apples, 2 medium apple	160	44	0	0	0	32
	160	44	0	0	0	32
Totals	3,030	196	104	130	4,419	40
Your Daily Goal	2,213	276	73	111	2,300	83
Remaining	-817	80	-31	-19	-2,118	43
	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein	Sodium	Sugar
	*You've earned 283 extra calories from exercise today

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After a one month break - I was able to use the treadmill for two consecutive days for one hour each. 

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anesthetize

[uh-nes-thi-tahyz]

verb (used with object), anesthetized, anesthetizing.

1. to render physically insensible, as by an anesthetic.

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I get a kick out of this definition. On Friday I am going to be rendered physically insensible.
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Thinking of being cleared for takeoff, reminded me of this dialogue from the hilarious 1970's movie, Airplane!

Roger Murdock: Flight 2-0-9'er, you are cleared for take-off.

Captain Oveur: Roger!

Roger Murdock: Huh?

Tower voice: L.A. departure frequency, 123 point 9'er.

Captain Oveur: Roger!

Roger Murdock: Huh?

Victor Basta: Request vector, over.

Captain Oveur: What?

Tower voice: Flight 2-0-9'er cleared for vector 324.

Roger Murdock: We have clearance, Clarence.

Captain Oveur: Roger, Roger. What's our vector, Victor?

Tower voice: Tower's radio clearance, over!

Captain Oveur: That's Clarence Oveur. Over.

Tower voice: Over.

Captain Oveur: Roger.

Roger Murdock: Huh?

Tower voice: Roger, over!

Roger Murdock: What?

Captain Oveur: Huh?

Victor Basta: Who?

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I sincerely hope that the banter in the operation room on Friday morning is a bit less confusing among the surgeon, and his assistants...

* * * * * 

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JUMPING JACK FLASH, IT'S A GAS, GAS, GAS(TROENTEROLOGY)

My blog heading today is my attempt at a little bit of humor.  'Jumping Jack Flash. It's a gas, gas, gas' are lyrics from a Rolling Stones song. So the title was my little way of injecting either humor or cleverness into this post - perhaps I have done neither. I don't know...

My second follow-up with my physician on May 11 indicated anemia.  As it had been nearly a decade since my initial colonoscopy. It was highly recommended that I get this procedure again now to discover what may be causing the anemia. Yesterday I met the one of the partners at the GASTROENTEROLOGIST office and it was not much more than an initial consultation.  My 'procedure' is scheduled for Friday - this means that today's (Thursday) menu will not be too complicated. I will be home all day emptying my colon. Sounds like great fun...

MOVIPREP what I am under doctor's orders to drink today. Approximately one liter around 11AM and another liter around 7PM. And the effect of this will be that I will be 'evacuating' my colon all day. I can drink clear liquids, like flavored water, until midnight. The closest thing to food that I am allowed to eat is chicken or beef broth and/or Yellow Jello.

I find this name of this product somewhat amusing - MOVIPREP? It seems to me that in the old days when I went to the movie theatre to watch the latest James Bond or Star Trek Film - my idea of 'MOVIE PREP' was to stop at a Walgreen's to pick up enough candy and other sweets to last me through a two hour movie. This 'MOVIPREP' is whole different ballgame!

Since I am have persistently exercised each day since January 3rd, and it appears that today was not going to be a day for exercise - I did manage to spend my 32 minutes on the elliptical machine at 12 o'clock midnight (Thursday) just a few hours ago - so that I have 'officially' not missed a day of exercise since the beginning of the year.  Tomorrow after my procedure and after the effects of the anesthesia have worn off and after I eat some kind of hearty meal - it should not be too long before I am ready to get my 32 minutes in on Friday.

 WEDNESDAY MENU
breakfast  bowl steel cut oatmeal w/prune, two poached eggs, three slices turkey 'bacon'  535 calories
lunch       MARIANO'S HUGE SALAD                                                                              500 calories
dinner      spinach salad w/hearts of palm, beets, mushrooms, cucumbers, tomato
                7 oz salmon, canned asparagus, Cracovia cucumber salad
                pecans, 3 Organic Medjool dates, 28 almonds                                             1286 calories

total calories consumed 2321 calories

calories burned
9AM elliptical 32 minutes 546 calories

WEDNESDAY NET CALORIES 1775 CALORIES

I definitely had a more for dinner than I usually consume - tomorrow should balance it out nicely.  Today, my calories will be much closer to zero than 1000.  I am allowed to have broth and jello.
This is going to be a challenging day - I am fairly certain about that....

My next post on Friday morning will likely be delayed about 6 hours later than normal.   I am going to wait until I return from the colonoscopy before I post.

I was thinking that this was going to be a very unusual day today. I did want to know my weight before dehydrating myself with MOVIPREP. This morning, I weighed 219 lbs. I am still more-or-less where I need to be right now. I think that I have been stretching the limits of caloric intake if I still want to lose weight. After this colonoscopy and after this weekend, I expect to have a little less enthusiasm for 2000 calorie days. However, even after eating as much as I have been eating... almonds, pecans, dates and a few too many apples and huge salads, and generally bigger portions of everything... I must remind myself that I am still down exactly 90 pounds. I want to get back in the direction of weighing less - but I am in unambiguously in a very good place right now. I do look and feel great. I will feel greater around lunchtime tomorrow after my colonoscopy!

 See you on Friday...!