Routine – life after surgery is all about Routine.

• Medications  – You have medication to take at 8am and  then injections to take at 8am and 10am – for the first two weeks.
• Food – You have to plan regular meals and snacks and also manage not drinking 30 minutes before and after eating
• Exercise – You have to make sure you are doing gentle excercise and also stay near a loo for any emergencies.

Day one was the first time I was responsible for all of this so Ive documented how I did below.

Medications

The day started out  with my injection. These really arent the big deal that I made out in my head but I do like to get them out of the way.  I then have to take a gastro resistant tablet that sits under your tongue and dissolves.

I follow this with the first of 2 dissolved items. The lemon flavoured calcium powder is nice and refreshing so I use this to wash down both my iron and my blood pressure pills.  once Ive finished this I set up my soluble multivitamin and mineral pill which is  fruits of the forest flavour I think.

I then have to crush 2 metformin (for my diabetes) which no matter how I try and take these make me gag – I literally hate the taste and must talk to my doctor about a different way of taking them.

Lastly there is pain relief – Ive been incredibly lucky that I havent experienced huge amounts of pain (for me it was more discomfort) but I did make sure to take the dissolvable cocodomol after everything else and had my voltarol at night (don’t ask how thats taken!!) I only took these once a day but everyone is different.

Food

Breakfast Breakfast was easy – half a protein weetabix with milk and a drizzle of sugar free maple syrup I ordered online to enhance the taste. 30 minutes later (I use the timer on my watch) i had a nice milky coffee with sugar free caramel syrup.  After a lifetime of being a savoury person it turns out for the next month or so breakfast is now a sweet affair.

Lunch

Lunch was Lentil and Bacon soup – half a tin with extra cheese grated on (top tip get one of those micro-graters to grate your cheese really fine, it dissolves much quicker)  This was nice and had lots of protein and as I really wasn’t up to doing any cooking got me through day one.

Snacks

I sipped water throughout the day and had a cheese square for morning snack – it probably wasnt enough but it filled a gap. In the afternoon I had a TBS of Hummus and a Lime Jelly (at different times.) with coffee, tea and water sipped throughout the afternoon. Im really weird/lucky is that after years in HR I’m used to drinking cold tea and coffee so don’t waste any.  In the evening after dinner I had some yogurt with a tsp of cashew nut butter (which is a complete find!!)

Dinner

Dinner was Fishpie with mushy peas on the side.  I grated in cheese to this and added lots of seasoning and vinegar to the mushy peas.  This was exactly what I needed but next time I would definitely NOT mix the mash into the fishpie mix and would have them separately.

Exercise

I found this the biggest challenge on day one. I walked around a bit but when hubby suggested walking the dog I stayed at home.  I decided that the next day I was going to take a 10 minute walk minimum to keep things moving.